In the shade by the Leo Hotel on Vafe Street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Patrick Comerford
Summer is gone, autumn has arrived, and we are heading to winter.
According to the way meteorologists measure out the seasons, summer ends on 31 August and autumn begins on 1 September.
For many, this has been a long hot summer. There have been strong summer fires throughout Greece, including fires that have threatened many parts of Athens and Crete that I know.
The Season of Creation, initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate 35 years ago, begins on 1 September, which is also the first day in the new church year in the Orthodox Calendar. Those summer fires in Greece this year are a sharp reminder of the consequences of climate change for all of us. and the need not merely for remedial action but for radical decision-making.
But, before summer becomes a distant memory, I am looking back on some memories of Greece this year, happy to have been was back in Crete shortly before summer began, after an absence of over two years.
It was a long absence, forced mainly by the stroke I had early in 2022 and the medical treatment I received for months after.
It was all too short a visit, but I stayed in Rethymnon, which I have known since the mid 1980s, and I visited friends and places I know in Platanias, Tsesmes, Panormos, Iraklion, Piskopianó and Koutouloufári.
Over almost 40 years, Rethymnon has become like a second home to me in Greece. I have grown accustomed to its side streets, its sounds and its smells, the sea and the sand, and the ways of its people.
During the Covid lockdown, I put together a number of thematic ‘virtual tours’ of places I had visited in the past and hoped to return to.
Now, this afternoon, as I look back on memories of that short visit this year, I have selected some of my memories of the colourful narrow streets in Rethymnon and look forward to another visit once winter has passed.
In a narrow street off Plateía Mikrasiaton or Asia Minor Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
In narrow Emmanoil Vernardou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
A playful but fading overhanging sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Night time and shadows on Souliou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
An archway leads from Tsouderoun Street into Kornarou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Summer colours on Tsouderoun Street, where I stayed two years in a row (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Colourful steps off Chimaras street, beside the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Summer shading on Xanthoudidou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
A glimpse of Souliou Street from Arkadiou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Summer colours in the narrow passageway filled with restaurants facing Eleftheríou Venizélou and the seafront in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Nikiforou Foka is a long and narrow street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Kalliophs Gioulounta beside Myli Restaurant leads to Pavlos Beach at Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
A bend on the street named after Patriarch Gregory who was martyred in Constantinople on Easter Day 1821 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Aghiou Georgíou (Saint George) is a narrow street off Patriarch Gregory street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
A glimpse of the minaret of the Nerantze mosque through narrow Trikoupi street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
The Hotel Byzantine, one of the oldest hotels in Rethymnon, is close to the Porta Guora or old Venetian gate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
Narrow Vosporou street takes its name from the Bosphorus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
A glimpse of Rethymnon Cathedral through Kapsali street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
On the corner of Xanthoudidou street and Radamathios street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
The door closes on another summer in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing those beautiful photos
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