EXPERIENCE CRETE ON YOUR WAY!!
from Unni Hermundstad

in German

Georgioupoli  Crete

Actually a Suitable Place in Greece

A Small Guide

Georgioupolis - Crete - Greece

photo



In August 2000 my husband and I travelled to Greece, I was in a manual wheelchair. Greece is normally not a very suited place for tourism like this, but after searching in one tour-catalogue after another, taken a whole lot of phone calls and triple checked the information I had got along the way, I took the chance anyway. Simply because I love Greece.

I felt quite sure that everything should work out ok. I talked directly to the Star Tour personnel in the little town and I was also in touch with Th.Loelf, who has this web-site about the area . All of them were very helpful with information about the accessibility.

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the beach
 
The airport (Chania) makes off and on boarding pleasant, and has special lifts for those who needs it. But the bus to Georgioupoli is more complex, so the easiest thing is to take a taxi from the airport (ca. 200 NOK).

We had booked a double room at the Fereniki hotel, but when we arrived one of the Star Tour people had made sure that we got an apartment instead, because the rooms were not so well suited. It was wonderful that everything was arranged in advance, so that we didn’t have to organize that when we tired and sweaty arrived at the place.

The ramp up to the reception
(photo on the right) is so steep, that it was impossible for me to make it on my own.
Next time we are definitely going to order an apartment at Foudoulis (see photo) right away (joint reception and owner with Fereniki, that is why it was so easy to change from room to apartment).



view of the entrance

We lived in room 579, and I had the impression that there were more flats just like it.
G
ood width at the most places: Entrance door: 82 cm width inside. The Entrance door bathroom: 88 cm (where the entrance to the bathroom is)              
D
oor to toilet/bathtub: 68 cm. No handles and too narrow for electric wheelchair.

If you need a raised toilet seat or bathtub seat, you need to bring that with you.

Door to balconies: 105 cm.

Width at "kitchen": 116 cm (were the entrance to one of the balconies are)

Georgioupolis

The little town is generally very accessible by wheelchair, no steep slopes and there were ramps in several places (quite steep, but with good arms and determination, or some help, it went ok).
T
he town is so small that you might as well go back to the room if you need to go to the toilet, but I am sure it is possible to find a toilet or two you may use somewhere else too. I did not check this out, I’m afraid.

Here are some of the places we went, more or less accessible:

Restaurants:
Zorba: ramp up to the restaurant (toilet not accessible). Very nice place with good food.
Zorba lies by a road down from the square

Summertime: lies down by the beach. Small steps (one by one) with ocean view.

A perfect place for a late afternoon meal (before the sun is totally gone).

Georgia’s home cooking: lies towards the beach from the square. I think it was
one step up or a small steep slope up to the tables.

All breakfast cafés/bars on the square are accessible right from street level.

Paradise: lies behind the square, with a small ramp up to the entrance.

Aposperida: lies along the main road out of town, a small steep step up, so most of us make it on our own.

Rodaria: also along the main road, right across the bank

Arolithos: right below Zorba, has a step up. There is also one step up to the toilet, that you might be able to use with someone to watch the door. This was our second regular haunt, with very nice food.


There are only gentle slopes down to the beach, and it was easy to just wheel myself to a suitable sun bed at the water (the sand may of course be a little heavy). I recommend sharing a bottle of wine down there late one evening or night!


Sights:

With rental car: Outside town there are a whole lot of hills, and towns with plenty of steps and stairs. But with a rental car you may see a lot anyway. We drove through Vamos town, which was a steep place, looking for Karidi Monastery. It was fairly simple to get into the back yard of the monastery, but almost impossible (for me anyway) to get a look at anything else other than the church. A very quiet place…

 

Our next stop was Kalives, which also is by the coast. We tried to reach a local artist in the hope of getting some art back to Norway, but he wasn’t available that day, so we will try again next time. (By the way, his name is Elias Raftopoulos, and paints with his mouth after an accident in 1981, so at his atelier there it should be possible to get to in a wheelchair…). Instead we just "strolled" along in the small town that wasn’t very pretty. The church looked fabulous, but there were plenty of steps to the entrance, of course.

 


 

From Kalives we went to the ruins of the ancient town of Aptera, which was founded in the 7th century BC. It was not accessible at all, so we went to the other side and took some pictures from a Turkish fortress and down to the bay below.

We also drove to the little tourist town Kavros, which lies a little bit east of Georgiopouli, just to buy ceramics.

We went with the tourist "train" two days (see picture), which most of us probably need help to get into, but it is well worth the trip if it works.

Ancient Lappa was one of the trips we attended. The train stopped first at some tombs, which I didn’t get to see (it was steep and rocky and quite long to walk from the road). But you survive a half hour wait there if you have to. Next stop was at Argiroupoli, a town were there once lived 10 000 people. There is a lot of history there, and it is possible to get around some places in the town.

Last stop was at the wells in Argiroupoli, where the group ate under the cool trees. Here are stairs and more stairs, but with help from a couple of strong men a little girl in a wheelchair also gets something to eat…

The place was not very accessible for me, but I still think the nature along the way was worth the trouble.

Our second trip with Talos Express (the train) was to Lake Kournas, which is the only natural freshwater lake on the islands in the Mediterranean Sea.

 

From the train it is very steep down to the lake (see picture), and I didn’t go down, but it is possible. It is also possible to eat lunch at the restaurant with a Lake Kournas view, enjoy the food and the view before taking the train back to town. With a rental car it is of course a lot easier to come down to the lake (see picture).

 


 
 

Have a nice trip!

Best wishes

Unni Hermundstad

 

 

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