Some of the things we wanted to see on this holiday were in places that buses don’t regularly go to, so we decided to just rent a car and drive there ourselves. We rented a neat little Fiat Panda from a travel agency right by our hotel, and set off a little over 10 in the morning, armed with maps, snacks and GPS 🙂
First stop was an open air site at Eleftherna, where we were pretty much the only visitors. High up in the mountains and the roads there are narrow and winding, plus they don’t really put up too many signs around here, so maybe people just didn’t know about it.
The area was fenced in, but the gate wasn’t locked…
Wandering around in the overgrown ruins of ancient Eleftherna
A storage shed with stuff
Lots and lots of artifacts from the site, just sitting on the shelves…
Remnants of an old basilica
Climbed a gnarly old tree 🙂
And then we had to wait for a flock of sheep to cross the road before we could leave 😀
There is a new and fancy museum about the site, but it was closed, of course. Every Tuesday, which is not mentioned anywhere 
We stopped for lunch at a taverna across the road, which had a glorious view down the hills to the coast 🙂
Feta and bread, of course 🙂
The view!
From Eleftherna we drove to Melidoni and visited a famous cave. People lived in it thousands of years ago, but now it is just a tourist destination. The deepest parts of the cave were closed off, but we got to see the main room, with lots of amazing stalactites and stalagmites 😀
Ready for some spelunking! 😀
Going down the 80 steps from the entrance to the bottom
All lined up 🙂
After the cave we ate some ice cream before we continued on our road trip. The next stop was a reptile park that we happened to pass by on the way up to the cave, because The Girl really wanted to see some critters. When we entered, we expected to have a look at snakes and lizards in their terrariums, but instead we got a guided tour that included handling of several of the animals. The Girl was ecstatic to say the least 😀
Leopard gecko. So soft and cute 😀
A baby corn snake!
Milk snake 🙂
Ball python 😀
A boa constrictor that just wouldn’t hold still for a picture 😛
Giant snail!
A very fat leaf frog 😀 We had to be careful with this one so it didn’t get scared and pee on us…
And finally, a bearded dragon 😀
After all the snake handling we continued to the next post on our trip, the Sfendoni cave. It was bit to drive, and we only got there about ten minutes before closing and feared we wouldn’t get to see it. It’s bigger than Melidoni and has several branches, so you are not allowed to enter without a guide. Luckily there were still so many people that wanted to go in that they decided to give one last tour! It was very quick, but we did get to see all of it 😀
In the cave!
Fancy light 😀
After a very quick round of souvenir shopping we got back in the car and headed home to Rethymnon. It took just over an hour to drive back, and we delivered the car at around 19:00, one hour before closing. Almost like we planned it 😛 We went to the hotel with our things, and then we went out to dinner.
Rabbit and chicken 🙂
Only one more day before we go home! Will be good to see the other hogs on the shelf again 😀
Sharing The Hedge! 