Chania; Saturday, 25 July, 2020

I’d stayed overnight at an airport hotel, which meant I only had to get up at 4:30 rather than 3:30. With light barely visible in the sky I checked out of the hotel and made my way over to Terminal 5 for my first flight in over four months. Whilst things were a bit different – everyone wearing facemasks being the most visible – the process through the airport was pretty smooth, and the reserve boarding (by rows from the back of the plane forward), did appear to be quite a bit faster than the regular boarding by group that BA used to operate.

An uneventful flight later and we landed in Chania around 30 minutes early. It was a quick journey through the airport with bags coming round pretty soon after getting to the baggage hall, in fact the combination of an early landing and a quick journey through meant that I beat my taxi driver to arrivals – he was still wandering up from the parking area when I got through and I met him part way across the arrivals hall.

The taxi dropped my off outside the hotel and, despite being quite early, I was able to check in and drop my stuff off before heading out into town for a wander.

I headed down into the pedestrianised streets of the old town – in part to track down the location of the tour office where my booked tour on Monday morning would leave from – and also just to take in the narrow lanes and sights of the old town, including the large chunks of Byzantine wall that still remain over parts of the city.

I eventually found myself down in the harbour and stopped at one of the cafes for a late lunch and to take in the views. After a very relaxing lunch I continued wandering around the harbour side before a bit more of a walk through the old town, before heading back to the hotel.

After freshening up in the hotel I headed down towards the beach – there is a small sandy beach located to the east of the headland that the Venetian fortresses are located on. I had a paddle in the beautifully warm water and took quite a few photos of the setting sun before heading back up to street level and deciding at random on one of the many sea-front restaurants that were open for dinner.

A very nice Souvlaki later I wandered back up to the centre of town to my hotel and a well deserved early night.