Spinalonga...

Last Thursday we visited Elounda on the north coast of Crete and then took a boat to the old leper colony Spinalonga.

Mary and I have both been reading the Victoria Hislop novel, The Island, which is about the everyday life of people on the island around the time of the second world war so it was very eerie to step foot on the island. It's so strange to think about the people who were sent there and the supposedly normal life of school, cooking, drinking in the cafes, bartering at market and going to church that went on there, despite all the inhabitants having this awful illness. One of the cruellest things is that it is so close to the village of Plaka on the mainland that the lepers on the island would have been able to see normal life going on but not be able to be part of it.

The island itself is beautiful and after walking for about 10 minutes we came across this lovely little jetty with the most amazing crystal clear water and lovely trees. 

We found out that the author of The Island has made a deal with a Greek TV network to make a series based on the novel so hopefully that will make its way across to the UK soon enough.

Our visitors are now back home and we had a lovely time with them. We still have four weeks left here and we are working like bees to record demos of all the songs we have written so far so we can show them to the director/writer of the film we're writing the soundtrack for. The script is superb folks, so we'll let you know as soon as it hits a cinema near you!

Now I'll leave you with some snaps - enjoy!

Here's Captain Mattos on the boat!

And the view of the island from the water; the land behind it is part of the mainland that stretches round in a big curve

Here are some houses on the first street you see when you come through the big tunnel that separates the jetty area from the rest of the island

A little shaded courtyard bit

Look how beautiful the sea is:

Here are the two Kassells having a little rest - always happy to pose for a photo!

Now this was taken at 'Dragon's Den' restaurant (Dragon's Cave really) and from here you can see the whole town of Makrigialos where we're calling home until October. (and as usual, Matt's doing the 'dog face'!)