cheese making, bread making and Venetian wells in Crete

 the day started with a visit to the ancient Venetian wells near Gavalochori, there since the Venetians ruled in Crete 600 or so years ago.  what's fascinating to me is that there is no mortar or anything like that holding the rocks in place... they are fitted together and have stayed that way all this time.  this is where everyone in the area came for water... for their homes, clothes washing, their animals, etc.

then we went up into the hills and back-country to see a cheese-making operation, family-run (for i don't know how many generations) by 2 brothers and their sons.  they have 400 sheep and goats and milk them 2X a day for their cheese making.  this is a totally non-mechanized enterprise, which goes on from october to june, with the the men taking the animals higher up into the mountains during the summer months for grazing.

the milk is put into the huge copper pot and stirred by hand for 3 hours until it thickens.  it is heated by wood fire and kept at a steady ideal temperature. George from Vamos Traditional Village arranged this adventure and is explaining the operation.

at the right point of thickening, the cheese is removed from the pot with a big piece of cheese-cloth (that must be where that fabric got its name!)

it is carried over to a slanted metal table and put into a metal ring, them compressed, the liquid whey runs out, trickles down the table and is collected in a bucket and put back into the copper pot.  after the cheese has been pressed by hand, a wooden piece is put over it and weighted to  continue the pressing.  meanwhile, the stirring continues....

the cheese is aged in a cold under-ground room and i don't remember exactly, but i think they said it was aged for a year.

our visit included cheese tasting, raki and the opportunity to purchase cheese to take home.  very reasonable price.. 10 euro/ kilo of cheese, which translates to about $14 for 2.2 pounds.  and the cheese was delicious!!  it was wonderful enough that i totally ignored the lack of hygienic practices that we see here... no one wore gloves during any part of the process, no aprons, flies in abundance all around the place, the cheese cloth was merely rinsed out and hung on the clothes line in the sun ... and i really enjoyed that cheese!!

this next stop was at a taverna, also up in the hills in Tsitsifas.  we'd been there several times in the past for the raki-making and it's a lovely place!  anyway, there was a demonstration of bread-making in the traditional way and anyone who wanted to took a turn at the kneading then making the dough into loaves and Manoli took them to the wood fire oven.  he raked the hot coals out (the fire had been going for hours), then put 10 big round pans of bread dough in, closed it and left the bread to bake for an hour.  he said the temp. in the oven was about 400F when the dough went in and it would maintain the heat long enough for baking the bread.  while the baking was going on, we had lunch and i failed to take photos of that wonderful meal with wine and raki.  guess i was just too busy eating and drinking!

during this time i kept hearing a lamb baa-ing... a familiar sound from the past.  then this little 2-week old bummer lamb was brought out for a feeding and i got a turn at holding the sweet little critter... sigh.. blast from the past!

it was really a great day and i'd highly recommend it!!

and so... this concludes the adventures on fantasy island, spring 2012... unless something else comes to mind, at which time i may or may not add another chapter.

last day in Crete - Heraklion (5/15/12)

our last night in Crete was spent in Heraklion since we had a 6:30a.m. flight and it was WAY easier to get to the airport from there.  we got there about noon, checked in to our hotel (El Greco) (decidedly a big step down from Village Heights) (but, oh well, it was just one night).  started off down a pedestrian only street toward the harbor, aiming for the History of Crete Museum, tho we didn't really know where it was. got there 2 hours before it closed and found that it was a place we'd have loved to spend the whole day exploring.  a very good representation of Cretan history, including 2 works by El Greco and a room dedicated to Nikos Katanzikas (Zorba The Greek).  on the very top floor was a replica of a typical Cretan home... way back when (i'm so not good about dates). and there were many display cases of the historical textiles, which i of  course found fascinating.  not a good photo of the hand spindles (almost the only example of the making of  the yarn).

 on the tourist map of the area, Jim found a Ben and Jerry's listed, and knowing my love for B&J, that was our first stop!  so i got delicious double chocolate ice cream and was very very happy!


the view from our room was far from scenic, but was the scene for some kind of all-night partying, motorcycles and general neighborhood mayhem.  did not get a lot of sleep in preparation for our 28-hour flight home ordeal.  luckily, after a few weeks of re-entry to life in my queendom, the ugliness of that flight home dims and i start looking forward to the next trip to Crete!  i think it helps that i so much love being in both places that the joy overcomes any pain in the ass of travel feelings!

the harbor is crowded with traffic... boats, cars and pedestrians, tavernas, touristy shops, tour groups trying to follow their leader, and it's all quite breath-taking in many ways!  i never get over the brilliant blues of the sky and the water, contrasted with the angular white of the boats.


and a short distance from the busy-ness of the harbor is an archeological dig in progress, which i so wanted to get down into and explore!!


















on a side street close to the hotel we found a nice little taverna, had a last Cretan meal and ouzo.  i'll really miss the ouzo-on-ice-with-water-on-the-side!!

and so,dear diary, i will try to do catch up on our adventures of Fantasy Island as i can.

need more sleep.......

a notice for my twisted sisters.... we need to get on with it!

roses in Crete

what i loved the best about the last place we stayed in Crete, near Hersonissos, was the abundance of gorgeous roses.  i tried to pick a favorite and just couldn't.  i just wish they'd put labels beside the plants so i'd be able to go out and buy them to put in my rose garden.

what i loved second best was having a REAL shower... wheeee.

when i get really back to reality at home, i'll post some more.

ETA - 5/22/12 -- i was so in love with all those roses that i've already been online with Jackson Perkins and ordered 4 roses which i hope will be delivered SOON!

this is a REALLY old olive tree which must have been there long before the corporation raped this land and put in the resort.  at least they didn't take it out.

 and some photos around the place.  the literature we found in the room says that the place (Village Heights) was built in a way to reflect the old villages of Crete, which just couldn't be further from the look and feel of old Cretan villages.  it seems sad to me that many people come to Crete and see only tourist resorts like this and the touristy villages down the hill by the sea... and never see and experience the real Crete and it's people and culture... and go home believing they've seen Crete.  i sure did love the roses tho!

some photos with few words- near Heraklion, Crete

we are in a new place now...Hersonisos in kind of the northcentral part of Crete. we got a tour for 2 days of the wine/vineyard area, saw a Minoan archeological site thot to have been a palace, admired the awesomely beautiful hills and sweet little villages.

home on wed. more words then.
 5 /22/2012 - home and editing now...  rather than rent a car while in this area, we were able to hire a friend from Vamos who works as a guide and conducts tours all over Crete.  Valerie came over and took us to parts of this area that we'd have never been able to find and explore without her!!  the views and scenery were spectacular... we went up to the Lasithi plateau, which was a huge agriculture area with many windmills which provided power to the wells necessary for irrigation and to grind and process the grains grown there.  when electricity became available, the windmills were abandoned.  recently, more modern windmills are being placed around the area to provide power.  too bad the old ones can't be resurrected.

Valerie is an archeologist, so we had some great discussions about the history of Crete and various theories regarding the Minoans.  this is one of those sites that hasn't been much disturbed (except for the wall built at the back of this photo).  it is thot to be one of the palaces of that time.

archeological site-pobably Minoan palace

we stopped in one of the larger villages for  lunch and found a nice taverna on the plaka.  several dogs were wandering around looking for handouts.  this one took a bit of time out for a little rest in the sun.

this momma kitty and her babies were at one of the wineries we visited.  it was probably the best thing about this winery... which is more of a wine factory than a "local winery"

the next is out of sequence... it was taken our last night in Vamos....

this is Mr. Yannis, a sweet man of about 90 years, who is the unofficial greeter at Bloumosifi Taverna.  he arrives there early afternoon, stays a couple of hours just sitting by the door, goes home for a nap, then is back in his chair until 8pm or so.  there's all sorts of rumors about his "home life"... mainly that his wife is very mean and hits him with her shoe.  but he gets lots of love and TLC at the taverna.

and back to the wine country tour... we followed some signs and found a wonderful, small, biologic vineyard and winery and were greeted by the owner, Mr. Stilianou, who gave us a tasting of his wines and olive oil.  we bought 3 bottles of wine, including a Rose which i normally don't like, but this one was exceptional.  we also bought a liter of his lovely olive oil, but it did not make it home with us because my dear sweet man packed it in his carry-on and it was confiscated at the first security check for being way over the liquids limit.  from now on i'm in charge of packing any/all liquids.   if you are ever in the Minos Perfecture in the town of Minos you should look for this winery.

this one's for Judy!  remember all that Retsina we drank together??  it still tastes the same!!

time out

i just cant deal with trying to blog using iPad so will wait til im back home. lots of adventures and photos. check back in about 2 weeks for thecontinuing saga of fantasy island