Rethymno

We took another Greek lesson , with the new batch of students, but it was the same as our first and we didn't come back for more.
We took the bus to Rethymno, about an hour East of Chania, to take a look around. On a hill by the water is the Fortezza, an ancient fortress. We climbed the hill and saw crenellated walls with shooting holes, arched doorways through twenty-foot-thick walls, towers and turrets, a domed structure that could have been a mosque or an observatory,a little church beside it, an amphitheater, stepped ramps up the hill, views far out to sea and over the city, a sunken room beside the outer wall, with eight foot stone circles in the floor and arched stone rafters, though no roof. The museum was undergoing "urgent" repairs, and the rest of the buildings were unused, so our questions went unanswered. It was a magnificent sight.
We ate at Avli, which Renee found online. We entered a courtyard of several levels, wenth through a small dining room ( Raki Baraki), past a gourmet grocery, to a stone chamber with what looked like Venetian mosaic tile baths set into the floor and covered with thick glass to walk on. the ceiling was arched stone, and there were niches in the walls to suggest that the building had once been a bathhouse. We talked briefly with the architect; the light fixtures were abstract art and there was evidence of an artists eye everywhere. He must have enjoyed putting it all together. The conglomeration of uses took up the whole block, and above them were luxury rooms and suites to rent. The meal was artfully presented, and enough but not too much food. We shared roasted vegetables with feta and balsamic vinegar; Cretan Delicacies including Dakos, which is like bruschetta, with barley rusks topped with softened tomatoes and mizithra cheese; a wonderful greens salad, and a beef fillet over tiny potatoes, under a delicious sace, that just melted in the mouth. Most of our food adventures here have been to order several dishes and share them around.
On the way back, a bank of clouds offshore rumbled and flashed as the Gods threw thunderbolts at each other. Casseiopeia sat serenely overhead in a clear sky.