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Paleochora, Crete, Greece
Paleochora has long ceased to be the quiet fisherman village it once was. The reason for its tourist development is the gorgeous sandy beach with the crystal-clear water at the west side of the peninsula where the town is built. Another nice beach (but with large pebbles) lies east of the town, while many smaller and quieter beaches are found in small coves on either side of it.
In 1282 the Venetians built a fort on the tip of the peninsula, which they named Castel Selino (the Celery Fort), possibly because of the large quantities of celery, a wild plant that grew everywhere in the area! The idea was to use the fort to impose their dominion over this rebellious area. As it turned out, the fort was very vulnerable, not only because it was poorly designed from the start, but also because it was cut off from the main centres of Venetian authority and from all supply stations.
As a result, even a group of... amateurs could assault it successfully, and the fort was conquered, destroyed and rebuilt several times in its history. Its last occupants, the Turks, finally decided that it was futile to try to preserve it and they left it to its fate. The irony, though, is that the fort is much more effective now in protecting the area than it was when it was first built! Since 1940, a time still untainted by excessive tourist development, the entire peninsula on which it is built has been declared a historical site, so the building frenzy and exploitation of the area stopped right outside the city walls. Although mercilessly besieged, the fort holds stubbornly!
Today Paleochora has many small hotels and many pubs, taverns and restaurants catering to the needs of the tourists, but it still has that special feeling of an out of the way place about it. After 5:00 p.m.
the narrow alleys of the town close for all vehicles, and they turn into pedestrian streets that are often filled with the tables of taverns or with playing children. At night these same streets are filled with music from the pubs and people having fun.
In the morning, the action shifts toward the beaches, but there is plenty of room for everyone. If you are looking for a more quiet spot, though, there is a very good beach east of Paleochora. Go past the camping ground and after a couple of kilometres park your motorcycle somewhere and walk for another ten minutes till the end of the cape.
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