{"id":861,"date":"2015-10-30T23:12:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T23:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=861"},"modified":"2015-11-01T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T09:29:55","slug":"friday-souda-bay-chania-crete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/friday-souda-bay-chania-crete\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday &#8211; Souda Bay, Chania, Crete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we arrived in Souda Bay, on the Northern Coast of Crete, a mere shuttle bus ride away from Chania, Crete&#8217;s second largest city after Heraklion.<\/p>\n<p>We were on tour again; thankfully our earlier time-keeping error had apparently been forgiven and we were still on the escort payroll.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_01.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-862\" src=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_01.jpg\" alt=\"2015-10-30_chania_01\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_01.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_01-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_021.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-864\" src=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_021.jpg\" alt=\"2015-10-30_chania_02\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_021.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_021-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first hour of our five-hour excursion took us to a monastery, which was quite interesting if only for its unusual architectural features and extensive wine cellar.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The next stop was a viewpoint next to the tomb of some important person, overlooking the city of Chania, where we spent about half an hour before descending into the city itself. Our enthusiastic guide led us through the central market area, past the cathedral and, finally, to the old city harbour, which was notable for its lack of any boats. After this, we were given an hour&#8217;s free time, most of which Tracey and I sat and enjoyed a drink in a bar by the old moorish harbour, and made use of the free wi-fi.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-10-30_chania_05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"469\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chania was a pleasant enough city. We enjoyed a meander through the central market, which, when viewed on the map, appears as a large cross as we made our way back to the coach at the appointed meeting time.<\/p>\n<p>All-aboard time was 1:30pm, and we were away a few minutes earlier than our planned time of 2pm, as we set sail for Malta, where we are due to arrive in two days time.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight, it was a formal night. I have to confess that I&#8217;m generally not a huge fan of formal nights &#8211; dress shirts and bow ties don&#8217;t really agree with me &#8211; but on the Minerva, there&#8217;s simply no ducking out of it &#8211; formal wear is even expected in the, normally informal, Verandah Restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>However; this is the Minerva, where everything is done in style. The meal was excellent, and the company agreeable; to top it all, the wine was on the house (hic). At the end of the evening, the chef paraded his staff through the ship to a rapturous applause. I could learn to like formal nights, I suppose&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we arrived in Souda Bay, on the Northern Coast of Crete, a mere shuttle bus ride away from Chania, Crete&#8217;s second largest city after Heraklion. We were on tour again; thankfully our earlier time-keeping error had apparently been forgiven and we were still on the escort payroll. The first hour of our five-hour excursion took us to a monastery,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}