It’s that time of the year, “vacation”. I’ve put vacation in quotes as this is out first time traveling with our son, which is now 20 months old.
Me, together with my son and wife have decided to visit Greece. If you listened to my mom, that’s one of the best places in the world, which I am not sure I could agree on. :)
My son waiting for the flight
After researching a bunch of places, and being overwhelmed with choices, we landed on going to Crete. Specifically, at the Ammoudara Beach, which is pretty calm, cozy, beautiful and the water deepness is perfect for small kids. At least you would read this on review. Our experience is a bit different though.
I regret not taking a picture when we were going out from the airplane, as it was so windy that I almost fell of the stairs on the back.
But a comment from my wife cheered me up:
I don’t know why the airplane engines are still working when we are getting off".
Yeah, she hoped that it is not that windy here. 😂
Anyway, we took a taxi from the airport to our place at the other side of Heraklion city, and after 10-15 minutes we were at our hotel/bungalow.
The place we stayed at is called “Civitel Creta Beach”, and to say it right away, it’s awesome and beautiful. As I like showing stuff through photos, check out some photos from this place below.
Rooms and restaurant on the right side
View outside the restaurant/bar
Awesome pool with a great bar
Hotel includes a bunch of amenities, mini golf being one of them
Same palms during sunset
Indoor restaurant with a beautiful sea view
My son refusing to eat and making mess on the lunch table in the main restaurant room
A few photos after a quick walk around the hotel area.
One afternoon we took a local bus and went to the city center. I was hoping to take a bunch of pictures and to test my new camera properly, but my son disagreed from the moment we came to the city, so here are just a few shots I managed to take. Good enough for memories I guess.
We must agree Heraklion has some cool graffiti
Panorama shot of Marina in the Heraklion City Center
Here are some photos of the private beach hotel is offering. I would say the beach is pretty nice, but in our experience with all the wind and waves, it was not as enjoyable as wanted it to be. Our kid was a bit scared of the water and it was a bit hard to take a swim and play with him in the water because of it.
Ammoudara beach
Nice sea view from the hotels bar
Outside restaurant
Cool view outside the reception building
Entrance to the hotel and bungalows
As this is a photo blog, a few words about the camera. I was really surprised how good this camera is. From the handling perspective to the image quality.
I like the handling and the grip. Camera has a bunch of options, but still everything is easily accessible and easy to use. It can be that camera is just so small and light that IBIS (image/sensor stabilization) is so good cause of it, but boy I was surprised. You can easily take 1/10s shots with one hand. Yes, it’s that good.
Now I have the X version of the camera which means that it has 26mm f2.8, which is around 40mm on a full frame body. I am very used to 35mm focal length so I thought this will be pretty similar, but it really isn’t. There were a bunch of shots where I wanted to have something wider, specifically a version with the 18mm lens (28mm on full frame). There is a good chance I will sell this one and get the original GR III.
The worst thing about it is the battery life. I could take around 200 pictures with a full battery, if not messing around with longer exposures and some motion shots. But the camera charges with USB-C and that’s a big plus.
In my experience, Image Sync application works nice, haven’t had any issues with connection or whatsoever, and you get the option to transfer a full RAW file directly over it. Nice!
Having said all of that, I think this Ricoh camera will have a place in my travel backpack from now on. Maybe even in my pocket, given it’s size and almost no weight at all.
Greetings from the very windy city center
