Meet a Minoan Mermaid

Traveling in Crete? Make a stop at Elounda's Lagoon of Mermaids where legend has it the waters are filled with a bit more than just the ruins of the ancient city of Olous. While the long-past Mermaid Cafe immortalized in music by Joni Mitchell was far away in Matala, Elounda itself boasts an outstanding shoreside cafe which offers what just may be the best moussaka on Crete.

In search of still more mermaids? The story has it that the ancient Cretan goddess Dictynna jumped from a cliff escaping an amorous Minos. As one version puts it, after tangling in fishing nets and being pulled from the sea by Greek fishermen, she hid herself on the island of Aegina, becoming the "hidden one", Aphaia. Her temple there on a pine-topped hill is one of the best-preserved in Greece, and well worth a visit.