So winter is here, the temperature has finally dipped below 20 e for more than a day, a thunderstorm last night which is about the 3rd this year so far but the rain has only lasted for a few hours each time so not too bad.
It plans to be a busy winter here, with many changes planned, some good some bad, they are very busy this year clearing out the rivers around an in Plakias with at least 3 large excavators digging them deeper wider and clearing all the vegetation on the banks out, I guess they don't want to be caught out like last year.
There has been a lot of controversy about a planned hotel with "hobbit" style rooms half in half out of the ground just above the large cliff face at Paligremnos, from what I have read i think the forestry commission have blocked it but you can never be too sure here, sometimes it just comes down to money, ie who it’s given to !
The new hotel being built up just before Paligremnos is well under way now personally I don't think this is a bad development for the town, its reported to have between 400 and 600 rooms i hear, but that seems high to me for the size so I think those numbers have been confused with beds, anyway it’s an all-inclusive luxury hotel buy the Aquila group, Olympic have taken some rooms so maybe some of you will be staying there net year !, as its all-inclusive it’s unlikely that more than a 50-100 people will come into town on a night to eat i guess so I don’t think it will have a big effect on the numbers of people in the town on a night and the beach is big enough and cope easily with the extra beds, it will bring in more money to the town with shopping, bars, trips etc so I think this is a good thing.
There are a few more large development going to be built this year too, a new hotel at the back of Plakias on the steep concrete road to Selia with 56 rooms, and on the same road 14 villas, and a further two ore development but only with 8 rooms between them and these are likely not to be finished for the next season anyway.
Work is underway to tarmac the road from Souda to Rodakino along the cliff face buy the dragon so this will make the beach at Rodakino more accessible which is good as this is a great beach to go if there is a strong north wind.
In the town the Notus Bar over the supermarket next to Sifis has gone and is getting turned into apartments and the super market is also gone again being made into apartments, the owners of this supermarket have now just started to build a new supermarket next door to the Blu Café on the beach road, hopefully this does not turn into a typical tourist type supermarket full of inflatables and tat.
There is a new town plan showing that the main front road from the bridge around to sweet creations will be pedestrianised, with new seating ect so the traffic will have to go around at the side of the Forum and out along the back of Plakias, this again I think is not a bad thing as the cars running past the taverners around Ostracos at the moment do cause a hazard in busy tourist times, but no work has started yet so who knows if this will be implemented next year or not.
A couple of months ago, there was an official notice in the papers that the main road from Koxare up to Armeni was to be closed from the 1st November for 6 months for repairs and other work meaning a long detour for traffic to Rethymno which was going to be a right pain, but so far nothing has happened ! … only in Greece.
The olive harvest is well on the way with good crop size generally but the quality is not so high this year, but over supply has meant that prices are as low as 1 euro a litre so some farmers are not bothering to take the olives as the cost of the labour to remove them is more than the money they will get for selling the oil.
If any more big developments happen I will let you know, have a good winter everyone .
