The good ship “Westerdam”, one of the largest cruise ships in the world arrived at Heraklion’s long-harbour-walled port for the day, on 28 October. The day was also a major national holiday, the “Ochhi” day, commemorating that day in history when Greece said NO to Mussolini.
The Westerdam at 286 metres length, sporting up to 1800 passengers papmpered by a crew of over 800 puts the luxury cruise into port in Crete.
Many American and Dutch visitors took a sprint out to the most famous of archaeological sites – Knossos. A quick view of Heraklion’s bustle and perhaps a cafe or shopping visit was all that could be accomplished – the ship arrived in the morning and left the same day. Cruising on my friends!
Three other cruise ships, smaller but not without their own glamor, also displaced harbour volume.
You see October is cruise season for Crete. Much to the delight of taxi drivers and local guides and hopefully even more delightful for our visiting guests.
Lucky weather. Crete has had a good stretch of mild, actually somewhat warm October weather….more than two weeks of days reaching 26-28 degrees (this is a truly large island, so temperatures can vary quite a bit from North to south, east to west).
In case you feel like delving into a bit ot weather history and current temperatures in Crete – key in the following: http://www.cretetravel.com/weather
For a look at Heraklion and its central and peripheral delights see http://www.cretetravel.com/Heraklion
A warm November is predicted by the weather guys…yes please!
