The city of Rehymnon was once the administrative seat of Crete, today the city of Heraklion is the biggest city and the center for local administration. Rethymnon florished already at Mycenian times, was after the 3rd century mentioned as a village but the city was independent and important enough to mint their own coins.
Both Roman and Byzantine ruins and mosaics have been found and later during the Venetian occupation the city grew and was an important city and harbour.

View of Rethymnon from my hotel. The hotel I visited is situated a little outside of the city to the east in order to have their own beachfront, but its still less than an hours walk from the hotel. About 4.5 kilometers, great for stretching your legs.

The city planners office could use a few good men. Probably the roads are not ment for walking. To be fair, this is a little outside of both the city and the younger village east of the city, center for many of the hotels around the district of Rethymnon.

Closer to the city the walkway along the main avenue and the beach goes to the center of the old heart of city . Many of the hotels in the city was along this street. Unfortunately this means you have to cross a very busy street to get to the beach.

The center of Rethymnon has as the hotel a lot of palm trees, and is full of small shops and restaurants. As you can see in the pictures, everywhere on Crete the mountains toweres high above the island. Small wonder the ancient greeks thought this was the birthplace of the god of gods.

A nice place to have a cup of coffee and an icecream. To be honest the locals thought I was utterly insane insisting on a hot cup of coffee when its well above 35°C in the shade. Swedes are a coffee loving people, what can I say.

The city looks much like other greek cities, this is close to the center of town.

The road signs was examplary in keeping you absolutely in the dark as of your present location.

There is a lot of older buildings left from Venatian, Turk and other periods of the citys history.

This is the old harbour of Rethymnon, since the Venetian period. Today there are several tour boats starting in the harbour going along the coast to more exotic locations. There is also a fast ferry going to the island of Santorini. More than 50% of all post cards from Greece have pictures from Santorini, with its white and blue houses.

The tour boats are interesting in themselves sometimes. Travel like a pirate for a day...

This restaurant is right in the old port, overlooking the harbour.

Here is another view close to the old port of Rethymnon.

This place must be a perfect spot for some. Alkis in Swedish is a word for someone always intoxicated by alcohol.

Towering above the city is the old Venetian fortress, called Fortezza. Impressive and massive! It is very difficult to understand the size of the old fortress. You could easily fit several fotball fields inside the fortress.
I have made a separate page about the Fortezza for those intrested: Fortezza Rethymnon

The view of the city from the Fortezza is great. That alone is well worth the visit. As you can see the Fortezza really towers above the town.

During the evening the city comes to life as the air is cooler and most people have their dinner late.

The shops also have open long into the night to accommodate those who took a really late siesta.

Walking towards the east there are a smaller village also buzzling with night life, restaurants, small shops and other establishments.

Some places was more ordinary looking, some had more finesse and a lot of work done to enchant the tourists. This looked like a very nice restaurant, which I unfortunately didn't have time to visit.

A special look at the Fortezza in Rethymnon. Or go on to the palace of Knossos, the oldest civilization in Europe.
Back to the start of my trip to Crete, or back to the Start page of Robeck's web.
Or take a look at the mountains of Crete.