Crete (Lasithi)

Day 2, Thursday 22 May

The second day in Lasithi ran from a hotel on the coast out onto the water, and then north up the gulf to the fortress island of Spinalonga.

Crete semi submarine

Spinalonga fort, bastion

Spinalonga Fort

Spinalonga Fort occupies an island whose shore is crowned along its top by stone fortress walls.

Boats lie moored close under the island's rocky rise, one of them flying the EU flag from its mast. Above them the round stone bastion sits full in a clear bright sky.

Passengers go ashore at a gangway beneath the slope. The bow deck they cross is rigged with ropes, bollards and a davit.

Low scrub covers the rocky headland that the sea approach passes. The water around it is clear and turquoise under a cloudless sky.

Day 3, Friday 23 May

The third day on the Lasithi coast asked little of anyone: a single stop, with tables set out on the sand.

SeaSide Cafe - beach tables

Day 4, Monday 26 May

The fourth day kept to Agios Nikolaos and the water in front of it.

Crete semi submarine

Port of Agios Nikolaos

From the water the coastline is low and rocky, and almost every usable ledge of it carries the white blocks of resort building. Behind that white line the ground rises into hills, and the sea between is the flat, lit blue of a windless morning.

A speedboat lies moored off the rocks, the only vessel on an expanse of open blue. Mountains stand well back beyond the built-up shore.

A jetty runs out from the shoreline. The sun is full on the water here.

Minos Palace

Statue of Roussos Koundouros, Ag. Nikolaos

Around it the plain business of a Cretan midday goes on.

The table is plain grey, the sort that fills a pavement in Agios Nikolaos.

Day 5, Tuesday 27 May

The last day of the journey through Lasithi stayed by the water, at the port of Agios Nikolaos.

Port of Agios Nikolaos

The port is a working harbour on open water, with quays deep enough to take a cruise ship alongside.

The cruise ship at the quay carries a pattern of blue waves along the length of her hull. Across the open water the sky was entirely clear above the berth.