Last few days in Paleochora 😢

Well, all good things must come to an end, and our six month rental is up. Actually, we ended up staying quite a few weeks longer than originally planned, as the travel restrictions lasted longer than expected. This meant that we were not free to travel around, but it also meant that our landlady did not have any summer bookings until the end of May, so we were able to stay on a while longer.

We moved back into the van but stayed nearby for the first few days, to get our bearings in the van once more. It also took a few days to find a place for everything again! You wouldn’t believe how much you can fit into a 7.3m van 😂

On our final morning, we distributed plates of mini lemon cupcakes to no fewer than twelve lots of kind neighbours, all of whom had made us feel so very welcome in the village during our stay there. Maro, our landlady, gifted us a beautiful box made from olive wood, with olive oil soaps inside, and also a large bottle of her own olive oil; and our lovely neighbour from across the road, Anna, drove all the way out to our campsite to drop in some freshly baked cheese cakes to us! Nicki, our jewelry-making friend, gave us a pottery vase in the shape of a pomegranate filled with local basil; and another neighbour, we don’t even know who it was, dropped an enormous bag of freshly picked peppers and tomatoes at our doorstep! Such kindness we will never forget.

Once we were all packed up and ready for the road, for our first four nights back in the van, we stayed at Camping Palaeochora:

Camping Paleochora – Chania Crete Coordinates: 35.25872611606075, 23.747978210458186

We paid €18 per night which is a very good rate for Greece. This included EHU. It’s mainly a tenting campsite, and has some ready-set tents available for rent. There’s a lovely, relaxed vibe here, a grand little playground, loads of cats including a super cute kitten our pair named Mog, and the shower and toilet blocks are modern and clean. No washing machine, but you can’t have everything! The owners gifted us a freshly baked red velvet cake on our first day there … no wonder I have more padding than I used to! Such kind people.

We then had several days of ‘lasts’, last walk around town, last gyros in Everest, last breakfast at Flora’s, last sunset up at the castle…

Last swim at Caitríona’s favourite beach on the planet, Χαλίκια/Chalikia beach:

Last time watching the boat dock at the jetty:

Last walk up to the Venetian castle ruins:

At the end of the peninsula of Paleochora, there are many intriguing sculptures:

Last lunch at Flora’s Water’s Edge Café; well, actually, this was one of three meals we had at Flora’s in our whole time here! But Gina and she provided us with takeaway specials throughout the whole of lockdown, a big highlight of every week for us. We have stayed many times with Flora in Paleochora at both Haris Studios and Yiorgos Studios and we would recommend both highly as places to stay for anyone who feels tempted to come and visit! Go on, you know it makes sense!

Here’s Flora’s website for info on the range of accommodation she runs or manages, along with blog entries on her poetic musings on life year-round in Crete:

Homecoming on Crete (paleochora-holidays.com)

And a last wander round the village!