The famous 1 kilometre long Heraklion Saturday market (“laiki”) so popular with visitors, has moved to an obscure (for visitors) neighbourhood.

A standard visitors’ destination in Crete\’s main city, the Saturday morning market presented endless arrays of fruit and vegetable stalls, punctuated for flavour by the occasional vendor of local honey, cheeses, nuts and pulses. The stretch of this offering cheap t-shirts and jeans was also a popular bargain-gathering place.

The result though a big loss in the local feel of having a market so close to the centre of the city and the regular metting ground for locals and stallholders alike is a tidier waterfront area by the port. The road has also been resurfaced, pavements paved and planted with trees.
This is all part of the ongoing improvement of Heraklion’s waterfront.

But many will miss the hustle and bustle of the market…getting the weeks fresh produce so easily, from the growers themselves, the social occasion of it all and the inevitable meting with friends or family for coffee afterwards.

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!

Kenourgia Porta (also known as “Jesus Gate”) is at the start of Evans Street as it enters the city of Heraklion.
A part of the “gate” will house, later this year, an exhibition relevant to Nikos Katzanzakis during the period of 1883 until 1957.

The gate structure and interior – previously used for storage (!) – is being readied for this exhibition during October to hold onto this exhibit rather than it having to be returned to Athens.

During the Olympics and the whole summer Chania and Heraklion have a variety of arts events.
Singled out amongsts many:
Heraklion – Pix Lax (popular and enjoyable even for non-Greek speakers) perform songs on 15 September at the Nikos Katzanzakis Theatre
Chania – dance contest and classic dance and ballet performance on Monday 9 August

More information :
HERAKLION: http://www.heraklion.gr/English/index-en.htm (but be Warned, clicking on “Programme” entails a long, slow, PDF download!)
CHANIA: http://www.chania.gr/events.jsp?lang=en

The fountain on Lion Square opposite Daedalos Street on 25th August in Heraklion, Crete – is once more spouting water from the lions’ mouths.

The whole fountain has been cleaned and this well known meeting place and cafe center, home of the essential Bougatsa pie, is now so much more pleasant.

On giant video walls in Heraklion’s Pan Cretan stadium, in Heraklion’s Eleftherias Square, in Chania, Ierapetra, Xerokambos, Loutro and all villages in Crete crowded cafes, bars and tavernas, the CreteTravel.com monitoring room – a massive cry of celebration as Greece, against all the odds wins the Euro 2004 football championship.

Every car seems to display the famous blue and white flag of Hellas, Greece.

The round-the-world journey of the Olympic torch comes to Crete on July 9.
Heraklion, where the journey will start across Crete, will keep the “Laiki” street fruit and vegetable markets closed, on the 9th and the 10th.
Especially noticeable will be the Saturday market’s absence on Saturday July 10. The market is a major weekly shopping source of fresh produce for Heraklion’s residents and those from surrounding areas.
A stretch of 1 kilometre on the road by Heraklion’s port is normally covered by endless stalls of fruit and vegetables, cheap clothing and knock-off t-shirts; it is a major tourist attraction!
But no doubt the chance to see the progress of the Olympic torch “the flame” on clean streets unsullied by the excess of the market\’s produce – and to provide clear passage for this historic journey will be welcomed and also provide a much more significant, most memorable spectacle.