One last thing...

Before leaving Crete we had one last thing to see (we had skipped it on her first day when it was in the high 90s ). We headed via bus to Knossos palace. We were lucky enough to have Panos, our guide, walk us through it with commentary for an hour and a half. Even better we beat the crowds. We got there at 8:30 AM and by the time we left at 10 there were hordes of people waiting in line. It's one of the stops people make when they leave the crew ship. The lesson here folks is to always go to the most popular sites right when they open. Then you can walk and enjoy it without being surrounded by people. Knossos Palace was the capital of Minoan Crete. It was inhabited beginning with a Neolithic settlement around the seventh millennium BC. Around the 1375bc which was the end of the Minoan civilization.  There is good and bad.  The good is that it gives you an idea of the large size and grander that it must've been. The large storage rooms and vessels give you an idea of how important the olive oil and wine were to this community. There were terra-cotta pipes to drain water or sewage. The palace even had an indoor toilet with a drain for my water underneath. Way before the Roman aqueducts. To think they had those things in that time period is amazing! The bad is that the main person in charge of excavating it (Evans) made some decisions that effected the integrity and originality of the palace. Only 60% of it is how it originally looked. 40% is what Evans deducted it would be based on clues or prior knowledge but he was not always correct current scholars argue. Worse yet when he was rebuilding it he used a mix of original material and concrete which degrades the original pieces and don't provide stability.  He didn't do any of this with malice. He was trying to get the site on the map and to get interest in it. Technology and today's  techniques are also very different back then and they are today. I think that if it had been just an earth recently it would look very very different. After our visit and goodbyes with Panos we headed back on the bus to the hotel. We had a little bit of a wait time before our checkout time and getting to the airport. Got to the airport way ahead of time. It's so small an hour or an hour and a half would've done plenty but you don't know until you've done it.. Then a quick 35 to 40 minute flight over to Athens. We walked across the street from the airport to the hotel. We're staying at the Sofitel right at the airport because our flight tomorrow is at 6:25am which means I'll have to be there a little after four. Hope I sleep quick!

Peacocks or geese were often at the palace because they're so territorial they would give warning signs if someone invaded their space. They were good watchdogs back in the day!

(concrete reconstruction of Evans)

(Evans concrete recreation)

Heat wave over...and of course it's time to go

It was a wonderful day all around today. The temperature was in the low 80s and there was a wonderful breeze. Still managed to get a bit of a sunburn though. We had another tour with Panos, this time to the South. Gortyn was our first stop. It was a small archaeological site that is still being worked on today. We even saw someone taking an impression on the ancient Minoan ideograms (I can't remember if they were linear A or B. A has yet to be deciphered).  Then we went to the ruins at Phaistoso. There were 2 palaces that were built in that location. One went North to South the other went East to West. (I can't remember which direction was first and which was built after the first was destroyed). There are more remains left from the 2nd palace that was built. It was high up. There was an earthquake that was devastating and destroyed the first palace. They immediately built the 2nd. It was here that the famous Phaistos Disc was found. It was made of clay circa 1600bc. It bears symbols on both sides in a spiral. These are characters of the earliest writing in Europe, the Minoan ideograms. Fascinating!  The last stop was Matala. It was right on the coast. GORGEOUS but holy moly, it was windy! White caps out as far as we could see! When we walked onto the beach the sand stung our legs as the wind whipped it by us. Built into the sandstone near the coast were caves that people used to live in. 

A photo stop....gorgeous

Bit windy for pics....

Head west young lad (& 3 gals)

Today we headed west on a day trip with a guide. His name was Panos and we traveled in his (nice) van to see some smaller towns to the west of Heraklion. First stop was Margarites. There we saw a second-generation Pottery creator (thrower?) who showed us how he created some things on the pottery wheel. He explained some of the very interesting traditional pottery. He digs the clay out of the mountains because he said he cannot buy that quality of clay. It is dark gray and depending upon the temperature and how it is fired (electric/wood) the pottery turns out to be light gray, dark gray, terra cotta or brown. It was very interesting. He made it look so simple but after having a semester class in sculpture I know how very difficult it can be. He was amazing and the pieces were so intricate. Then we went to a small archaeological museum of ancient Eleutherna. Its collections range from 3000-1300bc. No pictures were allowed because they haven't put together their museum book (so people aren't allowed to take images before they have a chance to print them).  The holy monastery of Arkadi was up next. It has a two aisle church in it. The Northern side is dedicated to the transfiguration of Christ and the southern is dedicated to Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. That means it has two altars also. The monastery played an important part in the history of the Ottoman occupation. 943 Greeks (mostly children and their mothers) took refuge in the monastery. After three days of battle they all piled into the gun powder room and chose light it and sacrifice themselves rather than surrender to the Turks. Not much of the original buildings remain because of the warring but it has been rebuilt. The last stop on our tour was the very cute town of Rethymno. We had our lunch and strolled around. Art was in heaven because we stopped at a small shop where they made baklava. We saw how this guy stretched the phyllo dough to cover a whole entire table. The dough started like the size you would use for pizza and he went around the table and kept stretching it to cover the whole table. Holy cow! This town had cute shops and would've been the perfect place to spend an afternoon exploring but we only had about 45 minutes before we had to head back. Next time!

Beach day!

We took an hour long bus ride (went pretty fast) from Heraklion to Hersonissos. The lady at the front desk recommend it when we asked where we could go to the beach. We went to a place called Star Beach. It was free entry and had beach access, kiddie pools, a bug filled lazy river and regular pool. After changing in the WC we found 2 seats on the beach right away. Walking on the sand was HOT, HOT, HOT. The water felt good and there was a nice breeze. Getting into the sea proved quite disastrous for me every time (as did getting out of it). I only made it in/out of the water on my feet 1 time. The problem was a few steps in there were rocks you had to walk across to get to the sandy part. You had to do this while battling to stay upright when the surprisingly strong waves hit you. I think I could have one the million dollar prize on America's funniest home videos. I went down multiple times each trip out and it wasn't pretty (but I was laughing the whole time). The water felt good though so I kept going back in to cool off. After awhile we headed to the pool. Harder finding seats there. Ours were further away from the pool behind a palm tree. Probably spent a little less time there then in the beach. Then we shared a pizza, changed and headed back. I may- or may not-have closed my eyes a couple of times in the bus home so it seemed to fly by. Even after using a half a tube of sunscreen I'm feeling the burn in a few places. Totally worth it. Got to hotel at about 5. Great day!

PS: God bless these Europeans and their positive body images. Walking around with confidence with everything hanging out. Wish that was the norm in the US. 

 

Even older stuff ...

We're staying in Heraklion, Crete. It's our main base for our time here. We'll explore other parts of the island with a guide 2 separate days this week. Since the high today was going to be 98 degrees, our plans for the day changed to be a little more relaxed. Easy on the outside sightseeing. We went to the archeological museum. It's really well done with great labels and snipets to read in English. If I thought I saw old stuff before, this stuff tops that. It dates back to the MinoanWorlds  which dates back to 7000-1100 BC. Didn't even know that time period/people existed. We were 2 1/2 hours. Tons to see and read and lots was new and different than what we've seen in the other museums. Then we had a great lunch at Central Park. I had a Wiener schnitzel burger. Maybe not local cuisine but definitely different. We then walked towards the port. Stopped for a drink and then back to the hotel to de-glisten and relax a bit. Need to talk with the front desk about going to a beach tomorrow :)

A game to entertain. 1 women slows a charging bull by holding the horns. Another is at the back to catch the man who was somersaulting over a bull. 

A burial vessel

The bump is for the head. That's new....