Here is my trusty Sherpa. The sea is in the background. Below is the Honda 110 Scooter that I had the first day while new brakes were being put on the Sherpa. The Sherpa is much nicer.

I had a lot more to say, so now I am back in Mirtos at the restaurant of Yiannis, good red wine, good Greek music, speaks English, cooks well, and lets me use his PC. There are more restaurants and tavernas than seem necessary, but I hear it gets mobbed here in July and August. The roads here are windy and twisty for the most part, perfect for a super motard, but I haven't seen any yet. There is a surprising number of larger bikes, TransAlps, V Stroms, and R1200's. Especially considering the island is 60 Km by 300 Km, it seems an overkill. Cars are typical small European and a lot of Chinese motorcycles in the cities. Speed limits are never greater than 90 kph, or 55 mph. The highways are not well marked with numbers, but the cities are. So I just navigate from one city to the next and only got lost twice today. Never did get to where I was headed, but I think I wound up where I was supposed to be. There was a tremendous wind coming down a canyon as I was coming home. It was the stiffest I have ever seen and I had to walk the bike across the bridge. I just had to hold on until it let off a bit, then gain 10 feet or so before it cranked up again. Gas is 1.54 euros per liter which works out to $8 per gallon. So yes, the roads are rather empty. Otto

Mirtos, population 600, is mostly a tourist town with lots of rooms for rent. Most have a small refrigerator and stove and are fully furnished. My place is about 2/3 of the way down the front street.

Party group. That's my glass of raki on the table in the lower left.

My trusty Sherpa high on the mountain slope overlooking the sea. There are a lot of these roads that head up the steep slopes with flat twisties and no center line or guard rails. You just take as much road as you need and believe me, the trucks know how much a motorcycle needs. Crete is just a large ex volcanic island with peaks up to 7000 feet located within 30 miles of the coast.

People walk a lot here, but in the street as the sidewalks have been taken over by extensions to stores and the outside part of a cafe. Or a parking spot for a scooter!

Independence Day parade in Ierapetra.

This is the town band and they marched two or three times back and forth before the crowd, then positioned themselves in front of the emcee as the children marched by in review.Seems I always wind up at the end of the road at a small town before I'm comfortable. I am in a room overlooking the bay over a closed restaurant. It's still a tourist town, but it is not in season yet. 25 euros a night and a nice lady runs it. Town's name is Mirtos, with the t as in 'the', and 16 Km west of Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete , south of Agios Nikolaos. Uneventful trip, on time to New York , then an hour and a half late takeoff for Athens , but I got lucky and was bumped up to first class. I could get used to first class real easily. Arrived in Athens around 10 am Wednesday and took a bus from the airport to the seaport to see about ferries to Crete and bought a ticket for Euro 60, then walked around that part of town and had some dinner. Boarded the ferry, a quite large one, almost cruise ship size at 6 pm and took a nap. I had a cabin with two other guys, one who spoke English. Slept so-so, lots of engine rumbling, and we got into Iraklio, Crete at 5:30 am in pouring rain. I spotted a bus for Sitia, which was in the direction I wanted to go, but it only took us to the bus station where I bought a ticket for Ierapetra for Euro 10. The rain stopped after we crossed the mountains into southern Crete . This was Thursday which is Independence Day in Greece and Ierapetra was having a parade at 10:30. Met some locals and had a coffee with them while we watched the parade, mostly school kids in the parade and one band. Also a few speeches from the local dignitaries and a large contingent of Greek Orthodox priests in their high hats and beards. Left about 2 pm for Mirtos and found the room and had a great dinner on the boardwalk of baked tomatoes stuffed with rice.
I loafed over the weekend, just soaking up the atmosphere. This is a farming community once you get away from the tourist beach area. One of the main crops is veggies grown in hot houses made of plastic. Tomatoes, peppers, some bananas. Each hothouse seems to be individually owned by a family and is less than an acre in size. Very labor intensive! The produce is gathered and brought into a broker who then loads up a truck and sends it off to Germany, Russia or another central Europe country. Water is collected up on the slopes of the mountains and piped down to the coastline where the hothouses are located. At intervals, a riser comes up from the pipe and 10 - 20- meters are connected and the water is then piped above ground to the hot houses in 2-3" black hoses.

The other main crop is the ubiquitous olive tree. They are all over the gentler slopes and are all irrigated with the same miles and miles of black hoses. Part of Greece's corruption is the falsification of how many trees one has. Either the Greek government or the EU subsidizes the farmers for their olive trees. (One woman said she received 2000 euros a year for 600 trees, while they made 6000 euros selling the oil.) But no one comes out to count the trees! How ripe can it get! The woman also stated that the subsidy was due to expire in 2013 and will add to Greece's trouble. She couldn't explain the reason for the subsidy.

Greece has met and exceeded my expectations. Still a bit cool, highs in the low 70's, but riding with just a long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. It is still what I enjoy most, just riding, stopping for coffee, talking with the locals. I did stop and several of the minoan culture spots, but they are just reconstructed piles of rock. Today, I took the back road over the pass on a rough gravel road into the plateau of Lasithi. Google that one up, if you see windmills, you have found it. The water table when I looked under one of the windmills was only three feet down. Supposedly, the whole valley floods in the winter, hence no homes or towns. Potatoes are the main crop there, so they were just getting ready to plant. I then visited a cave this afternoon and it was quite good. Enough for now. Take care, Otto