Headed for Egypt...

We're in the Best Western by Gatwick, and headed for Egypt tomorrow to cruise the Nile. The hotel's internet is too slow to upload photos. Last blog for at least a week as we won't have any internet in Egypt...

37 in the shade...

Crete has been awesome. We've crammed so many activities into 2 weeks. But now it's time to say goodbye to sweating while sleeping and feeding the mosquitoes of the Mediterranean.
In Crete a cocktail looks like a birthday cake, and no one really seems to care what you do. I've seen enough elderly topless women to last a life time, and the nudist colony down the beach doesn't have a member under 75. We've traveled to lakes fed from underground springs, ancient forts built by the Venetians (apparently they make more than window blinds), monasteries, old cities, new cities, mountain panoramas, leper colonies, and caves. We've walked for miles along beaches, traveled to cities via coach, hopped on a fake train (it was just a tractor pulling carts on wheels) to touristy areas, and finally rented a quad for a 145km journey through a large city, along a highway, and through a dozen little mountain villages. Back home you get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, but in Crete it's apparently just fine for two people to ride a quad down the shoulder of 40km of highway and then bomb around a mega city (where 4 or 5 vehicles somehow always manage to cram across a one lane road).

We bus back to the airport at 6:00 GMT (Greek-maybe-time) tomorrow

Sea turtles and sunsets

This guy came ashore around 7pm but I didn't get a photo until 9pm. He was alive when he crawled onto the beach but gave up soon after. The locals covered him partially with some kind of black cloth (I don't know why). But it was pretty neat to see a wild sea turtle (they can live up to 80 years...and this one looked realllly old).
At least he died on a pretty amazing evening as the ocean was calm and the sky clear.

Sunrise over the Cretan Sea

Trouble sleeping this morning so I went to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was worth it.

Crete

Crete is pretty nice. Here's what I know:
The ocean is like bathwater.
It's hot even when it rains.
Greek bartenders are the laziest people on the planet.
Sand gets everywhere.
Mythos beer is crap but cheap.
You can drink anywhere.
All inclusive is greek for partially inclusive hehehe.

Nap time on the beach!