Ardnamurchan - Portuairk

We spent a week on the Ardnamurchan peninsula this Summer, staying in the wee hamlet of Portuairk. Ardnamurchan, the most Westerly tip of the British mailnland, is also one of the last unspoilt places on the British mainland; a place of white sandy beaches, rolling hills and even a volcano or two.

Ardnamurchan Sunset

Getting There

Getting to Ardnamurchan is fairly easy, if a bit onerous as far as the driving goes. We drove up the A82 to Nether Lochaber, which lies about nine miles south of Fort William, and took the Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe to Ardgour. This avoids the much longer route that you can take by heading up to Fort William and heading along the A830 and cutting off onto the A861 at Kinlocheil or continuing on to Lochailort and then taking the A861 down to Salen; either way, it's a long drive.

From the ferry, there's 13 miles of decent road until you get to Strontian and then a horrible 35 miles of single-track road to Achosnich passing through Kilchoan, the largest village in the area. I don't mind driving on single-track roads, in fact I quite like it as it means you have to concentrate on driving, but 35 miles of this really windy and rolly road at an average speed of about 25 m.p.h. is very, very wearing. From Achosnich, it's only a few more miles to Portuairk and we were very glad to see it.

Portuairk

Portuairk (Port of the Wild Boar)

Portuairk, which claims the honour of being the most Westerly settlement on the Scottish mainland, consists of only a handful or two of small cottages at one end of Sanna Bay. There's not a lot else to say about it other than it's a very pleasant little place with a natural harbour, protected from the worst of the weather and where the locals keep a few boats tied up, and it's surrounded by hills. Oh, and it's ruled by the flock of sheep that roam all over the grassy areas surrounding that end of the bay.

The nearest shop is in Kilchoan but it's fairly well stocked and the prices aren't that bad at all. for eating out, there's the Sonachan Hotel just past Achosnich and the Kilchoan House Hotel in Kilchoan. There's also a week tea-room in the Kilchoan Tourist Office and another out at Ardnamurchan Point but that's about unless you want to venture a fair way back along that single-track road.

Accommodation

We rented a cottage right down on the beach front, called simply The Bungalow, from a company based in Kilchoan and which I found online. They have a fair number of properties for rent on Ardnamurchan and, sad though it is, there seem to be more holiday homes there than those occupied by locals. The cottage was plainly furnished but reasonably well kitted out and it even had Sky TV, although that may have been because the chances of getting terrestrial TV out there was probably remote.

Portuairk Beach

As with most of these holiday cottages, it was really too big for just the two of us and could take six easily but that's the price of a quiet week in the countryside. With a decent sea view, the sunset shot above was taken from the front door, the beach only a few yards away, hills close by and absolutely no hustle or bustle, it suited us just fine and proved an ideal base from which to explore Ardnamurchan.

Crete - Heraklion

It was time for a break from beaches and archaeological sites on Crete so we hopped on the bus and headed into Heraklion for the day. Heraklion is the largest city and the capital of the island. It's had a fairly mixed history; Probably a port for the city of Knossos during Minoan times, the city proper was founded by the Saracens back in 824 A.D., then passed into the hands of the Byzantine Empire who then sold it on to the Venetians, who called it Candia. After them, it passed into the Ottoman Empire and they eventually made it a republic until it was given over to Greece in 1913. So it's had Minoans, Arabs, Romans, Venetians, Turks and Greeks in control of it over the centuries.

Castello del Molo, also called Koules

We'd been to the city on a previous visit and had spent most of that day in the archaeological museum. It wasn't the plan at the time but the museum is huge and it takes a long time to wander through all of it. Most of the good stuff from all of the ancient sites around the island has ended up here so it's worth a visit if you're interested in that kind of thing. Anyway, we'd already done that so this day was for a more general wander around.

The bus station is quite close to the harbour so that's where we headed first with the intention of visiting the Castello del Molo, which dominates the entrance to the Venetian harbour tand is also known as the Rocca a Mare and the Koules Fortress. This version was built around 1523-1540 to protect the enclosed harbour and predates the second Venetian fortifications around the city. We had a good old wander around the fortress, both inside and out, and it offers some excellent views out over the city, against the backdrop of the Idi mountains. Closer to the harbour, you can see the enormous Venetian shipyards or arsenals, which were used to house and build ships.

Morosini Fountain

After lunch in a seriously busy restaurant just up from the harbour, we wandered up the 25th of August Street, heading for Eleftherias Square. On the way, we stopped in the little El Greco Park and passed the impressive Byzantine cathedral of St. Titus as well as a host of architecturally beautiful buildings. We also stopped at Lionaria Square, which is home to the beautiful Morosini Fountain but it was being renovated and was both incomplete and difficult to see. We eventually ended up at Eleftherias Square, a huge open square but not particularly interesting.

Agios Titos

From there we headed over to the St. George's Gate on the Venetian city walls, which was used as the main route between the city and the port. It's now used mainly as an art exhibition venue. We also had a brief detour around the nearby little Georgiadis Park before heading back to the bus station and out to Hersonissos.

Crete - Malia

With our three-day stint with the hire car over, we thought we'd take the local bus service along to Malia for the day. The buses run every 30 minutes during the day but there's no way of knowing when they'll turn up as all the times posted seem to indicate the time they leave Heraklion. There's a nice wee disclaimer at the bottom of the timetable stating that "any delays in service are due to traffic!". So twenty minutes later than when we thought a bus would come, one did…

Malia Palace

Malia is a strange sort of resort town. Above the main road is the old town of Malia, where the locals live, and it's full of little windy streets and white houses; just what you'd expect from a little Greek village. However, below the main road is a different world; a hell on earth if you're our kind of tourist. The main strip down to the beach is a yob's paradise of English and Irish bars, all claiming to sell the cheapest and largest amounts of alcohol they can. Fancy a goldfish bowl full of synthetic alcohol? Yes, well you can buy as many as you can drink here in Malia.

We've stayed in Malia on two previous visits to the island but always in the off season, when it's quieter and the invasion of bar-crawling rabble is either over or hasn't begun. It's actually not a bad place to visit during those quieter periods. Anyway, the bus dropped us off in the centre of town and we headed East, walking about three kilometres out to visit the archaeological site of the Minoan Palace of Malia where, according to legend, Sarpedon, the third son of Zeus and Europa and brother of King Minos, ruled here. The first Palace was built around 1900 B.C. but destroyed in 1700 B.C. and a new Palace built but like all of the other Minoan palaces on Crete, that was destroyed in 1450 B.C. We'd been here before but it seemed a reasonable target for a short walk in the sun.

Tropical Beach

After an hour or so wandering around the ruins, taking the odd snap and chasing butterflies, we started wandering back towards Malia with the intention of getting a bit of lunch and then lazing about a bit on the beach. We found quite a nice little taverna along the coastal road and had a decent lunch before wandering over to the nearby beach for a bit of a lie about and maybe even a nap. It was a bit quieter there due to being a wee bit out of the town so we pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon there on the sand.

After a while we started back towards town, taking a detour to go via Malia Port. the little harbour along the way. We thought we'd maybe see a few old Greek fishing boats there but it's all gone modern now. Well, except for a few derelict looking bits of harbour machinery. Wandering back towards twon we spotted an old, ruined windmill and what looked like a very run down and abandoned water park.

Back in town we had a bit of a wander around to remind ourselves of the place and ended up down at sea again, looking out at the little island offshore with its obligatory wee white church. After that we found the bus stop, waiting over a hour for one to show up, and headed back to Hersonissos. You can see all of the pictures taken on this visit to Malia here.

An Island In The Sun

Crete - Kritsa and Lato

With our visit to Mochlos cut short by the public holiday, we headed back towards Aghios Nikolaos and stopped off on the way at a little place called Festos Beach for something else to eat. There wasn't much there but a little hotel and café and a little beach but it looked pleasant enough to stop for a while. We had some real food to stave of the hunger pangs and then a wander around for a bit before deciding to head inland towards the village of Kritsa and, if time allowed, the archaeological site at Lato.

The Ruins of Lato

Kritsa is about 10km West of Aghios Nikolaos and is supposedly one the most picturesque villages on the island. Built on a hill and surrounded by olive groves, it certainly looks the part - all nice little white houses spread round the hill but it didn't grab us as interesting enough to stop. Maybe it was too late in the afternoon or a side effect of the public holiday but it seemed a bit on the quiet side so we opted to head out to Lato and see what it was like.

The narrow road from Kritsa to Lato feels like a long and winding one but we eventually got there with me worrying a bit about having enough fuel to get back to Hersonissos. Anyway, the road ends at Lato and as with Gournia earlier in the the day, it was closed for the holiday but luckily the gates had been left open.

The city of Lato was built in a fairly defensible position overlooking the Gulf of Mirabello and between two peaks. The ruins date back to the Dorian period, about the fourth or fifth century B.C., although it was probably built earlier than that and in its day, it was one of the most powerful cities on the island. The ruins are spread over terraces on the hillside and include walls, houses, a theatre, a temple and shops and the views out over the gulf and down to the modern city of Aghios Nikolaos are excellent.

The Ruins of Lato

Lato is one of the best excavated Greek cities on Crete and the ruins are impressive by any standard so it's well worth visiting. It is however not Minoan, which means it doesn't get as much tourist traffic as the more popular archaeological sites like Knossos, Malia or Phaestos so it's a much quieter place. There were a few other people around while we were there but it is very quiet, the most noise coming from the bells tied to the goats that you can see climbing around on the hillside. It's a bit of a clamber but you can climb almost all the way to the top of one of the peaks and get a really good view but take care, the drop on one side is precipitous.

Our hired car was due back that night so after a good wander around the city and a bit of a rest, we headed back to the modern world. Tomorrow. we planned to get the bus to Malia.

Crete - Mochlos

After an hour or so wandering around the ruins of Gournia we headed East for the little village of Mochlos, also called Mokhlos or Mohlos,which Lorna said had one of the view accessible beaches on that part of the coast. Mochlos is located about 5km off and below the main road and it's a fairly steep road down to it but the drive is pleasant enough.

Mochlos Island

Mochlos' claim to fame here is not for the village or its nice wee bay but for the little island of the same name just offshore with its archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. All there seems to be there now though is the little white church of Agios Nikolaos. However, we weren't there for the ruins as we'd just done that at Gournia and all we wanted to do here was to laze by the sea and have a bit of lunch. Boy were we to be disappointed…

It was May 1^st and that's a big public holiday on Crete so, for the same reason that Gournia was closed, Mochlos was absolutely packed with Cretan families. The village was full of cars so finding a parking spot took ages and bear in mind that these wee streets are only wide enough for one car at a time. Okay we got parked and then went on the hunt for some lunch but that too was a waste of time as everywhere was full of munching Greeks. Not normally a problem but these guys know how to enjoy a meal and with lots of large tables full, the restaurant staff were really under pressure.

Useful Container

We gave trying to get lunch and bought some drinks and a snack from a little shop and then headed for the seaside. Which brings me to the other revelation - Mochlos has no beach or at least we couldn't find it easily enough so we ended up sitting on the rocky foreshore for a while. It wasn't so bad and we had a wander around the village, which is quite nice, for a while but ended up heading for Kritsa and Lato as an alternative diversion for the rest of the day.

So if you happen to find yourself on Crete on May 1^st, then be aware that anywhere you go might either be closed or full of locals enjoying a well-earned break themselves.

Crete - Gournia

Gournia is the site of a Late Minoan town/palace complex on Crete dating back to about 1550 B.C., although there are remains going back as far as 2000 B.C. here as well. Called the "Pompeii of Minoan Crete" due to the good state of preservation, it occupies a low hill close to the sea on the Isthmus of Ierapetra, overlooking the Bay of Mirabella. It's actual name is unknown and it was named after the hollow vessels called gourni found all over the site, many of which can still be seen at the entrances to the rooms. Unfortunately it was destroyed in 1450 B.C. like most of the rest of the Minoan civilization.

Gournia

Gournia is another large and fairly well excavated archaeological site. Unfortunately we arrived to see it on the first of May, which is a holiday on Crete, and it was closed for the day. It's fairly visible on the hillside through the fence so, undaunted and having driven a fair distance, we wandered round the edge of the site and found a way in. I'm surprised they didn't just leave the site open as there's nothing of monetary value and we noticed a fair number of cars pulling into the little road outside the gate and then giving up and going away again.

The remains of the place are in fairly good condition and it's easy to see the layout of certain parts of the town and palace. It was very peaceful and quiet with no-one else around so we had a good nose around and enjoyed the views out over the sea and the Gulf of Mirabella before retracing our steps back out and onward to Mochlos.

Gournia

Crete - Matala

Matala lies about 75km South-West of Heraklion on Crete and, in its past, was the seaport for both the ancient cities of Gortys and Phaestos. It has a lovely sandy beach and since we've visited here before and found it was such a nice place to spend some time in, we went back again.

Panoramic View of Matala

It's famous for the man-made caves carved into the rock face on the North side of the surrounding bay. They were carved out during Neolithic times and have been mainly used as tombs over the centuries, although they were used by a hippie community during the 1960s and 70s. Why anyone would ever want to spend one night far less the entire Summer in one of these caves is beyond me. You only have to look inside them and see the little shelves the bodies were obviously placed in to rule out any idea of them being homey.

It's other claim to fame is as the landing point on Crete of Zeus and Europa. The story goes that when Zeus spotted Europa he hatched a plan to have his way with her. Taking the form of a white bull, he mingled in with her father's herds and when she and her friends were out gathering flowers, Europa saw the bull and, so taken with its beauty, she climbed onto its back. Needless to say, Zeus took that opportunity to leg it and run into the sea with her. He then swam to the island of Crete with Europa on his back, landing on the beach at Matala where he transformed into an Eagle and carried off to Gortys for a bit of fun.

The Caves of Matala

Anyway back to present day Matala. What was once a pleasant little fishing village has gradually been turned into a tourist resort, full of restaurants and tavernas. That's not to say that it's not a nice place but it's certainly busier even than when we were first here some years ago. If you like beaches and the casual life of lazy tavernas, then it's definitely worth a visit. The caves are interesting too and, if you're adventurous enough, then you can climb up to the higher ones.

Next time we go to Crete though, we'll probably give Gortys and Matala a miss and visit Phaestos and then neighbouring Kalamaki beach instead as it's supposedly less commercialized than Matala.

Crete - Gortys

Since we had the car we thought we'd take a run over to Matala again but this time we'd stop off at the ruined city of Gortys, which is on the way there. Last time we were on Crete, we passed it by in our rush to get to the seaside and it was dark on the way back so we missed it.

Aghios Titos, The Church of St. Titus

Gortys, also known as Gortyn or Gortyna, was one of the most important cities on Crete. After the Roman conquest of Crete in 67 B.C., Gortys was declared the capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, replacing Knossos, a position it held until the Arab conquest of Crete in 828 A.D. It's probably most famous now for the discovery of the 12 inscriptions of law, which form the oldest Greek law code and are considered as the greatest contribution of Classical Crete to world culture.

The place lies in ruins now, mostly due to an earthquake in 796 A.D., but the site of this once huge city is massive. The main archaeological site, where you'll have to pay the usual entry fee, only covers a very small portion of the city - the Odeon, the Church of St. Titus and a Plane tree linked to the myth of Zeus and Europe. Frankly, there's not a lot on show here - the great inscription of the Law Code of Gortys and almost all of the recovered statues are all locked behind bars so you only get a glimpse of them. If you really want to experience the size of the place, then just wander around the outskirts or go across the road and dive in among the olive trees.

The Law Code of Gortys

We wandered out and went along the road to the right. Once across the stream, there's a path leading back along the side of the main site but which also leads you along the side of the hill above. There are several ruins on the hillside and, if you're adventurous enough, access is open so you can wander in and up. The ground here is covered with flowers so I spent a few moments or three chasing butterflys among them as well.

We also crossed the road and wandered down the road opposite to Mitropolis for a bit and then plunged off left into the olive trees. The whole area in there is full of the ruins of the city. Some are obviously important as they've been fenced off but there's still lots to see and we spent a fair bit of time just wandering among the trees and flowers, enjoying the sun, before heading on to Matala.

The Ruins Of Gortys

Crete - The Lasithi Plateau

The last time we were on Crete we hired a car and drove up to the Lasithi Plateau, a large, scenic plain located in the Eastern part of the island. You'll also see it spelled as Lassithi is some texts and it's about 70km from Heraklion, lying at an altitude of roughly 840m. What makes it unusual is the fact that it's one of the few permanently inhabited areas at such an altitude around the Mediterranean and the Winters can be very harsh with snow often persisting until mid Spring. Anyway, we didn't have a camera last time so we went back again…

Panoramic View Of The Lasithi Plateau

The surrounding mountains make the place a natural bowl and alluvial run-off from melting snow has made it an extremely fertile place, continuously inhabited from 6,000 B.C. aside from a couple of hundred years when the Venetian rulers prohibited cultivation and kicked the natives out. Those same Venetians, once they'd relented and let the farmers back in, ordered the construction of a large system of drainage ditches, still in use today, that transfer the water to a sinkhole on the Western edge of the plateau. The Lasithi plateau is most famous for the thousands of white-sailed windmills that were used to irrigate the land for centuries. However, most of them have been abandoned and fallen into disrepair having been superceded by modern diesel and electrical pumps. That doesn't stop the tour offices promoting visits to see the windmills of Lasithi though but be aware that you won't see very many of these now at all now. Still there is some interest in renovating and restoring some of them so maybe in time, the plateau will again be home to a horde of white sails.

Once you get up onto the plateau, the road winds round the edge of it as that's where almost all of the little villages are and even these are perched on the edge of the rocky slopes so as to give every last bit of good land to farming. There's the odd little farmhouse dotted around here and there but it's mostly all fields and fields of vegetables. However, it's also famous for one other thing and that's being the birthplace of Zeus, mythical king of the gods.

If you follow the road around to the South-Western end of the plateau, then you'll reach the little village of Psychro and it's from there that you can trek up the path to the Diktaean Cave, which is where the legends say that Zeus was born. It's a fairly steep path but you can hire a very expensive donkey ride up if you're feeling unable to manage it, although I thought it was just too pricey.

Well, we're still fit enough for a plod up a mountain path so off we went and it was worth the trek up as the views out over the plateau are amazing. Add to that an abundance of wildflowers beside the path and enough butterflies to keep me chasing around with the camera to little avail made it an excellent walk. After about twenty or thirty minutes climbing, we eventually reached the cave entrance with its obligatory archaeological representatives. One to sell you a ticket to the cave and one to take it from you again as you enter or should I say descend…

What you get is a fairly big hole in the ground with steps going down and down and down into the darkness. These days the cave is lit up a bit so there's no need to take a torch and a guide as was once advised. The drawback of all that modernization is that it's now a major attraction and you almost have to queue behind the trail of like-minded tourists as you wander down those steps.

According to the legend, Zeus' father Kronos had sworn to devour all of his children at birth to avoid falling foul of a prophecy that one of them would overthrow him as leader of the Titans. However, Zeus' mother Rhea tricked Kronos at the birth by giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling to swallow instead and left the baby Zeus in the Dikteon Cave. Here the goat nymph Amalthia nurtured him and the Kuretes protected him by dancing and clashing their spears against their shields to drown out the baby's crying.

NB: The cave is called by many names, probably due to translation differences from the Greek so you'll see it called any of Dikteon Cave, Diktaean Cave, Diktean Cave, Dikteon Andron, Diktaion Antron or any variation of these.

As I've already said, the cave is reasonably well lit these days so there's really no need to worry that you'll fall over your own feet. What's more likely is that you'll slip on the steps as they can be a bit wet in places so some care is still needed while wandering around down there. That's really about it and after wandering down to the bottom of the cave with its little pond, it's time to wander all the way back up again. Of course, the cave itself is full of the stalactites and stalagmites normally associated with such places and some of them have been been very nicely illuminated with coloured lights to add to the mystical atmosphere of the place.

Dikteon Cave

Once you get out of the cave, it's an easy stroll back down the path to Psychro, or Psichro as it's often referred to, enjoying again the views out over the plateau. There are several cafés at the bottom of the path and we had a reasonably tasty lunch in one of these. We fancied eating out on the balcony as the views were lovely but it was bit on the windy and chill side so we ended up inside close to an open and roaring fire of all things.

We then had a slow drive, following the road round the plateau, until we eventually found the way off down to Agios Nikolaos with a thought of visiting there for a while but it was getting late by then so we headed back to Hersonissos for the night.

Crete - Koutouloufari

Having been based in Hersonissos for a few weeks, we got to wandering around a bit and one day we took a stroll up to the little village of Koutouloufari, which lies on the hillside above the town. It's not that far, about one and a half kilometres, so it's a fairly easy stroll as long as it's not too hot. Beware of the Swallows though! They use the relatively straight roads for attack runs on the insect population so don't be surprised when they zip past you at shoulder height, they're only looking for lunch.

Rustic Bliss On The Road Up To Koutouloufari

Koutouloufari is a much quieter place and offers some excellent views out over the Bay of Malia and the town of Hersonissos so it's ideal to spend an afternoon just chillin' if you need a break from the more hectic lifestyle of Hersonissos.

It's a traditional Cretan village with lots of little white houses and narrow streets leading off the main road, which leads along the other little villages of Piskopiano and Hersonissos. Everywhere you look there are flowers, flowers beside doors and windows or climbing up walls and over roofs. You can walk between Koutouloufari and Piskopiano without hardly noticing the gap but you'd probably notice that Piskopiano is a little less tourist oriented but only a little as it did seem to have a fair number of restaurants as well.

A Geranium Spotted While Having Lunch In Koutouloufari

Koutouloufari on the other hand simply abounds with tavernas and restaurants so you'd be hard pressed not to find somewhere to just sit down, relax and have a drink and something to eat while you're there. We stopped and had lunch in a small café run by a Dutch couple and had planned on coming back one evening for dinner but we never made it.

For anyone interested in the culture and history of the villages, then there's an very old but nice looking Orthodox church on one of the roads up to the village and there's also a Byzantine church in Piskopiano worth checking out.

On returning to Hersonissos we found a road that led us directly down on a more gentle slope to where we were staying at Star Beach Village. It was a very pleasant walk down between flower-strewn borders and olive groves so the visit to Koutouloufari passed the afternoon very nicely.

Hersonissos Harbour From Koutouloufari

Crete - Hersonissos

We're not long back from a couple of week holidaying on the Greek island of Crete. We've been there a couple of times previously but have never stayed in Hersonissos before so here's my slant on the place…

First a bit of clarification. I'm talking about Limin Hersonissos and not the little village of Hersonissos, which lies inland a few kilometers. Limin Hersonissos, the port of Hersonissos, is commonly just called Hersonissos for the sake of the tourist population. It's a small town about 26 km East of Heraklion, the capital of Crete, and it's the most developed tourism area on the island with loads of hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. There's also a fair smattering of beaches and sandy coves for those wanting to sunbathe by the sea.

Hersonissos Harbour

As to when to go, we were there for the last week in April and first week in May but the place wasn't really fully open and only really started to get going a bit in the second week. Some restaurants and bars, etc. were still being fitted out and loads of the hotels around still hadn't filled their pools. The first of May this year was the island's Easter celebration and I'm sure that's when things start kicking off so I don't think we'd go earlier than that again.

Accommodation

There are loads of hotels and apartments to choose from in Hersonissos but we stayed in the Star Beach Village, which is located a little to the East of town, because we got a very decent deal from the travel agent on a late booking. That said, the place is actually quite nice and the staff were all pretty friendly. The location isn't perfect for anyone wanting to hit the town every night as it's either a twenty-five minute walk or a taxi ride there.


Star Beach Village bill themselves as four-star plus but I think they're being a bit on the generous side. The public facilities are all very good in they have a nice big lounge with a bar, a restaurant, decednt sized pool and pool bar and an internet suite, gymnasium and shop. The rooms are also okay but the facilities don't really hit the mark for anyone wanting to do a bit of real self-catering.

Beach Huts

The "village" is layed out in separate, three-story blocks and we got a standard, one-bedroom suite, which was actually quite roomy. However, what's billed as a kitchenette is a fitted module that looks like it came from MFI. It's got a sink with no drainer, a fridge, a kettle and some basic utensils. If you want cooking rings or pots and pans, then you have to ask for them and they give you a little portable duel ring unit that takes up even more space beside the sink. Not ideal if you're taking a family.

The Star Beach Water Park is between you and the sea so there may be a noise problem in high season. It didn't bother us at all when we were there but I noticed a few mentions of this online and you could hear a bit of beat from the music occasionally. If anything the place is a bit of a bonus if you have kids and entry is free.

Eating Out

There are loads of restaurants and tavernas to choose from in Hersonissos. There are a few along the main street but most are down on the harbourside street and you can choose from Chinese, Indian, Italian and Mediterranean as well as the more traditional Greek cuisines. There are even a couple of burger/gyros bars if all you want is some fast food.

We tried the Lee Garden Chinese restaurant a couple of times as the food was reasonably good and the staff were friendly. It was also about halfway along the walk into town so it was an easier option one night after a bit of a trek in the hills.

Stormy Seas

Closer to Star Beach were the Taverna Tarantella and Theodora's Garden. The Tarantella is a family run Greek restaurant and, while the staff are friendly and food reasonable, it's a bit on the basic side as far as the ambiance goes. Theodora's Garden is another good Greek restaurant but is much more popular so usually a lot busier.

The local Indian restaurant is Passage To India just across from the church on the main street. The food was okay but nothing impressive by Scottish curry standards and the service wasn't all that great either. I overheard the manager saying that they had a place in Malia as well and if it's the same one we tried when we were there, then it explains why the food here was so mediocre. There's another Chinese restaurant, who's menu looked good enough, beside it but we didn't try it.

As for the rest, there are a few Italian restaurants down near the harbour but neither are that great. They're okay but nothing to queue up for. As for the steak houses, both the Manos and Gourmet are pretty good and we ate in these a few times. We didn't try this but, if you're looking for something just a bit more refined, then Kymata down by the harbour might suit. The menu just looked a bit too nouvelle cuisine (poncy) for the likes of us so we gave it a miss.

Entertainment

Hersonissos is an extremely busy town, well it is once May gets under way and the holidaymakers start arriving on masse, so there are a large number of tavernas, bars, Irish bars and clubs for those looking for some entertainment. However, since it was early in the season, we found a lot of them were a bit on the quiet side.

The Irish bars were mostly empty and the New York bar wasn't much busier, mostly because of the dreadful music it was playing. Music bars Tiger and Status were still a bit quiet but got busier as the night went one and I imagine they'd be pretty lively later in the season. We ended up spending more than a few nights in the U2 Rock Bar as it played some decent heavy rock and metal music, which is more to my taste if not Lorna's.

All in all, there are loads of pubs, bars, clubs and discos to choose from so there's bound to be something for everyone here. Luckily, Hersonissos has a wide variety of visitors so you'll get lots of French, German and Dutch tourists as well as us Brits there so it's not quite as much of an English Hell as Malia has turned into (more on this later).

Rail Travel - SNAFU

The train situation gets more confusing. First ScotRail are saying…

Services between Glasgow Central and Ayrshire/Inverclyde are gradually returning to normal from 0700.

and

A bus shuttle remains in operation between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street.

Sorry but I can't see what's "normal" about that and yet again, we have no rail service today. What's even more annoying is the fact that they are running rail services along our line as one of my work colleagues came in on an Ayr train yesterday and it stopped at Cardonald.

Network Rail Are Full Of Wind!

Yet again, we have no rail service today but this time they're blaming the weather…

Train services on all routes across Scotland are subject to disruption during the morning of Wednesday 9 January due to high winds and poor weather conditions.
The following lines are currently suspended and customers are advised not to travel or to make alternative arrangements. Replacement transport will not be provided on any of these routes:
- Between Glasgow Central and Ardrossan Harbour / Largs.
- Between Glasgow Central and Wemyss Bay / Gourock.
- Between Balloch and Renton.

Okay, it's a bit windy out but I've never heard of them stopping the trains because of wind or a bit of rain before now. I remember being in a train travelling to Helensburgh where a combination of high wind and tide had the waves breaking over Craigendoran Harbour and hitting the train windows. Yet, the trains ran on without any bother.

So they won't be running trains between Glasgow and Paisley for yet another day! How very convenient of another excuse to surface and give them yet more time to finish off the engineering work they started on the 27^th of December. If you ask me, they're full of it - wind that is or am I thinking about bullsh1t!

Happy New Year From Fort William

We woke up on New Year's Day in Fort William to yet another fairly grey and damp outlook but, undeterred and after a decent breakfast, we drove round to the Nevis Range ski resort to take the gondola up Aonach Mor for a bit of a cobweb-breaking wander around the mountain and then lunch in the Snowgoose Restaurant.

Loch Linnhe On New Year's Day

The gondola cable car system transports visitors over 2.3km up to 2,150ft on the north face of Aonach Mor, the eighth highest mountain in Britain, in about 12 - 15 minutes. That's only just over half-way to the summit but you can get some pretty good views of the surrounding landscape on the way up.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and the cloud was swirling around up there along with a little light drizzle. Not exactly brilliant weather for a stroll. There are a couple of shortish strolls from the gondola top station out to some viewpoints. You can go west to the little hummock of Meall Beag, where you can get some good views of Carn Dearg Meadhonach and Carn Mòr Dearg on the back side of Ben Nevis. These two peaks form the lead in to the Carn Mòr Dearg Arrete route to the top of our highest mountain.

Carn Dearg Meadhonach from Meall Beag

We climbed the Ben by the Carn Mòr Dearg Arrete route some years ago and it's well worth the effort as the views out over the Aonachs and Grey Corries are excellent and you don't need to trudge up that boring tourist path. On top of that is the perceived danger of walking along the arrete itself and then the stiff climb up a boulder field to the summit. The other walk on Aonach Mor takes you north out to the little top of Sgurr Finnisg-aig where there are some good views out over Corpach and the Great Glen, weather permitting.

Feeling a bit damp and cold after both walks, we headed back to the Snowgoose for a bowl of hot soup and a roll to warm us up. It's a bit like a motorway café half-way up a mountain but the food is definitely better. They do a good range of hot and cold meals, catering for tourists, walkers and skiers alike. A cup of steaming hot tea and a cake to follow and we were ready to head back down to civilization.

Eating Out

We'd spotted a little restaurant in Cameron Square, called simply -No4-, the night before and after a shuftie at the menu, we'd booked a table for our New Year's evening meal. Situated just off Fort William's High Street, -N^o4- is a quiet little place with a touch of old fashioned colonial style, from the prints of India around the walls and the fact that the waiting staff were all pretty obviously from around there too.

However, you won't find any curry dishes here as the food is most definitely focused on local Scottish produce such as salmon, venison and lamb. Lorna had a Caesar Salad and I had more soup to start and then we tucked into a Chicken Forestiere and a Braised Lamb Shank on crushed potato with a rich port sauce and a fairly decent serving of fresh vegetables on the side. I was pretty stuffed by the time we'd scoffed that lot but Lorna finished of her meal with what looked like a very tasty Sticky Toffee Pudding.

If you fancy a bit of civilized dining with good food and service, then you might well find it worth trying. Strangely, or maybe not after the night before, most of the bars were closed so we headed back for an early night.

No Trains Today Again!

It'll have to be the bus for us again today…

Services for Wemyss Bay/Gourock are starting/terminating at Paisley Gilmour Street.
This reduced level of service is expected to continue throughout today Tuesday 8 January.

I wonder how long this will continue for and it's bound to cost ScotRail passengers as people find alternative methods of transport.

We Hates Network Rail!

We're still having to use the bus to get in and out of work as the idiots at Network Rail still haven't finished the two-day work programme they started on the 27^th of December last year. While all the media focus has been about the fiasco on the west coast main line, we're still without a train service between Glasgow and Paisley on the Wemyss Bay/Gourock line, which must count for thousands of commuters every day.

This is all the information available today…

There is currently no estimate for a normal train service to resume between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street. Services between Glasgow Central and Paisley Canal are expected to remain suspended throughout Monday 7 January.

How on earth can someone estimate the work at two days and then still not be finished after 12 days! We definitely hates Network Rail!

Hogmanay in Fort William

Faced with a dismal menu of TV programmes over the New Year break, not having tickets for the Glasgow Hogmanay celebrations and the weather across the central belt looking very bleak indeed, we headed north to Fort William and potentially better weather, maybe even some of the white stuff. Setting off just after lunch, we arrived at about half past three, just as the sun was starting to go down.

Loch Linnhe Sunset On Hogmanay

Accommodation

As usual we left it to the last minute to decide on going. That and the fact that our wireless router had given up the ghost left us with very little choice of accommodation and not much in the way of a means to locate more options.

Anyway, Lorna ploughed though her pile of old business cards and tourist information brochures and called one we'd stayed at some years before, Blythdale, and which we'd remembered as being okay with some pretty good views out over Loch Linnhe, but they didn't have any room and suggested we try their neighbour at Balcarres. Luckily they had a room but, being the New Year and with them touting the fact that they had a four-star rating from the Scottish Tourist Agency, it wasn't that cheap but we took it anyway.

Unfortunately we couldn't really recommend Balcarres to anyone planning on staying in Fort William. Their web site makes it look not too bad and the owner was pleasant enough but the accommodation is definitely in need of a bit of renovation. The decor looked like it was last done in the 1980s, there were damp patches in one corner of the room, the bathroom radiator didn't work at all, there were mould stains round the shower and the TV was so old, the remote didn't work very well at all.

I've no idea when they got their four-star rating but it's in serious need of re-evaluation. We've stayed in two-star B&Bs with better facilities, etc. We even had to ask for fresh towels on the second day. These comments have been passed on to the tourist agency.

Eating Out

We booked a table at the Highland Star Chinese restaurant on High Street as we'd eaten there before a few times and it had always been pretty good. It was quieter than we'd expected but that could have been because of the time of year. It's usually packed during the main summer season.

Still, the food was good as usual and the service quick and friendly. The menu is pretty straightforward Chinese fair with nothing extraordinary on offer but it's always been good in the past and it's happily free of MSG as I usually get a pretty severe headache next day after eating anything tainted by it. If you fancy a Chinese meal in Fort William, then I'd recommend it.

The Entertainment

So, well fed and looking for some entertainment to see us through the bells, we wandered down High Street to see what was on offer. We already knew that there was a Hogmanay Ceilidh on at the Nevis Centre but it was ticket only and was predicted to be a sell out as it had been the previous couple of years. If we'd known we were going to Fort William earlier in the year, then we might have tried to get tickets. However, there were quite a few lads wandering around town in formal Highland Dress, obviously heading for the Ceilidh so it may well have been too posh for the likes of us.

With quite a few of the local bars staying open over the bells, we opted for the Ben Nevis Bar. It certainly seemed the liveliest and we've spent a few good nights in there before with some good live music acts as well. This time it was a disco and I know that sounds bad, almost as bad as karaoke, but it was actually quite a good night. I think we called it a night about one thirty and trudged wearily, or was was that wobbily, back to our bed.

ScotRail Strike Again!

We wanted to go into town last night to see my son's band Room 13 play a gig but when I checked the times of the trains online, I was shocked to discover that we'd been stuffed yet again by ScotRail. There was no service at all on our line on either the 27^th or 28^th due to track improvements and maintenance taking place between Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street.

It's the Christmas and New Year break and just when you'd prefer to use public transport rather than drive but ScotRail, as ever, have little consideration for us lowly passengers. Fair enough, there's no train service on Christmas day and Boxing Day but when that drags onto the 28^th, it's too much.

What's worse is that they don't even consider this a disruption of service. At least not if you've subscribed to their JourneyCheck service, which is supposed to alert you by e-mail if there are any problems with your selected routes and times. It's useful for checking if there are going to be problems getting into work but all I got today was "There are no disruptions reported at this time affecting services between your selected stations."

Bah! Humbug!

My Aching Feet!

My feet are sore! Why are my feet sore? Well I've just spent the entire train journey from Dundee to Glasgow standing due to several factors. The main one is obvious - there were no seats available but there are several reasons as to why there were no seats available and the blame for it falls squarely at the door of ScotRail. Anyway, here's the list…

1. ScotRail cancelled the previous train - no reason was given.
2. Rush were kicking off their UK and European tour with a concert at the SECC.
3. Celtic were playing A.C. Milan at Parkhead.

So, aside from the tedium of having to spend an hour more than I wanted to in Dundee, I had to stand all the way home in a train absolutely full to bursting and all simply because ScotRail don't have any consideration for their customers. Having cancelled the early afternoon train, you might think it would dawn on whatever imbecile responsible for provisioning the next train that it couldn't possibly carry the expected volume of passengers heading into Glasgow with two such large events taking place later that evening.

It obviously suited their pockets better to cram us all in like cattle, or at least those of us that could get on, and with no regard to health and safety far less our comfort. People trying to board the train at Stirling had a very difficult time of it and I'm sure there were quite a few that didn't manage it, especially a couple of dejected looking souls with bicycles.

So I had to stand in the aisle and listen to groups of forty and fifty-something blokes waffling on about how many times they'd seen Rush or how they hope they play "Closer To The Heart"...again, while constantly checking their Blackberrys and passing round the bottles of Corona and Peroni. On top of that there were the Celtic fans who were pretty well behaved, even though the bottles and cans of beer were being downed with gusto there too. And all that beer meant a constant stream of people trying to squeeze down the aisle to the toilet and back again.

There's an interesting article on overcrowding here and it's obvious from that that overcrowding on trains is seen as just one of those things we have to put up with. Until there's an accident or the train has to be evacuated and then the HSE can step in but isn't that too late?

Free, Printable Subway Maps

If you travel around a fair bit or just like taking city breaks, then I'm sure you'd find taking a printed map of the local underground and/or rail system with you a pretty useful and time saving thing to do.


Travel site Amadeus.net has put together a useful page full of printable subway maps from all over the world. All major U.S. and European cities are covered as well as those in Africa, Asia & Middle-East and Australia. Even Glasgow's own wee Clockwork Orange is included.

If you want something even more portable and have an iPod or iPhone, then take a look at iSubwayMaps.com, which provides downloadable subway map images. Most of the maps are compatible with the iPod Photo but there are some for the iPod Video and Nano models too.

The range of city maps is smaller here though but the author is working on more detailed and PDF versions of these for the iPhone.