Crete in Winter: Enjoying a snowy day - Anogeia, Rethymno

in Pinmapple2 years ago

I live in Crete island, in Greece.

For you who may not know it, Crete is not only the largest island of Greece, but as per the Greek mythology, it is the birth place of Greek God, Zeus, the father of human & gods. Zeus is believed to have had secretly paired with the beautiful Europe (a nymph), who gave her name to the European continent.

But lets travel back to the present. For now.

Crete is known for its dreamy beaches. You can find both sandy ones and also wild ones with impressive stone formations. There are many visitors from around the world who usually come between the months of March/April to October/November

During the winter, the island is more quiet. Life goes on normally, and there is still much to do. It does not rain so much on our island. It also does not snow so much. Only in specific regions, that are usually in a higher altitude (than the one I live in)

So today, we decided to leave our haven and ... go over to the Mountains! To see, feel and sense .. the SNOWY MOUNTAINS!!

The only place where snow was abundant was Rethymno municipality, so we visited Anogeia village and went higher to the Ideon Antron. (location details at the end of this post)

This was what we witnessed...

451B5A89-A464-4FFD-A55B-B322FAED3B82.jpeg

And this is how it all started

The sun was well shining above us.
Sunday today. So, what else to do, than go for a road trip?

70DC987E-3F79-4A1C-AF6D-4AAB2008FEE1.jpeg

With so much sun, we figured that the snow cannot last for long...
So off we went!

The scenery changed the moment we exited the Heraklion Municipality.
Higher and rockier mountains...

65E63EE8-0BCD-4715-B2CC-4EBB2AF059B3.jpeg

When you see this street art, you know that you are at the right direction.
This depicts Nikos Xylouris, one of the most famous Cretan singers, known all around the world.

On the graffiti, a poem by Yiannis Ritsos, well known song of Xylouris..

"Because my brother
We do not sing to be apart from the world
We sing to bring the people together" ..

"Γιατί εμείς δεν τραγουδάμε για να ξεχωρίσουμε απ τον κόσμο
Εμείς τραγουδάμε για να σμίξουμε τον κόσμο.."

B98E4970-9BE6-4198-A9EE-CDCFEBC23447.jpeg

After meeting a few beautiful villages, Gonies & Sisarcha, we start to see the snowy fields around us..
What a view!

4824F472-2CD7-4826-8CD6-8682ECD729F9.jpeg

We just cant have enough ...

366D0432-791D-4F1F-A428-C5373DDEBB75.jpeg

The road goes up and up and up

Much much traffic but the end was worth it all

0C159D50-2086-4EAF-92A0-1D0384769743.jpeg

White snow resting on the Cretan fields

0B856082-0126-41A2-AC02-C1DF093D9BF8.jpeg

Wherever your eye goes, it rests fully ...

F79CAFC3-4AFB-4F0A-B596-82B48A58F3F4.jpeg

This is what winter looks like..
So I guess we need to come here more often...

——-

I tried to get some macro shoots but to be honest, I preferred to watch the scenery and play some snow games :) Fell sometimes too :) haha

6958649A-46E0-495F-8B24-8D962BD180F4.jpeg

Opposite us, the White Mountains.......

E9A978C4-0161-4394-ACC4-25ECED85F999.jpeg

And some more snowy corners

63BB03A8-A367-4393-8C85-7A3CE3817737.jpeg

As I was told, the snow was not too much, but for this time, it was enough .. my shoes and dressing was not so appropriate

B3ADBA31-0038-49D6-BF28-945DDCDFD724.jpeg

At some point we were hungry, we had to leave.
This was our view on our way home

FD1166FB-7AFB-4ED1-98B8-CE399669AED6.jpeg

AF7FAC6D-A244-4FBA-99DB-244CC7F936C0.jpeg

And this view was right after the snow did not longer appear

I was seeing goats on these rocky places .. Unfortunately they are not visible here but .. I saw them with my eyes (if you notice a white thing on a tree, almost in the middle of the photo, you ll see one of them!)

F7FCCBA5-2C59-4B46-821F-B39720B0C847.jpeg

——

This was it!
A beautiful day that came to an end ...

699CA9BD-A28F-46E2-AFE3-E427D62815F3.jpeg

We came back to our ocean and this is what I would like to tell you!

  • Make sure you have appropriate shoes, gloves and jackets with you
  • Make sure you have plenty of patience if you visit on Sundays or bank days, because all Cretans visit too.. there were too many cars, and too much waiting time both on the way up and the way down
  • Make sure you have something to eat, this way you can stay longer
  • Take some extra socks, in case your own socks get wet from the snow

Location - way to Ideon Andron, Anogeia, Rethymno - CRETE - GR
[//]:# (!pinmapple 35.271778 lat 24.885801 long d3scr)
All images shot on 26/12/2021 with an iPhone
Photographer: @katerinaramm
If you wish to use any of my images please ask me
https://www.instagram.com/katycrete/

Sort:  

Great landscaped. We have so much rain in here... I wish there was snow instead, I love snow.

Thanks so much! We had to drive for 2 hours to get there (1 hour + 1 due to the too much traffic) but it was totally worth it!

Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1425.

Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!

Become part of our travel community:

Very honored to be included, thank you!

It's a very beautiful natural portrait, my friend.

Very very beautiful!

To be honest, I cannot associate Greece, and, in particular Crete with ❄️. That's why your pictures are quite unusual for me. Have fun and enjoy the snowy weather.

Yes, I understand (me neither 😂)
Snow is only located where high altitude is. There are also some SKI races that take place every year. Not many ppl know it… We are mostly known for our “sun and ocean”!
Thanks for dropping by! !BEER


Hey @cryptospa, here is a little bit of BEER from @katerinaramm for you. Enjoy it!

Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your BEER.

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!


The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.

Congratulations @katerinaramm! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the week.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Christmas Challenge - 1000 Hive Power Delegation Winner
Merry Christmas - Challenge Feedback - Win a 1000 HP delegation
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!

What a beautiful day outdoors!
I love to play with the snow as well 😂