The journey here was a long one. It really started in 2003 or there about. We knew that we wanted to come and start a new life in Crete, but getting here was not going to be easy, as we found out. We had lived in our house in the North-east of England for 17 yrs. It was only when we decided to put our house on the market that we found out that the bottom part of our land had been registered to a builder and not to us. Then started a long battle to get the land transfered back to us. Eventually, at a great cost the land was given back to us. We now could put our home on the market. We moved out August 2007.
Our old House
We said our farewells to family and friends and set off on our travels leaving Dover on the 10th September. 2007
Some of our guest at our farewell party
We traveled to Calais on the ferry and then drove through Belgium and on through Luxembourg. We then traveled back into France, down to Nancy and then onto Basel, into Switzerland via the scenic route. Our intentions where to travel through the St Gothard Tunnel, but when we got there at 04.00 in the morning we found that it was closed. The only way forward was up and over the Pass! We stopped the car on the top to get out and have a look at the sky, my was it impressive. The stars could be seen clearly and there was billions twinkling away.
Some of our family members
In Italy we pressed on towards Milan hoping to miss the rush hour traffic. Talk about all roads lead to Rome!!! Well I can tell you they all lead to Milan as-well. We spent ages trying to get away from the place but kept getting lost and found we where heading back towards Milan. Talk about a nightmare. Once we managed to find our way we traveled onto Venice to catch the ferry to Patras in Greece.
This ferry took nearly 3 days so we had plenty of time to get over our virtually none stop journey.
Ian watching the sea on the ferry
Me enjoying the journey
One of the ports that we stopped in to pick up passengers
We drove from Patras on to Piraeus to catch the overnight ferry to Heraklion, Crete.
