Crete, Greece Day 7: Rethymno to Chania

CGOAB link and map

Date: 2017-10-09
Start: Rethymno
End: Chania
Distance (km): 68
Climbing (m): 600
Route description: mostly on A90 and E090 (except cut through Vamos), beach access roads when possible
Road condition & traffic: traffic on A90 was moderate to heavy. There was a shoulder most of the way, but it was often overgrown. Traffic was generally courteous though. Traffic on beach access roads and on the ride through Vamos was very light. Near Chania, traffic was very heavy.
Weather: sunny 21-28C, light tail wind
Stops: lunch at a beach restaurant in Kalyves, sightseeing in Chania old town
Accomodation: Hotel near Chania
Notes:
It’s hard to believe, but this was our last full-day ride in Europe!! We will have a little more riding to get back to the Chania ferry port and then to the bike shop in Athens, but otherwise, we have no other cycling planned. It’s 3 full rest days, followed by an overnight ferry to Athens, and then we drop off the bikes for servicing (mostly routine maintenance).

So our tour of Europe is over! I was thinking back to the many fond memories we’ve had from our first day riding out of Lisbon with a tailwind to our mountainous trek through Spain to weeks of coastal riding in France and Italy to amazing adventures in the Balkans and Turkey.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time going over our India plan and filling in the details, figuring out specifically what things we will try to see and updating our route plan. Of course, this all could change, but I feel a lot better having a better idea of our ride than what we had before, which was basically, “yup, follow the coast from Mumbai to Kolkata”. Now we have some specific sights and activities we’d like to do along the way, and reading about them is making us excited and easing our anxiety about India.

I also spent a lot of time on the bike today thinking about destinations, just as I did on the first day of our European tour. I said then that we’d already reached our destination, being out there on the road. Every day we are where we want to be on our bicycles, and it’s not at all about what city we are planning to stop in that night or how much further we have to go. I’ll admit that sometimes that has been a difficult mental shift. It’s so easy to think in your head, “I’m riding to Zagreb today”. When I did that, I’d spend my time looking at my mileage and upcoming hills and how much time until we got there. But I began to stop myself when I was thinking that and instead say, “I’m exploring Croatia.” With just that simple mental shift, I suddenly ignored my bike computer (except for directions!), looked around more, rode more slowly, looked at passing landscapes and houses, took more photos, and said hello to more people we passed.

There are so many times in our lives where we focus some kind of destination, whether it be a job promotion, the end of the work day, saving enough money to buy a new car, getting off a plane after a flight. If you let these things consume you, then suddenly all time disappears and you lose what’s happening in the present. (Just ask Adam Sandler in the bad movie Click! LOL!)

It was a pleasant ride, nice and cool to begin, but not too cold. Stunning ocean and mountain views, and quaint little towns like Vamos. Chania was very busy by the port, and the downtown area was full of tourists and restaurant pushers and expensive hotels, so we headed west, where several beaches stretch out for miles and there are lots of options for hotels. Most hotels are giving off-season rates, so we got a great deal on a room with an ocean view and decent wifi, where I can relax and do some work, route planning, and maybe swim at the beach!