Rethymnon CIC Winter Excursions: Snapshots

As we approach the height of summer, we say farewell to the winter ‘last Sunday of the month’ excursion programme - and, unfortunately, due to lack of numbers the trip to the Samaria region originally planned for the end of June has now had to be postponed (hopefully this will now take place in the autumn). For many of us living here on Crete, July and August are difficult months in which to plan ahead to take time out even for a day! Some of us are working full tilt in jobs related to tourism, others of us have got relatives or friends visiting, the summer entertainment schedule is in full swing, and then there is the weather. Those of you who live in Northern Europe may not totally understand the ‘weather problem’. You see, in the winter, if it’s cold and chucking it down with rain, the intrepid explorers will just fling on an extra layer of clothing and grab an umbrella. However, once the mercury shoots through the top of the glass, the preferred option may well be to whack on that air conditioning, lie down on the sofa, put on the DVD player, watch a selection of murder mysteries set in damp Oxfordshire villages and wait until September. But I digress. In the meantime, we really would like to say a big thank you to Albert van Elst for all the hard work he put in to organize these great excursions. It seems fair to say that even those of us who thought we knew Crete pretty well were given some surprises about this lovely yet complicated place. We had fun, were educated and did a bit of soul searching…. Let’s do it again!