Reythemno

My ferry to Santorini was cancelled due to bad weather.  Fortunately there was a bus station nearby, and there I was able to hop a coach over to Reythemno (still on the North coast of Crete). Reythemno is the third largest town on Crete with a population of 25,000 people, several of whom do not own motor scooters.  It is also a big German tourist destination, and I am frequently addressed by the local Greeks in that language.  To be fair I try to play up the German thing, particularly by swearing auf Deutsch whenever possible.  No need for Americans to get a rap as foul-mouthed travellers. For a tourist-trap beach town, Reythemno is actually pretty nice.  The old Venetian quarter is a maze of tiny alleys with row houses that I would call picturesque, if I had actually taken pictures of any. What I did take pictures of

I didn't even notice this rooftop garden until the tourists in front of me stopped to take a picture.  As always, pictures can't do justice to how beautiful this really was, but hopefully this gives the idea.

I've never seen a cactus do this before.   I had no idea that cacti even *could* do this.

Note that the entire staircase, particularly the spiral on the second floor, is made of cement and completely unsupported.  I saw this type of construction in several places and I've got to wonder:  is there a steel frame in there?  How often do these stairs fail?  Do Greeks even play upright pianos, much less move them up to the upper stories of their houses?

You're going to have to trust me that this was a beautiful and inspiring iron sculpture.  It completely defied my attempts to photograph it, as you can see.

Umm, okay.

Marble is the preferred veneer throughout much of Crete.  Even so, this marble spiral staircase (attached to a tiny apartment house) looked a little out of place even for here.  In the U.S. you would only find it in a museum or bank.

There are many seemingly abandoned storefronts/houses in Reythemno.  As you can see from this one, some have been abandoned for decades.  It really is amazing how much empty space there is for an obviously thriving city.  One can only imagine that the cost of remodeling and the local building codes keep these spaces empty.

One last picture, added to assuage some complaints that I don't show what a city actually looks like.  Any random street in Reythemno (the downtown, at least) looks a lot like this.  Some streets are smaller, some are bigger.  None have sidewalks to speak of, and all are full of traffic.  They are, to use a travel guide cliche, bustling. Me, I just like the roof gardens.

Also, there was a fairly cool fort.