Souda

We docked at Souda on the island of Crete. Located pretty much in the middle of Asia, Europe and Africa, Crete became a very important island that the forces from all sides wanted to have control of. During the 2nd World War, Crete was the site of a battle involving mainly British, New Zealand and Australian allied forces who were attacked by German airborne forces (paratroopers). Many lives were lost - we visited a well maintained war cemetery with around 100 Australian soldiers and around 400 New Zealand soldiers ( the largest section being British)

Our tour then took us to an old monastery / Greek Orthodox church, once again in a well maintained setting. The church was very ornate featuring a lot of gold. From there we went to a monument of someone or others tomb, but this was mainly for the view over Chania (pronounced with a silent c), a pretty village on the harbour, often referred to the Venice of Crete.

We spent some free time in Chania which was nice along the harbourfront but the ever present shops contain pretty much the same assortment of souvenirs - just a different name on the front of their fridge magnets / t-shirts / mugs etc. Anyway, it was quite an interesting day trip to Crete and I learnt some history about a place I really did not know anything about before.Read more