May Excursion with the Rethymnon CIC Group: Amari Valley

Albert van Elst continues with his programme of monthly excursions for the Rethymnon CIC group with his SPRING TIME TOUR OF THE AMARI VALLEY. This tour will take place on the last Sunday in May (30/05/10), and, as ever, all profits from the trip will be donated to a local charity based.

Albert writes: ‘The May excursion from the Rethymnon group of the CIC (which once again will be a coach trip) takes us through one of the most beautiful areas of Crete - which is particularly stunning at this time of the year, the Amari valley.

You will be amazed by the spring colours from the trees and flowers and also by the views from Mount Ida.

Manolis from La Bamba Bar, (our CIC coffee morning meeting point in Rethymnon), will be our guide and as he was born in this part of Crete who could wish for more?!

Our first stop will be at Lake Potamos, the new artificial lake which has been constructed over the last 20 years to collect the water from the gorges and mountains. A dam in the lake has the potential to provide an enormous electricity supply for Rethymnon in the future. Our next stop is at the gorge of St.Anthony, near the village of Patsos. People that are ‘good on foot’ may join Manolis for a short walk in this beautiful gorge and admire the cave church from the Saint and hear the holy stories. Others can drink a coffee and / or refreshments at the idyllic tavern in front of the gorge.

We then go on to visit the house and museum belonging to Giannis Neonakis, a famous Cretan sculptor who also happens to be the chairman of the cultural committee of Rethymnon. In his village - Apostoli - we will meet members of the local women’s society who sell fruit products made in the traditional style. Then we will walk to the local taverna to enjoy a typically Cretan lunch. After lunch we will have a few more stops, for example Moni Asomaton, one of the older monsateries on Crete which is also the former agricultural school. Our last stops are in Amari and Gerakari. In Amari Manolis takes us to his shop which has traditional products, we are given a tour of his own winery and will also some original handicraft. In Gerakari, which is the centre of the cherry producing region we visit Despina, probably the only lady in the area that produces Raki made from Cherries. We return with the Spili road home to Rethymnon.

We start from Georgioupolis at 8.30 and than we have our usual pick up points, at Kavros, Rethymno, Misseria and Platanes. For people outside from this area, please contact Albert to see what arrangements can be made. Contact Albert via email at info@winterincrete.com or by phone on 28310-56641.

Price for C.I.C members is 15,00 euro, non members 17,50. We need a minimum of 20 people for the trip to go ahead and we also welcome any tourists visiting Rethymnon to join us on this grand day out!

Note from the editor: We hope to be able to bring you a grand round up and photo gallery of the Rethymnon CIC winter excursions (including some additional reflections kindly supplied by our readers about the very moving trip to Spinalonga) in our June edition of the Bugle.

Feedback from the Zaros Trip in April

This was the third year in a row that some of the Bugle crew had arranged to meet in the village of Zaros for a weekend jaunt, and ever it was an adventure! In fact the editorial team had such a good time that their photo shoot ended up being a bit of a non-event (but we’re quite proud of the turtle on the left). If you want to find out more about the village of Zaros and see some better examples of scenic shots, check out our April / May issues from 2008 and 2009.

We all made our way to Studios Keramos (and thank you Kyria Katerina for your hospitality), then headed up the hill for lunch at the Trout farm. After a brief siesta we met for aperitifs and then had a lovely supper hosted by vibrant Vivi at Taverna Vegera.

On the way back, some of the gang made a detour to a winery ‘Domain Zacharioudakis’ in Plouti, which is just a few kilometers away from Zaros (you’ll find them online at the www.zacharioudakis.com website). The plan was to engage in some serious wine tasting and to stay for lunch, but the winery was fully booked up for a baptism that day, so that wasn’t to be. However, the sales manager Δημητρης Βαβουρανακης kindly took time out of his busy schedule to give us an informative guided tour. Thank you - we will be back! On the way home some of us stopped off in Vori for lunch and then for tea (well, let’s be honest, coffee and ice cream!) in Spili. It was a great weekend –let’s do it again next year!