Flower Power 💐

Good morning, my dears,

I hope you are doing well. Hermine and I have the day off today and tomorrow, and we are using our free days for some outings. This morning we spontaneously decided to visit the Botanical Garden near Chania and stroll through the streets of the city beforehand. It's about a 30-minute drive or bus ride to get there. The weather was simply perfect. In the mornings it is still a bit cool - after all, we are only about 50 meters from the sea - but by noon, the temperatures had risen to 24 degrees, and we had blue skies.

The Botanical Garden in Chania is truly stunning. There is a huge variety of plants, but also a few peacocks, geese, ducks, and donkeys. However, we were a bit late and only arrived around 2:00 PM. The last bus back to Chania had already left at 2:45 PM. The lady at the bus station explained to us that we could walk down from the Botanical Garden (which is located a bit higher up) to Fournes and try to catch a bus there around 6:30 PM. It's a good hour's walk to Fournes. Well, if necessary, we thought we could ask someone for a ride.

The path through the Botanical Garden is 2.5 km long, and you should definitely account for 2.5 hours (more if you want to fully enjoy the wonderful spots).

Hermine even set an alarm so we could walk down to Fournes on time. However, the internet didn’t show any more buses, and we decided that we could approach people who looked friendly, hoping that someone might give us a ride at least part of the way to Fournes.

Fortunately, at the exit or parking lot, we encountered an older Italian couple who were on their way back to Chania with their rental car, and they naturally gave us a ride. We were really happy and grateful. I think such things are not a given, but if I've learned one thing from all my travels, it's that there is always someone who will help you out if you ask politely. This way, you also meet new people.

The couple was from near Trento in Italy and loves to travel. The woman told us that they have 3 children and 6 grandchildren, who almost always worry about their parents/grandparents when they are traveling. Now they all live close to each other again, which is nice. The children had to 'take off' after school and worked in Milan for a few years, but then came back to Trento because they realized that it was indeed the most beautiful place. Sometimes you might need some distance to realize what you actually have, and that's sometimes a good thing... :)