Since we failed at playing tourist yesterday, we were determined to get some sightseeing in today. We decided to go to Chania (pronounced Han-yah), located on the northern coast of Crete about an hour and a half west of Bali. Our “Lonely Planet” says Chania is even more quaint and charming than Rythmeno. The old city has been continuously occupied for the last 6,000 years. When the Venetians took over, they really built it up, and many of the Venetian structures still stand today. The drive west reminded Eric of driving through Tahoe in a lot of ways, with even more evergreens and hilly roads.

We exited the main highway at the off-ramp marked “Chania”. Off the highway, there weren’t any more signs. To the left was a road with a few houses and shops scattered on it that seemed to travel into the countryside. To the right was an industrial port town. This must be it. It certainly wasn’t cute and charming. The main square near the harbor had a few coffee houses and tavernas (restaurants), but the town was mostly commercial ships and giant storage containers of some sort. We got lunch and were surprised at how inexpensive everything on the menu was. When we were done eating, we got back in the car to search for the cute part of town. It had to be around here somewhere. We found a very large military base. Hmmm. There wasn’t a military base in Chania, which means we were in the wrong town altogether! Oops!

We made a U-turn and followed the country road, and after about 10 minutes, it turned into a town. It was a good size town, with relatively new buildings. Like most of the towns, most buildings had adjoining walls, but, surprisingly, many buildings had parking garages. This had to be Chania, but it obviously wasn’t the Venetian section. We randomly drove up and down the narrow streets, hoping to run into the old harbor. Eventually, we found the water. We passed a very old looking structure that was dilapidated and clearly had not been used for a lot of years, like maybe hundreds of years. Ok, that was a good sign. We were getting close. We followed a road that paralleled the water on our left, and after a short distance, on our right we saw the very tall, very old walls that the Venetians had built to enclose the city. The road ended at a pedestrian walkway. Yay! We found the entrance to the old city!

The walkway wrapped around a small bay and was lined with restaurants and tourist shops. It is very attractive, and actually looks a lot like the old port area in Rythmeno.

There were several small walkways leading to the interior of the city. This is exactly what you expect old Europe to look like. It was a cluster of two, three, and four story, narrow buildings with adjoining walls accessed by a maze of cobblestone roads only wide enough for two people to walk along. It was quite hilly, and in some spots, the walkways were actually staircases. It is enchanting. Virtually every building was a hotel, restaurant or tourist shop, and we wondered how people managed to drag their heavy luggage up and down these hills since there is no way a car could get into the tiny streets of old city.

We passed the naval museum. Eric was coveting the anchor and propeller on display outside the museum, wondering if they would work on Kosmos. We decided to go in.

The museum is good. It is housed in a very old Venetian building, with arched doorways and support walls. Walking around the building was interesting in and of itself. The museum documents all the known battles that Cretans have fought in, going back to ancient times through to World War II. Crete is strategically located, so there have been a slew of countries trying to take control of it all throughout history. A good navy has been a must for Crete since Minoan times. There was a large display of old naval equipment, such as navigational instruments, as well as a nice display on local marine life. There was an exhibit on different boats used over the years, ranging from ancient wooden boats with sails and hundreds of oars sticking out of the sides (these boats were powered by hundreds of people hand rowing in unison) to battle ships used in WWII.

Once we finished at the museum, we walked around to the other side of the bay to have a look at the marina. It is similar to Agios Nickolaos in a lot of ways, except that there is a lot of pedestrian traffic going by. The marina at Agios Nickolas is gated off to keep pedestrians out. Here is a shot of the marina. The second one is of a mosque built in 1645 that now serves as an art gallery. The third one is the lighthouse, built in 1864, and the light was powered by oil. It wasn’t converted to electricity until 1979.

The old city is roughly a square mile. We hadn’t even come close to walking around the whole city, but we felt like we had seen enough to get a good taste of it. It was really, really hot and we were tired of walking. We headed back to Bali to hang out with the family. As usual, it was a fun time and a late night.