I’m going to try to start doing a daily blog again as we begin to cycle in areas less commonly traveled by cycle tourists (e.g. India) in order to share our experiences with other cycle tourists and our friends/family back home. I will give this a try in Crete and see how it goes.
Date: 2017-10-03
Start: Heraklion
End: Agios Nikolaus
Distance (km): 69
Climbing (m): 700
Route description: A90 / E090
Road condition & traffic: Car traffic near Heraklion was moderate. Pedestrian traffic was heavy along some parts of the north coast. Once we left the coast, the A90 had a nice shoulder, and the E090 was really pleasant low-traffic cycling through small towns. Roads were overall well paved with some small areas of potholes, patches, and heaves.
Weather: Very windy (mostly tail/side winds), mostly cloudy, 21C
Stops: breakfast in Heraklion at a nondescript waterfront touristy place for breakfast
Accomodation: Ikarus Hotel 29€
Notes: After nearly 2 weeks off the loaded bikes (we’ve been having a mini-vacation island-hopping in Greece), we finally began a 10-day tour of Crete. It felt great to be on the bikes again and also away from the over-touristy islands. We enjoyed Paros and Naxos, but Santorini and Mykonos we can only take in small doses. We found Heraklion to be a bit of a dull, gritty port city, and the north coast (east of Heraklion) to have many sections of super-touristy stretches by the beach, but we arrived at the lagoon in Agios Nikolaus, it instantly felt comfortable. Apparently it used to be a party town for the Brits, but it’s since become more sedate. We saw a cruise ship in port and heard a club playing music later that evening, but otherwise, it was pretty tame and quiet. We checked out a hotel with a straight-on ocean view first, but he quoted us 55€ despite it being listed for 30€ online, so I told him we’d rather go elsewhere. We ended up at Ikarus Hotel, where the kind front desk manager said the price online was right, 29€ for a double, and said it was no problem to bring the bikes up to the balcony in our room (just watch the walls!). The beach was just blocks from the hotel, not too busy this time of year, but we had a beer and relaxed before dinner. We thought about staying another night, but we were looking forward to riding more and getting even further away from tourists, so we left the next morning.