A young lady is now at the reception of the hotel. After check out, she advises us on good brunch places and kindly allows us to leave the car at the front parking, where she can keep an eye on it.

We bid farewell to a Venus de Milo replica, standing on a granite pedestal in the hall of the old-fashioned hotel. We exit to the warm and cloudy morning atmosphere. We face last night’s seascape, more detailed under the light of the day, where bathers are enjoying themselves in the water of Nea Chora beach. We stop at a café, where we can appreciate the scenery surrounded by two palm trees.

Breakfast tea, deliberations with the English-speaking waitress on how to order scrambled eggs (the closest match is called ‘strapatsada’ and contains tomato) and gradually we transition to a Greek and Cretan menu with home-made tzatziki and ntakos. Ntakos is oregano flavoured crumbled white cheese and tomatoes on soaked dried bread, which J. discovers she likes. At the end, two shots of tsikoudia, an aromatic local tipple, were offered and pleasingly consumed.

The seafront promenade which we resume our walk along, has a magical peaceful vibe. There are many cats, basking in front of the tamarisk trees, sitting on wooden chairs or keeping watch behind the corners. We joke, ‘a Cretan surveillance network!’. They are beautiful, and appear as if they amplify this calmness and stillness of the air. We sit at the edge of a park, with legs dangling over rocks in front of the Cretan sea. We climb on the leaning tamarisks, we absorb as much as we can.

A shower forces us to shelter under a bus stop. Having passed the Venetian walls and being within the Chania Old Town, we decide that after a short stop and first introduction to the Venetian port, we’ll visit the Folklore Museum (‘Laografiko mouseio’). The museum is interesting and quirky. We love the laces display – the artist herself is intricately weaving the white cotton threads within the premises – and the Cretan poems on the walls. We also visit two churches, one Catholic and one Greek Orthodox – J.’s first ever visit to a Greek Orthodox church.

A supermarket visit and an evening drive on the slightly precarious Cretan roads lead us to the village on a slope above Kissamos, where we are staying for the rest of the holiday. Our hosts, an elderly couple, Y. and T., are eagerly waiting us at the front yard under the grapevine. “Yassas”, “ti kanete”, smiles, awkward silence – it is clear that I have to do some interpretation in the following days, which I don’t mind. After settling in the spacious villa, I drop off to a peaceful sleep, dreaming of cats, when outside there are claps of thunder.