More Crete pics (6)

This probably will be my last post from Holland for the next two weeks. If I can find some time I might post a few more pics tomorrow, but I can't promise. Tuesday I'm leaving Holland for two weeks to visit my very good friend Julie in the USA. I'll take my laptop and camera with me, so I probably will be able to post from there. Don't know yet, but I think this also will be the last posting with Crete pics. If I want to show more pics from Crete I probably will post them on my online photo-album at Photobucket .

Anyway here are the pics and this time some pics from people. Sometimes they are aware of the camera and pose and sometimes they are unaware of the camera.

Noriko has a cute smile, doesn't she?

This handicapted guy looked tired

But it gave me a good photo opportunity. Because it was at the beginning of the evening and it already started to get dark and I didn't want to disturb the older guy with my flash I had to overexpose the picture a bit.
I'm quite satisfied with the result.

This is father Dimitri (if I remembered the priest's name correctly) who takes care of the cave of St. John the Hermit and also runs some kind of free shelter. The friendly and funny older lady is, by what I understood, a regular visitor of the cave. She was dressed in black so I assume that she is a widow.

Noriko don't like this in profile close-up picture of herself, but I think it's a nice shot

This pic was taken by Noriko at the local Saturday market at Chania.

And finally another pic that Noriko took from a little Czech kid at the beach at the Gramvousa fortress

More Crete pics (5)

Today some more houses and historical stuff again. The first three pics were all taken in the old part of Chania. If you ever visit here avoid the main (shopping and souvenir)streets. Slip into the small alleys near the Venetian port or the Turkish Market, get lost (which is hard to do) and walk around. There you find the most gorgeous, colourful and picturesque houses.

This pic was taken at Knossos. The guide books already warned us a bit, so we weren't that disappointed, but it was a bit disappointing. No question that it is an interesting place. It always give me a special feeling to walk around a place with remains that go back for about 4000 years. But it seems (also by what I read) that by todays standards Arthur Evans, the amateur archeologist who uncovered the Knossos palace the beginning of the 20th century, used a bit too much of his imagination when he tried to reconstruct parts of the old palace. Some parts look a bit too fake and sometimes it's difficult to tell which parts are original and which parts have been reconstructed. Seeing bits of ferroconcrete also didn't help much to give you an authentic feeling.
Noriko and I found the Archeological Museum at Heraklion much more interesting. We were glad we went, but if we go back to Crete I'm pretty sure we won't visit again.

One of the houses of the mountainvillage Milia

A black and white pic from the same mountainvillage

And finally a pic shot at the plateau from the Venetian and pirate fortress at Gramvousa

New links added

Today no new pics. This time I have added some new links at the right sidebar. Some time ago I already announced that I would add some new links. Little by little I will add some new ones.

This time I have added a few newslinks to news(paper) websites. Sites that I visit on a regular basis.

Also added a link to a Dutch weblog that I often visit called Verbal Jam. It's only in Dutch unfortunately, but is is well written and often with a good sense of humour. Recommended for my Dutch visitors.

Finally I have added some movie websites. As everybody can see in my profile I have a more than average interest in Asian movies. I like Japanese cinema for quite some time and since a few years I also discovered Korean cinema. It won't surprise much that I have added some Asian movie websites. Most of them offer reviews and some other backgroundinformation. I'm still looking around for more interesting moviewebsites. If I find I will add them later.

Enjoy!

More Crete pics (4)

This time some pics from houses and (historical)buildings. Besides the first pic from the apartment where we were staying, the others were shot at the lovely old part of Chania on West-Crete. For some history of Chania and Crete you can check link 1 and link 2 (on the right side of this page you can find more specific info about the different ages).

This was the apartment where we stayed during our time at Crete. It was located at Agia Marina, just 9 kilometres away from Chania. It was a very nice, clean and comfortable place with an excellent view on the sea from both the terrace downstairs and the balcony upstairs.

The houses at the old part of Chania often are very colourful. Most of the time when you took a closer look they looked a bit weather-beaten and in not so good condition, but it also gives the houses an authentic feel and look.

Some occupied houses are forming one organic part with ruins or just partly demolished houses

The harbour of Chania

The old Venation port of Chania. The white building on the left with the dome is the former mosque of the Janissaries, built in 1645 by the Turks.

Another house in the old part of Chania with nice red shutters.

More Crete pics (3)

Today I'll show some animal pics from Crete. There were loads of cats and dogs and many of them were straycats and -dogs. You saw many cats at the restaurants begging for food. Most of them looked well fed, probably because most of the tourist gave them food at the restaurants. It surprised us that the cats were tolerated and weren't chased away at the restaurants, because I always understood that at most of the Mediterranean countries they are not so friendly towards animals, especially towards straycats and -dogs.
Anyway here are some of the pics.

A cute cat couple at the traditional mountain village of Milia

Noriko and the watchdog of Milia

A sheep near the cave of St. John the hermit, a greek-orthodox saint

This dog at the old Venetian port of Chania looked a bit too well fed

For some reason this horse reminded me of Mr. Ed

This cute and very energetic little dog belong to the captain on the boat from Kissamos to Gramvousa and the gorgeous beach of Balos

Finally some dead animal hanging at a butcher's shop. You could see the animal's tail, but I don't have any idea what kind of animal this could have been.
Update: according to one of my colleagues at work it's a young pig. Over here they cut short the tails of pigs, so that is why I didn't recognized it as a pig.

More Crete Pics (2)

Today some black and white pics from our holiday at Crete.
The first 5 pics were all taken on Tuesday, October 11th. It rained most of the day. It was lousy weather to go swimming, but it gave me some nice photo-opportunities. Noriko went to a city spa and took a bath at the hamam and had a massage after that. In the mean time I took a walk around the old city walls around the old Venetian port of Chania or Hania (there are different ways of spelling according to which transcription is used) and decided to shoot some black and white pics. With the clouds at the gloomy sky it gave some nice contrast for B&W pics.

I like old junk

The rustier the better

Views at and from the city walls part 1

Views at and from the city walls part 2

Views at and from the city walls part 3

And finally a pic from Noriko shooting pics from the balcony of our apartment at Agia Marina.

More Crete pics

Here are some more pics from our last trip to Crete. The first serie in my former post was a selection, but from now on I have decided to post some pics every time around a subject or theme. Today it's food. When it comes to food Noriko is the photographer. Everywhere we go she always takes pictures from food and drinks. She considers food as an important part of a country's culture and because of this she always wants to try to taste some local specialties. During out trip to Crete we had our fair share of nice Greek and Cretan cuisine. The following pics were taken by Noriko. Here and there I might put some short comment.
Pic from the local Saturdaymarket at Chania
Pic from one of the fish stands at the Turkish market hall at Chania
Souvlaki BBQ at one of the street cafés at Chania
Very tasty fishsoup that Norika ate at a small dinnercafe at the Turkish Market hall
Tasty swordfish that I ate at the same place

Back from Crete

Hi Everybody,

Noriko and I got back today from our week holiday on Crete, Greece. We had a very nice trip with lots of excellent food and some nice daytrips. We had two very rainy days which is quite remarkable for this time of year. But this bad weather also created some nice photo-opportunities. Besides some very colourful pics I also shot some black and white ones. Some came out quite nice IMHO.

I'm still sorting out all the different pics (I shot almost 700 pics in just one week time!!!).

Anyway here is a little preview. The coming period I will post some more. Hope you'll like them.
And for those who don't know: By clicking on the image you get a larger version.

I'm off for a week

I won't be posting the next week. I'm leaving tomorrow early morning for a week holiday to Crete, Greece. I'll promise I make lots of pics, which I will be posting from next week. So I'll make it up to you!

Bye for now!

Good memories

Last sunday we visited my parents and my sister, brother in law and our little nieces Iris and Fleur where there too. Not so long time ago my mother took out my brother's and my old Playmobil. Iris and Fleur both like Playmobil very much. Fleur, the youngest who can be quite inpatient and can get bored very easily can play with it all day. Noriko and I helped set up the circus and this brought back some very good memories about my childhood when I played with Playmobil myself together with my brother. Through the years we both collected quite some Playmobil stuff. It's nice to see that Iris and Fleur still enjoy playing with Playmobil. Anyway, here are some pics from last Sunday.

Official Playmobilsite