Saturday 8 November Tzermiado to Sissi

We were a bit gutted today, as the hotel had told us they were fully booked due to a Raki convention arriving. We would have liked to have been part of this group! The staff were scrubbing the hotel with a vengeance. We couldn't quite believe that there was no room for us, but when we asked again, after breakfast, (ciggies and coffee for the locals and 5 courses for the Brits) the answer was the same.

The Lassithi Plateau is extraordinary. Shaped like a bowl and apparently prone to flooding in the winter, it is intersected by straight roads, very fertile, and covered in crops, and sheep. It is possible to walk across it in 90 minutes, apparently, but since we had watched the rainstorms sheeting across it, we took the safe/boring option and drove to Zeus' cave at the foot of Mount Dhikti,which was on the far side. 

We watched these sheep being herded from half way up the mountain.

We parked to look at the cave, decided to have a quick coffee first, and before we knew it, along with our coffee, a large plate of fish casserole had arrived, followed by a fish soup! I had looked at what the owner's family were eating, and tried out one of our favourite Greek phrases, 'poli nostimos' (delicious), without more ado, we were inundated with food. Having only finished breakfast a short while earlier, it was a bit of a struggle to fit it all in! But it was all so delicious and as usual we are overwhelmed by the generosity. We then needed to walk the steep trial up to the cave.

The remains of our excellent fish soup and stew.

It is quite extraordinary, and I was a little apprehensive about climbing down into the bowels of the earth. Legend has it, that after Zeus' father Kronos had eaten all his children, his wife Rhea  decided sensibly to hide son number 5 away by feeding Kronos with a stone wrapped in Pastry/bread/linen(?) instead and took the baby Zeus up to mount Dhikti where he was raised by a wolf, or perhaps a swarm of bees?

We hadn't expected the birthplace of Zeus to be so municipal!

These days, it has been somewhat modernised, and once you have entered, it is possible to climb down the very steep steps through caverns guided by electricity. Despite this, it is quite a descent, slippery and dark with irregular steps and the stalactites and stalagmites are just amazing. At the bottom there is a fresh water pond, locally known as the lake, which steams away in a mysterious fashion. I couldn't wait to get back into daylight and we then much enjoyed the walk back down the slopes with the wonderful views of the plain.

By way of a total contrast, we dropped back onto the coast to Sisi. The most exciting thing was to pass a laundrette which was open, finally! There is only so much washing you can do by hand and having been here for a month now, a good boil wash was essential! The good lady in charge was disturbed from her siesta and promised to have it all sorted in 90 minutes so we went for a drink on the harbour front. 

We are not quite sure how we chose this resort, but it is very pretty. Whilst passing time we booked into the comfortable 'Porto Sisi' Hotel on the sea front. Anthi, the owner, gave us a warm welcome and a choice of rooms. We were too stingy to pay for full sea view and opted for the partial sea view!! Since we will be out all day looking at the sea, we didn't feel it was necessary to be too spoilt!