Hidden treasures of Crete

I arrived in Crete without too many expectations. I really didn’t know much about this Greek island, I just knew that for some reason I’ve wanted to visit it after looking at a map of this area. Spring break provided me that chance. After getting into our rental car we realized that the Crete really isn’t all that big. Only about 40 km from the north side to the south coast. It is a lot longer east to west, but still in four days we were able to see quite a bit of this island.

My favorite ended up being one of the unexpected stops we made when we thought something looked interesting. After driving through a canyon that I had hoped to do a little hiking in (no such luck, no access to get down at all) we came to a stone arch with a sign for St. Nicolas the Kourtaliotis of Asomatos and some steps leading down. Now I’m not really sure why there are quite so many little churches on this island. I suspect that families build them for certain reasons – either as thanks, or in memory of an individual. I am sure there are more little churches then would be needed to hold the entire population of the island several times over. This is my favorite of the ones I saw though. After descending 152 steps you come to a small chapel wedged up against the face of the cliff. To the right is a continuation of the canyon wall with several small waterfalls cascading over and a steady stream flowing along at the bottom. The setting just had a way of impressing a person with how small and insignificant individuals may be in the grand scheme of things, while highlighting the grandeur of our created world. I have no idea who built this small church, but it was worth the extra work they put into it to build on this magnificent site. I will say one thing for the Cretans; they have a way of picking absolutely stunning settings for their churches, although it’s not that difficult in the rugged beauty of the island.