photo's Excursion ga with  top to the upper side of this table)
monastery 1	monastery 2	monastery3	monastery 4	top monastery 5
monastery 6	monastery 7	harbour 1	harbour 2	top Hotel & Neighbourhood 1
Hotel & Neighbourhood 2	Hotel & Neighbourhood 3	Hotel & Neighbourhood 4	Hotel & Neighbourhood 5	top Hotel & Neighbourhood 6
Hotel & Neighbourhood 7	Hotel & Neighbourhood 8	Hotel & Neighbourhood 9	Knossos 1	Knossos 2
Knossos 3	Knossos 4

The elderly bus.
I booked this trip at  Q-international and I did have a reduction, because I bought several excursiosn in Holland et once. Well, the excursion to the Samaria Canyon was nice, but this excursion to an old monestery and  Rethymnon was a mistake. I stept into the bus and..................did I step into the excursion bus?? Most people has passed 70, I saw only one couple in there late 30. It looked more like a trip from the elderly house. The (mostly women) started to ask questions like "Are you all alone" and "You're brave, when you dear to travel on your own"etc. I had payed for this excursion, otherwise I would have left the bus. Oke, when I had thought it over, I could expect "younger" people (below 50)  are not intrested in visiting monesteries.

The monastery
Part of the excursion was a visit at a  monastery. I forgot the name of it. The biggest part of the  monastery could not be visited, because it was still in use by the nuns. The monastery did have a lovely garden with lots of flowers. I also looked into a chapel and I noticed the big difference with mosques. Turkey is about 40 km of Crete, but a chapel doesn't look like a mosque. In a mosque you wouldn't find a holy figure, because that's not allowed. In a Greek Orthodox chirch see holy figures everywere. On the walls, on the floor, on the sealing! For me it's a bit to much, but maybe other people like it.

Knossos
Naturaly you have to visit Knossos. A famouse world archeological place! Well, for me it was a big deception. The archeolical site was nice, but the Greek did reconstruct everything with.......modern concrete. They didn't even mind to use the same style. Even a blind tourist could see the difference between the modern parts and the old parts. The guides where good, but the entrance was high and most of the buildings were modern, so I felt I waisted my money.

The "youth"-hotel
Because I went on holiday alone, I asked the travel agency to book a hotel with young people. Well it wasn't the public I expected. One lady in her mid 40 complained she didm't have a bath on her room. (She didn't book a room with a bath!) Two other guest were two sisters above 70. Although they were not young, at least they were nice people. They even had an excursion by jeep! The other guest were two brothers of about 45. The conclusion: when you book a "youth" hotel in the late season, you won't see much youth.

The hotel was nice. It had a small swimming pool and a cosy bar. My room was big and I had a great balcony. (Yes, I cleaned my room before I left the hotel) I forgot the name of the hotel.

Neighbourhood of my hotel in Mália
Mália is a nice tourist place. In the late season (midle of ktober) there're less tourists. Some restaurants are closed and you see lots of elderly people. I supose the atmosphere is different in the high season. A lot of English people visit  Mália wordt. Because of these English tourist you can get English Breakfest in most restaurants and most bars have a television with footbal on it. The English like to go to a pub, to watch television.

Nearby my  hotel there were greenhouses for  bananas. At the other side of the island there're more of these greenhouses. They told me that the greenhouses on Crete were introduced by a Dutchman.

At the end of the road, next to my hotel, was the  Minoïc palace. The round stone with a hole in it  (photo hotel & Neighbourhood 6) is an sacrifacial table ("kernos"). There were a lot of stock silo's but when you walk without a guide you only see ruins.


Cash dispensers
There were a lot of cash dispensers, but nevertheless it was hard to get some money. There were long lines and often the dispensers were out of order. I supose this is now not such a big problem anymore, thanks of the introduction of the Euro.

Waste destruction..
In the eavening, when I looked out my window, I often saw fire. But I heard nothing about fire in forests. It was not just a fire, but they just burnd the waste. They didn't use filters for it, they just burned it. I hope now Greece is part of the EG they will take more care of nature.