Five kilometres north of Episkopi lies the eastern end of the Bay of Almiros. The western end is delineated by Georgioupolis, Likotinara and the Drapanos peninsular. The bay itself spans 14 kilometres. Episkopi is a genuine Cretan village mostly untouched by tourism and nestles beneath the mountain range that starts above Argiouropolis where the famous springs rise, where a monument was raised to a crashed WWII Spitfire that crashed on an inaccessible mountainside and within winter snow-line evacuation range of Asigonia. The road that comes down from Episkopi joins the main highway some 50 metres east of the turn off to Xrysos Asteria which is on the other side of the road. If you turn right at the junction of the Episkopi road and the main highway you go to Rethymnon - turn left and you head toward Xania. If instead we turn left and then almost immediately turn right we will come to the Xrysos Ateria car park. The car park fronts the entire width of the taverna space and is spotted with trees and wheely bins. Without a surface the entrance to the taverna is most often a potential dust bowl. For now we will park in the car park that abuts the bar area which is to the right, or east, of the taverna proper. We will park under one of the special trees that grow only here at the beach line and that weep a sticky sap onto the cars parked beneath them in the heat of summer. A small path, constructed of paving slabs placed irregularly, leads to the bar area which is directly north of where we have parked, as is the sea. Orient yourself, it may be your last chance - we are facing the sea - the road is behind us, south, Rethymnon is along the coast to our right and Georgioupolis and Xania are to our left, as is Rocka's, the next taverna. The roof of the bar is octagonal, thatched with palm leaves and that covered with corrugated iron while the bar itself is circular. There are three sets of table and chairs in a single row to the right and in front of the bar, currently in direct sunlight, and they stand at the extreme eastern edge of a paved surface that extends west as far as the well tended lawn. Between the bar and the edge of the beach proper to the north there are three rows of tables and chairs three tables wide. Each table is perfectly square and has 4 chairs set around it - two to the east facing seaward and two to the west also facing seaward. At the western limit of this 3 by 3 arrangement is a clear passage down onto the beach. As the passageway meets the edge of the beach there is a waste bin. To the west of the passage is a square eating area containing an arrangement of 5 by 5 sets of tables that extends in the northerly direction to the beach edge and to the south to the back edge of the circular bar. Like the area where we are sitting this area is covered by a roof of thin bamboo supported on wooden props. The sea lies in front of us - north if you've lost track - as does the Krysos Asteria beach. The beach area houses 50 sun umbrellas and 100 beach beds in a sympathetic palish green covering. The sun umbrellas have a single central support, each made from a small tree trunk that is probably, though unverifiably Mulberry. Each umbrella has a set of iron hoops and struts that supports a palm thatched covering and 80 or so centimetres up from where the support is buried there is a small shelf made of wood that houses an ashtray. The foot of each of the 100 beach beds faces north west and all are aligned every morning and evening and regularly throughout the day when unoccupied. There are two beach beds beneath every sun umbrella perfectly parallel and on either side of the central umbrella support. To the west of the western extreme of the bar area is lawn and to the south of this lawn lies the taverna kitchen, the toilets, and the inside eating area which is seldom used save in very inclement weather. Beyond the lawn to the west, our left, is the beach edge eating area that is covered, like the bar seating area, with a thin bamboo roof on wooden supports and uprights. Twenty five sets of tables and chairs abide here and in summer this is an area of regular and bustling commerce. There are three rope and plank paths that lead down to the sea's edge from the bar and taverna. One we have already described - it runs from the western edge of the are where we are currently seated. As it wends its slightly curving path to the sea there are three rows of five set of umbrella/beach bed combinations to its east. To its west there is a another set of three rows by five umbrella/beach bed combinations before another path that leads down from the eastern edge of the beach edge eating area and past the cold water showers that skirt the beach edge and are to the right of the path itself. To the west of this path is a four row by five arrangement of umbrella/beach bed combinations making 50 in all. Set in between the second and third rows back from the sea shore and in each of the three designated sections of beach there is a waste basket whose bin liner is changed daily or when full whichever is sooner. Up by the shower area, south of the last row of beach beds, to the west of the last path to the sea, but before the eating area is a beached row boat that contains a solitary oar.
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