Today we arrived in Chania, Crete, a delightful town with a great harbor and a old city. We are staying in the waterfront Porto Venezia Hotel. Having arrived at around noon, we asked for restaurant recommendations for lunch and dinner, and the friendly people at the front desk were happy to oblige. They helped us make a reservation at Ta Neoria restaurant for dinner, and recommended several less formal places for lunch.

By the time we unpacked and started out, exploring as we went, we ended up at the recommended Throubi restaurant for a late lunch at around 2 p.m. This, it turned out, was a meat restaurant; and we do not eat mammals. This limited the menu for us, but there were still plenty of choices. And, as usual, we ordered too much. Somehow, it took forever for the waiter to come take our order. More forever for the food to arrive. (And it was very good!) We each ordered a serving of wine (white for Dan, retsina for me), which turned out to be about a pint each; and after we finished eating, it took a while to find the waiter to ask for the check. And when we finally did–

Out came the gratis dessert. And a small but ice cold bottle of raki.

By about 5 p.m., we’d managed to finish lunch and pay the bill.

Back at the hotel, completely full from lunch, it seemed clear that our 7 p.m. reservation for dinner was too early, and we changed it to 8 p.m. We are beginning to understand why Greeks have late dinners.

We went to the excellent Ta Neoria for dinner, a seafood restaurant right on the harbor. Service was attentive, and the menu, extensive. Once again, we ordered too much food (octopus, Cretan salad, which is kind of like Greek salad, only more so–and more of it, and swordfish). We did the best we could with it, considering the huge lunch, and were considering asking for the check, when they came with the gratis dessert. All three complimentary desserts. And a complimentary bottle of raki.

Which was excellent.

Naturally, we had to drink it.

And we managed to make it back to the hotel just before 11 p.m.

In summary, then, kind readers, I pretty much have to say that today in Crete, what we did was: we had lunch and dinner. And it took all day.

And it was very, very good.