Trip to Ag. Georgios, Selinari, Ag. Nicholaos & Lassiti in 1961.

What I have to show you here is a rare film posted by John Sooklaris on Youtube. Now John has posted several films on the web that you can see here on this site. This film, from 1961 is special. It shows a trip calling in at St George, Selinari; a celebration at Agios Nicholaos – including a diver – and loads of people. Then the bus trip goes on to the Lassiti Plateau and actually shows all the spinning windmills that were so famous there and that I mentioned here on this site a while ago.

So here is the video, I hope that you enjoy it.

Then extraordinarily, someone posted a tribute to John Sooklaris by videoing St Georges in the year 2009. Here it is:

Enjoy.

L is for Lassiti

ABC Wednesday

High in the mountains of Crete there is a plateau which once, some years ago, was famous for windmills. The scene of so many fluttering windmills was a sight to see. It used to look exactly like this.

Lassiti Windmills as they used to be

In fact these were not so much windmills, but windpumps. Almost every field had one and it used to pump water up from the ground to water the fields. This picture was taken around forty years ago. Today the water is supplied by electrical or oil driven pumps and the windmills are, alas, gone with the wind.

Today Lassiti has changed. It still grows the staples of Crete, potatoes, apples, vegetables etc. But sadly without the wonderful windmills.

Lassiti Today

But do not worry, that is the way of the modern world. There is a consolation, of course. On the edge of the Lassiti Plateau were some real windmills, built many years ago to grind the corn. Today some of them have been rebuilt to house modern people. What goes around comes around.

So here they are