CRETE NEW YEARS 2012

Crete is one of the larger and southernmost Greek Islands. We flew there for New Year's 4 day weekend and had another great trip while here in Europe....from Munich, two hours to Thesselonia and another hour to Crete...We were surprised as we exited the airplane to see snow capped mountains nearby. Somehow we thought this would be a warmer, flatter island like we had seen before with Malta and Mikinos. Not to be...and the nearby town of Chania is where our hotel was located. We rented our "little" Peugeot and took off for town....a typical port village on the Mediterranean with the blending of ancient cultures and those of modern Greece. After checking in we ventured downtown and to the waterfront..along the way was a Greek Orthodox church that was beautiful inside with gold and silver and even a priest chanting beautifully for the evening vespers. This church had been a Venetian Catholic church originally, then a mosque (they added a minaret) as the Ottoman empire conquered the island and now to what it has been for many years. Historically the island was first "civilized"  by the Minoan culture (2000BC), then the Greeks (1200BC), the Romans just before Christ, and then on as described above. We visited several museums here and saw VERY old artifacts..Makes our culture in the USA seem almost new. Crete was "re-joined" with Greece in 1913..taken over by the Nazis in 1941 and liberated by the allies during WWII. We found the people interesting and friendly and we had more than a few great times in the bars and restaurants along the waterfront and in the narrow old alleys of the city. And when the band started up, the Greek locals started dancing such that Zorba would have been proud....and fueled by a little daytime wine..Uzo or whatever etc