Our next stop on Crete was the small village of Argyropoulos. It's very small, but historic with buildings that date to the Roman and Venetian eras. We had a nice apartment in a building dating to the 1500s. Along one of the streets in town there is a section of mosaic flooring left over from the 3rd century. Down a steep path below the village are lovely springs and waterfalls with several nice tavernas.
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| Argyropoulos |
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| Entrance of a Venetian house |
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| Mosaic floor |
Next day we headed to the southern coast of Crete to the beach town of Plakias. We had a great apartment just across the street from a good swimming and snorkeling beach. A very relaxing spot to spend a couple of days.
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| View from our apartment in Plakias |
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| Saying hello to Stefano |
Greece and Crete especially were experiencing a heat wave; temps were in the mid to high 90s every day. We were having so much fun beaching that we went next to Matala, another beach town a bit east on the southern coast. It seemed that each time we drove through central Crete the road passed through Spili, so each time we stopped to refill our water bottles at the spring and say hello to our host there, Stefano.
Matala has a history as a hippie hangout in the sixties (Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens apparently spent time there), and the town still tries to capitalize on that counterculture heritage. We spent part of one day on the main beach in town, and the second day we walked about a half hour to the quieter Red Beach.
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| Matala and the main beach in town |
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| Red beach |
Our departure day was a Sunday, but our host told us to stick around for the annual street painting. The town lays out a grid downtown and assigns sections to various groups and individuals, hands out free paint, and turns people loose to create whatever they want. We spent the morning walking around and watching the painting before hitting the road.
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