A Week on Crete (5)

After our restful day at the beach I suggested to Lib that we drive east as we had not seen that side of Crete yet.I was wanting to yet go west again before we left, to take the road south from Retimo to Sfakia which was the evacuation route marched by the allied troops in 1941. This would entail going over the same road to Retimo that we had travelled the first two days and I knew Lib would prefer a change. There were still two days after this day, and I thought after we did the run east I'd propose that we went to Sfakia the next.

Before picking up the national Highway we drove into Tylissos to see the archaeological site which was most interesting - ruins slowly being excavated after being found quite recently, they are 3500 years old from Minoan times and are thought to be residences of wealthy people at that time. It's amazing to think this civilization predates the Roman Empire by a long way. The reason for the disintegration of the Minoan culture is not known definitively.

That is a bathtub fed by an aqueduct from a circular water tank at the rear

Care was needed not to trip or turn an ankle

We left and followed the signs to the Tylissos Snail Farm where a young lady Vassiliki (?) gave us an educational tour. The snails were not long out of the hibernation of summer and were now breeding. The snail house needed shade and the right humidity and conditions suitable for their particular location so there was a lot of trial and error- what was right in one location wouldn't necessarily be right in another. The snails were taken before marketing to a special house where they are fed a special diet (white flour I think) for three days to clean them out.Most of their snails went to market on the mainland.

We then picked up the highway and drove east, turning off taking a road into the mountains to the Lasithi Plateau. We stopped at a lovely village called Mohos for coffee

 Then on to Tzermando where we had lunch. It was very steep and mountainous on the way up to the plateau but the road was all sealed and good.

 On the trip back down from the plateau the views were again spectacular and we passed through several villages one which had an amazing cafe adorned with ripe tomatoes. It was a real work of art.

More rugged scenery enthralled us on the way down to Agios Nikolae which is a large town on the east side of Crete