Crete
Saturday 25th May to Sunday 2nd June 2024
Star Beach Village & Waterpark, Heraklion
Thursday
After my rocky night of illness, I felt a bit better in the morning. Reassuringly, I had some hunger pangs for breakfast, although my trust levels were a bit lower. It was generally a more normal start to the day, despite feeling a bit weak and unstable. The weather was certainly pretty standard, as demonstrated by the view from our balcony.
Looking the other way from our balcony, with some bonus roof.
In the morning, we went to the pool bar area for chilling, ball games and snacks, studiously avoiding the pool fitness session. Two members of staff, obliged to try to make everyone enjoy themselves, got embroiled in a game of pushing each other in the pool with some kids. We stayed well clear.
After the usual buffet lunch top-up to the snacks, we headed, with inevitability, to the water park. Having not done my morning run (as I was not up to it), I remained compelled to keep up my consecutive exercise run. So, while the kids went down slides for a bit, I headed to the gym, population: me and the guy who was overseeing it (he was doing some strength stuff periodically while I was there - guess you gotta keep yourself occupied). Anyway, it had a pretty splendid sea view from the bikes.
Looking across to the slides wasn't bad either - I could vaguely keep an eye on the kids.
After a tentative bike ride, I braved the running machine for a top-up to get me past the requisite half hour. I clearly wasn't 100% as there are no photos for the evening. My notes suggest that we got our evening meal from the main restaurant, then played some pool and maybe cards in the hotel bar. There was no pushing the boat out tonight.
Friday
I decided to delay my (almost) daily run - obviously still not quite feeling perfect. But this was our typical breakfast (both in terms of content and view - the latter we would miss in particular).
On our last full day, we headed down to the beach for some ball games, fish spotting and rock clambering (there was a small rocky outcrop about 30 metres from the beach that Daisy and I stood atop briefly).
It was pretty warm, though, so we balanced being out in the sun with some capped, shaded, reading action (although Daisy was always keen to catch the rays, banging on about the UV levels for her tan - I did not approve).
We transitioned to lunch, removing some of the sand along the way (we did use the showers, don't worry), via the pirate ship pool, with the kids trying out the slides (which were nowhere near the water park standard). First, Gregory...
...and then Daisy.
After lunch, we chilled for a bit, before doing a six-in-six visit to the water park (naturally). Unlikely to get sick of this sea view.
Looking inland wasn't bad either.
Before teatime, I went for a run, accompanied for half of it by Daisy. She started off like a train, with me struggling to keep up, but she burned her fuel early and wilted in the heat, so I dropped her off and did another loop. I failed to keep my silhouette out of this one.
On our last night, we headed back to the Asian Star. It had been pretty busy the first time we went, on the Monday, with big and slightly confused queues to the buffet (confused because there was conflation between the main meal queue and the queue for the ice cream). This dramatic and vivid sign signified we were there.
With more space available, we could get a table by the, er, road, but with a sea view, and the kids dutifully posed. Well, sort of.
Hey kids, let's do a lovely selfie of us all on our last night..
I did a similar shot on the Monday but it's so nice I did another one (photographic convergence).
There was entertainment on as we walked back - some acrobatics that we watched for a bit, before we succumbed to the hotel bar for some pool (Gregory in particular was quite keen to play again - we are but creatures of habit after all).
Saturday
I was almost back to normal so managed a relatively early (before 9am) morning run, with a beautifully clear sea despite some rare clouds. We took a trip to the Taverna for breakfast, obviously (I'm not sure if we ever tried the main restaurant for breakfast - it was a few minutes away and busier and bigger, so there didn't see much point). We checked out but our wristbands were still operational for the whole of the day. Our flights were very late so we thought we may as well make the most of the last day, treating it like a bonus day.
We hung around the pool bar, with Gregory enjoying his burger...
...but perhaps not the unrelenting sun.
Later that afternoon, after we cleaned ourselves up a bit, Daisy sought shade too, sitting down on some astroturf near a kids' area, and was quickly joined by a very young girl, who mimicked her actions.
As well as the go-karting track next door (which I was half-tempted to do with the kids but didn't quite get round to it - I thought it was perhaps too much for Gregory), we also had some crazy golf nearby, which we played together, after a little walk to the shops to kill time. The inevitable competition accelerated by accumulated tiredness and heat led to a bit of tension, but it didn't get too out of hand.
Talking of killing time, of course we went back to the pool table while we waited for our coach. They probably argued.
We were still able to take advantage of the buffet, in this case at the main restaurant. I took a quick picture of the carnage, although it actually doesn't look too busy in this shot. The continual changing of direction while you tried to shield your plate was steadily mastered; as was pouring your own beer (which I very much enjoyed).
And then, at nearly 8pm, it was time to get our coach. Unfortunately, reversing out our inward journey meant that we were more or less first on the coach, then had to wait for others as well as numerous pick-ups on the way back. Gregory, with his travel sickness never far from our thoughts, clung on (he did a bit of spit in a bag but that was it, thankfully - sorry for oversharing).
At least we did get some good views on the coach ride, such as this Star Wars-esque sun...
...and the Amiga graphics copper scaling style sunset (not many will get that reference).
We arrived at the airport to the twin delights of a delayed flight and a large check-in queue which snaked outside the terminal. Delightful. It did at least move reasonably quickly. It might have almost kicked off at one point, with Daisy desperate to see what was going on, but it calmed down. This was Gregory's general reaction to everything.
At nearly 11pm, we still waited patiently to go to the gate. The kids were pretty good actually. We had managed to grab this table as we got there, so we entertained ourselves with cards, Switch, phone, sweets, crisps, sandwiches, just ANYTHING (it helped that we were opposite a snack bar). There were a few flights at this time and so this part of the terminal gradually filled up. I wandered around to see if there were any comfier seats but it became evident that we had lucked out so we stuck with what we had.
Sunday (technically)
We finally got on the plane after midnight. This is a shot at about 2am. Gregory slept pretty much the whole journey, Daisy slept a bit and I didn't really sleep at all. We arrived back home at a little after 4am, and it's fair to say that I wasn't really at the races for much of the Sunday after a token gesture sleep.
Anyway, it was great fun (the holiday not the flight) and... that is all from Crete, so it's definitely now time to return to the Secret Portal. Or for you to get on with your day. Stop staring at screens!