Patrick Comerford
I suppose we all become creatures of comfort too easily, and our comfortable ways of doing things soon become habits, then traditions, and then the unquestionable and expected ways in which we do things as we move through life.
For many years now, it seems that when I am staying in Rethymnon, the one place to be on a Sunday afternoon is Panormos, about 22 km east of Rethymnon and about 40 minutes or so on the bus.
I first got to know Panormos when I was staying in Platanias about ten years ago, and got there on the hourly shuttle bus shuttle that runs along this coastal strip of Crete, even on lazy, sleepy weekends such as this one.
But Panormos is also ‘picture-postcard Greece’ in a way that surprises even Greeks. Its blue and white buildings, its terraces and welcoming restaurants, its cobbled and pebbled side alleyways give Panormos an appearance associated less with Crete and more with islands like Mykonos and Santorini.
An academic friend from Poland who is working in Northern Ireland, told me of plans to spend Easter in Iraklion. So, it seemed only natural that I should suggest we meet for Sunday lunch in Panormos – which is halfway (though not quiet) between Iraklion and Rethymnon.
In the past, I have had Sunday lunch in four or five different restaurants in Panormos. I suggested the Captain’s House, and, as it turned out it was the only restaurant in Panormos open on this Easter afternoon.
Friends told me once how Greeks say that should the Turks or anyone else plan to invade Greece, the day to do it is Easter Day, because nothing stirs or moves on that one day in the year. It certainly would be true of Panormos on Easter afternoon this year.
I wanted Jan to see that historical Crete is not all about Knossos and Arthur Evans, that tourism in Crete is not all about the student hot spots, late night drinking and the sprawl of cheap apartment-hotels, and that ‘pretty picture postcard’ blue-and-white Grece is not confined to Cycladic and Aegean islands.
I confused our arrangements and I arrived from Rethymnon a little earlier than we agreed. But they were patient with me in the Captain’s House as I assured them my friend was about to arrive, despite the fact that they were because it was Easter and this was the only restaurant open in the village.
Lunch, as I had expected, was as good an introduction a tourist could have to real Greek food, to Greek wine, and to Greek coffee.
Later, we strolled along the cliffy outcrop above the harbour and Limanaki, the sheltered sandy white bay, with its crystal-clear waters, and stopped to see the sadly-neglected ruins of the Castle of Mylopotamos above the harbour.
The castle was built by the Genoese pirate Enrico Pescatore ca 1206-1212. Barbarossa and his pirates attacked the castle and set it on fire in 1538. The Venetians restored it, but their rule came to an end here in 1647 when the castle was seized by the Turks as they marched from Rethymnon on Iraklion.
Today, all that is left of this once strategic Venetian fort is a small part of the wall that looks like a pile of stones on the rocky outcrop above the beach and harbour, and the ruins of a church with the emblem of the Kallergis family.
From there we visited the small church dedicated to the Ascension (Analipsi) and Saint George (Agios Georgios). For a small church, it has a splendid dome with a vivid majestic depiction of Christ the Pantocrator. Although Saint George’s Day falls in Easter Week this year, the church is preparing to celebrate the feast on Wednesday.
There was not enough time on a short Sunday afternoon like this to walk out as far as the ruins of the Basilica of Aghia Sophia, dating from the fifth or sixth century. The basilica was once the largest church in Western Crete, an indication of how Panormos was an important church centre in early Christian times.
Only a few days earlier, I had looked at some of the finds from the basilica in the Archaeological Museum in Rethymnon.
I was sorry too that the recently-built Church of Saint Agathopodos was closed once again. This church is named after a saint from Panormos who is one of the Ten Holy Martyrs of Crete. It is an impressively large church for a village of this size, and it is clearly visible from the road beteen Rethymnon and Iraklion.
I particularly wanted to see the large fresco of the Theotokos in the apse of the church. It is four metres high and was completed in 2019 by my friend the Rethymnon-based icon writer Alexandra Kaouki and has been highly praised. Alexandra and I had coffee at Galero near the Rimondi Foountain in Rethymnon two days earlier, so I was disappointed that the church was closed again called on Sunday afternoon.
After strolling through the village, we caught our separate buses, Jan heading west to Iraklion and me heading east through the villages of Platanias and Tsesmes to Rethymnon, in time to enjoy the sunset behind the fortezza.
I keep promising to return to Panormos to see Alexandra Kaouki’s frescoes in the Church of Saint Agathopodos. But I may just continue visiting on Sunday afternoons because it is such a comfortable habit and pleasure that has become a tradition of mine.
