“I hate Irakleio,” an Athenian friend said with a sniff, using the Greek word for Crete’s quixotic regional capital, Heraklion, after I said I would be spending a few days there. A city named after the ancient hero Hercules was enough of a draw for me. Oddly, though, I realized the one essential ingredient that makes Crete what it is – the sea – is strikingly absent from the life of its largest town. Yes, it is best to arrive by boat, and there is a port for that, but for reasons of geography and history it is on the periphery of this very sunny city.