July 21 Souda, Crete

 July 21, Thursday- Souda, Crete, Greece

We arrived in Souda this morning. This is a significant city on Crete. The harbor is well protected from bad weather. Our weather was perfect but a bit hot. We docked near a Greek naval facility where we saw a dry dock with a vessel in it, an active duty vessel and a submarine. The old city was a distance away and too far to walk to. Buses were provided to get us into the city center for 3.4 euros round trip. We purchased our tickets and boarded the bus. 

It was a short ride in the crowded bus to the city center. Alice and I followed the crowd. This took us right into the old city.   We again chose not to take a ship’s tour. Maps weren’t readily available so we just walked and did some window/street shopping. It was quite crowded on the narrow street. At last the crowd spread out as the street widened. Water was to our left and a cross street followed the edge there. It passed many restaurants and shops. We kept on ahead toward a break wall. 

On the way we stepped into a building being used for an art exhibit. There were paintings made from photographs that the artist had taken of scenes staged to represent a verse of poetry or a scripture quote. We learned this from talking with the artist. He was just sitting there waiting for people to approach him. Nobody was other than us. We had a nice chat and marveled at his originality and the quality of his work. 

The gallery 

The artist

We left him and continued on. We were getting closer to the water inside the breakwater. This was the former Venetian harbor. It was now a nice marina with a lot of sailboats. 

Walking along we discovered a pathway to a building that housed an information center. We seemed to be the only ones to have wandered back there. The lonely clerk was all too happy to give us a map and explain where we were. We were in the old Venetian boat repair shop. 

Our goal was to find the marketplace before we returned to city center and the shuttle back to Oosterdam. We went out and admired some of the boats. Then, using our newly acquired map we plotted our way to the marketplace. This took us through some neighborhoods. It was interesting to get away from the tourist areas and learn how local people lived. Suddenly we spotted an archeological dig across the street. This was the site of a Venetian bath. Much had been done but a lot more work was needed. How neat. 

Not far from the dig we found a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church. The int interior was exquisite. 

Forging on we went twisting and turning until there it was. We had been expecting an active market. What we found was a large historic ruin of a marketplace. What a disappointment. We love to stroll through markets and watch the trading. This marketplace will be beautiful when the restoration is complete. 

We returned to the shuttle drop off and boarded a bus back to the terminal. There were many Italians from an MSC ship docked next to us. We entered the rear door with them. When we got to the terminal the driver pulled up to the MSC and everyone but us got off. Oosterdam was the next pier over and quite a distance away. The driver explained that this was his only stop and we should have looked at the sign in the front window. We looked sad and maybe old. He took pity and agreed to take us to Oosterdam. We no sooner started than another “old” couple waved him down. He let them board and soon we were home.

We had company as we departed. Odyssey of the Seas is beautiful and much bigger than Oosterdam, but we are more Elegant. 

We did have a good day in Souda. This was our first visit to Crete.