We spent four days in beautiful Ljubljana at the Airbnb “Barbo Palace apartments” which was an old palace with the only double staircase in Ljubljana and in a pedestrian street The manager was a very helpful and had to help us with our luggage as the “Kavalier” golf type vehicle stopped working at 8pm. Any further transfers cost 30euros but that was not possible the night we arrived. Ljubljana is a very easy small city to walk around apart from the cobblestones which gave Maurice grief. We had to look for streets without cobbles, not easy.
We met up on a couple of occasions with Maurice’s buddies from the Ayurvedic clinic Janja, Primoz, Ingrid and Sandra as well as the birthday girl Jenny for breakfast.
The markets there we remembered were some of the best we had seen anywhere in Europe and there was also a Friday food festival on the go too. We had two delicious meals at the Michelin starred ‘Altroke’ in the old town and another oldy worldy one ‘Ljulja’ also down the road from Altroke. Breakfast with Jenny at “Le Petit Cafe” and another good meal with Janja and Primoz there as well. The weather on the whole was kind to us with only a spattering of rain a couple of times for May.
We had booked a local bus from Ljubljana to Lake Bled for the princely sum of 2euros each. We just had to leave our hotel and walk the bags up a short way to where we got a taxi which took 10minutes to the bus station. It was worth checking at the ticket counter as our online tickets were not good enough so they issued us paper ones and gave us where to find the bus.
It only took 1hour from Ljubljana to Lake Bled and our Airbnb hostess met us at the nominated bus stop and helped us with our luggage again and up two flights of stairs to our lovely spacious apartment for 4days which overlooked the mountains on one side and the Castle of Lake Bled on the other side.
Jenny’s 60th birthday was a week’s long celebration starting in Ljubljana and ending in Lake Bled.. Firstly a get together in her share airbnb in Lake Bled with 25guests to get to know each other. The guests were from Australia, Italy, and Germany. A wonderful breakfast/brunch was supplied by a local company who left two large boxes with everything from cereal and yoghurt to a variety of drinks and breads and cheese, sausage and fruit. It was a feast. The following day we met to walk around the lake and in the evening we took over a great pizza restaurant. On Wednesday night Jenny most generously treated us to drinks overlooking the elake followed by a delicious dinner at the castle in Lake Bled which was wonderful and so well organized by Jenny. Jenny connected with a couple who had just
Eloped from the USA and were enjoying a quiet dinner near us in the restaurant.
Maurice and I left the next day by the GoOpti shuttle bus to Ljubljana airport where we were picked up by our host for a small fee to his airbnb only ten minutes from the airport.
Early the next morning we were delivered again to the airport for the Turkish airlines flight
To Athens.
We stayed close to the airport for the night at “Tina’s apartments” a very handy series of airbnbs also ten minutes from the airport. They have a free pick up and drop off service which is very handy. The next morning we flew with Aegean airlines on an A320 from Athens to Chania (pronounced Hania) on the west side of Crete. We picked up a hire car and drove the ½ hour
To our wonderful airbnb apartment The “Idene Penthouse” which was very close to the old
Town of Chania and its harbour. Chania is a charming city with excellent restaurants, cafes
And lots of interesting alleyways to explore in the old part of the city.
We met up with our friend Lumi and her husband Dimitris for a lovely seafood dinner by the
Fishing harbour. Everything was only 10-15minutes away from where we stayed. Lumi had recommended several restaurants and we tried out “Taman” in a narrow laneway and “The well of the Turk” both excellent restaurants and very reasonable compared to restaurant prices in Perth.
Our favourite place was having breakfast sitting at the Fishing Club restaurant overlooking the fishing harbour. It was so serene and relaxing early in the morning.
One day we drove along the coast to some of the best beaches of Balos Bay and Falasarna passing many resort complexes along the west coast. The bakeries along the way had the most delectable pastries and breads and we sampled some on the way.
On the way back we headed inland into the mountains to Topolia Gorge which was a popular tourist spot. We spied an interesting little restaurant on the way back to the highway overlooking the valley below. We ordered a Cretan salad which is similar to a Greek salad with with crumbled feta over crunchy bread pieces..
After four nights in Chania we took the road up into the mountains again and arrived at the Arcadi Monastery and for a few euros we saw the most beautifully kept monastery and gardens enclosed by high walls. There were arbors of grapevines and large amphoras filled with stunning roses and flowers. The ancient monks quarters consisted of two small rooms.
Part of the monastery was a museum of the old refectory, kitchen and a small shop to buy icons etc. There was also a cafe on the grounds. Our next stop was the archaeological site of Phiasto which was in a beautiful mountain top site. Of course all the ancient palaces and churches had
The best locations high above the land below.
Our next stop was Rethymno old town with a large Venetian fortress on the point leading into the town. It had a myriad of laneways with tourist shops but only one cafe that we could find in the main square. We stayed long enough to find the Venetian fountain and left soon after.
We decided on the longer route to Heraklion over the mountains for a few days staying at the “Athinaikon” which was only a 15minute walk to the old town with a multitude of cafes, bars and restaurants. It was a two star hotel but had everything we needed and they supplied a wonderful breakfast. The staff were excellent too and the building has a lift. Heraklion is the capital and is also on the water but it didn’t have the charm of Chania for us. We used some time there for the hairdressers and both had a pedicure which was double the price of one in Australian. The hair treatments were by contrast much cheaper.
A good coffee shop was also just down the road from the hotel.
One day we visited the archaeological site of Knossos. It is an enormous site and a lot
Has been reconstructed but some of it was done in concrete which is now slowly being replaced with the original mortar used. We made sure we were there when they opened at 8am and we were gone about 10am when the tour buses started to arrive. Our last lunch in Heraklion was at Herbs garden a rooftop restaurant above a hotel over looking the harbour and water.
Leaving Heraklion we took the coast road to Sitia another beautiful old town with a gorgeous harbour and beach. We stayed there one night leaving our large suitcases for our planned
Trip for a week to Kasos island which was very close (a 20minute flight away). It unfortunately went terribly wrong. Our hire car was dropped at Sitia airport and Maria our airbnb host picked
Us at the small airport. Most of the roads on the island were not in good shape which we saw as we made our way up from her parking area up to the large blue and white house. We were supposed to have a ground floor unit with a view and an enclosed garden but what we got was
A substandard apartment up a steep flight of stairs which was not good for either of us.
There was broken fly wire and many things broken and after we had gone for a walk to the
Unkempt beach area with broken lielows we decided this was not for us. The meal choices
Were also not great apart from our breakfast on the last day from a lovely well kept cafe, restaurant. We gave our airbnb host the bad news but she knew she was in the wrong but
Also said we had already paid a 50% deposit which was true. I wrote many emails and called
Booking.com but they said we had to deal with her even though what should have been our
Apartment was shown on the booking.com site. Anyway we cut our loses and were luckily able to change our flight to the next day and the Elysee hotel could give us a seaview room from
The next day as well. Not a good host at all but in the end we stayed in the best town of Sitia
For ten days.
The Elysee Hotel also offered a good breakfast which was included and the staff were brilliant. We had a balcony and a sea view of the harbour and waterfront. There was a myriad of cafes and restaurants along the seafront and we tried several of them. All the food was excellent but our favourite was Da Giorgio right in front of our hotel and which also offered us 10% as we stayed in the Elysee Hotel. We enjoyed the best traditional Greek desserts at Mitsikakis which had been going for 3generations as had many of the establishments.
I had an iced coffee every morning from our favourite bar and they gave me a complimentary 500ml water every time. In the evening I started with an Aperol Spritz and Maurice a virgin Mojito which were half the price of at home in Perth. We will go back to enchanting Crete. Next stop India.