Mon June 16 - evening - still Kira's birthday! We took the Sea Jets ferry from Santorini to Crete. It was about a 2 hour ride. This time we were on a somewhat smaller ferry and had a cushioned seat like on an airplane, but we chose one behind a table so it didn't recline. That was fine as we planned on doing some reading and planning for Crete sights to see. During the second hour of the trip there was a surprise treat. Two flamenco guitar players from Mexico serenaded us until shortly before we arrived. They were on the first floor and we were on a second level that circled around the edges of the first floor, with a big open area in the middle. So the music resounded up and throughout the ferry - very enjoyable. As we approached Crete we were treated to another beautiful sunset. Our ferry went to the capital of Crete, Irakleon (Heraklion) on the central north coast. It was dark as the ferry had arrived about 45 minutes late and we weren't familiar with the island, so we decided to take a taxi to our hotel, the Golden Villas rather than seek out a car rental at that time of night. It was kind of an expensive taxi ride, but the hotel turned out to be rather difficult to find (even the taxi driver couldn't find it immediately) so we considered it money well spent. (Side note on currency: The Euro is significantly stronger than the US dollar, so the math is a bit different when trying to figure out a relative price of a service, meal, and trinkets). Golden Villas has some actual villas that you can rent but we stayed in one of the few hotel rooms in the main building. Very nice accommodations. We had a bedroom with patio, bath, and living/kitchen area with a second patio. It was in the town of Hersonisos which is also on the north coast about 40 minutes east of Irakleon. We ate a late dinner (10pm) at the hotel's outdoor bar/snack shop and watched another of the World Cup matches.

Tues June 17 The hotel manager arranged a car for us. Crete is a much bigger island than the others we had visited and we decided that a car would be better than an open air vehicle so we'd have some protection from the sun as we traveled between the various sights. We had a couple false starts that morning. One place was closed on Tuesdays and another had a large group of Russians visiting that day and had tailored the presentations for them. We decided to take a ride in the country to the Lassithi Plateau and see if we could find the Diktian Cave where mythology notes Zeus was born. The story is that his mother Rhea fled from her husband Kronos before the birth to protect her son as the father had swallowed all the other offspring after a warning that he would be dethroned by one of his sons. There is a second, Idaian cave that also claims this distinction, but the mitigating story says he was born in one and raised in the other. We went to the spot of his birth. We drove up into the mountains, across a saddle, and down onto the plateau and then looped through the countryside passing through many quaint villages. We found the path to the cave and hiked up to it. The hike was a little challenging as the path was paved with stones but the stones were uneven and many had been warn smooth and were slippery. As a testament, there were several locals offering donkey rides to get up the hill. When we got there we realized neither of us had brought any money with us! We always do as each of these sites usually has an entrance fee of a couple euros, so based on the early false starts, guess it was just one of those days. There hadn't been a sign at the bottom of the hill to remind us, so the woman at the ticket booth took pity on us and told us to go ahead and take a quick look. We felt guilty so we walked through very quickly and took just a couple photos of the beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations. We stopped at a few other interesting spots on the loop back to the hotel such as a spring fountain and a large tree (very large by Crete standards). The valley we drove through was all farm land and looked very productive. It was fun finding our way around the valley on roads that were barely wide enough for the large farm lorries. That night we drove into the town of Hersonissos and walked through the streets lined with shops and restaurants. Had some dinner and picked up a few things at a supermarket to have back in our hotel room.

Wed June 18 We started the day at the ancient site of the Palace of Malia, located a bit further east on the north coast from our hotel. The palace, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age. The palace was later rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Most of the ruins visible today date from this second period of construction. One interesting aspect is storage rooms with giant earthenware pithos jars, up to two meters tall. The jars were used for olive oil and other liquids; the floor of these rooms includes a drainage system for carrying away spilled liquids. Another storage area was characterized by round grain silos that were partially sunken in the ground -we wondered how they got the grain out from the bottom (which would have gone in first) before it spoiled. The palace of Malia was discovered in 1915 by Hadzidakis, a Greek archaeologist. The palace was surrounded by a Minoan town which has only recently been uncovered. Excavation is ongoing. Part of this site was covered by semi-transparent roofs to protect the ruins from the elements. We had the place to ourselves as we had arrived when they first opened. Next we returned to the Lychnostatis Cretan Open Air Museum (which had been hosting a Russian group the prior day). It is located in Hersonisos. It was another of those establishments started by a local couple that is very well done. They built a stone farmhouse, middle-class house, chapel, olive mill press, windmill, shepherd's shelter, raki-distillery, school, and traditional workshops for ceramics, candles, shoes, carpentery, weaving, plant dyeing, and bee keeping (they had an active beehive in one of the houses). They then filled each of these with many artifacts from the area. Their collection was amazing. It was a delightful place. We next headed to the Minoan Palace of Knossos which is just a bit inland of Irakleon. We decided to join a guided tour as we were told that the site is not that well marked. It was a small group of only eight so we were able to stay together pretty well and move quickly. There were some informative plaques throughout the site, but we enjoyed the skill with which our tour guide moved among the busy crowd - steering us to less busy spots and then looping back to cover everything. It was a hot day and our guide, holding an umbrella for shade, pointed out how the Minoans dealt with the heat architecturally with a central courtyard and lots of openness for flow-through ventilation. We had considered skipping this palace as we read that it had been "imaginatively restored" in the early 1900's. We were glad we had visited the Palace of Malia first which had not been restored. And we were glad we visited Knossos. There are only partially restored areas where Sir Arthur Evans tried to give the viewer a perspective of the original palace. He had some basis for the architecture he recreated, referring to frescoes and other ancient items for style, color and such. We appreciated the work. The wall paintings were copies of the originals and beautiful (we later saw the originals in one of the museums). As the Minoan culture seems to have established itself by 3000 BC and there are clear signs of Minoan influence in Greek, Crete is considered the birthplace of Western Civilization. Our guide pointed out that the Minoans were self-sufficient and non-imperialistic and yet had far-ranging influence due to peaceful trade. They employed guards but appear to have had no standing army. The artwork on their pottery, frescoes, and mosaics is characterized by scenes of hunting, farming, dancing, worship, and local flora and fauna. In contrast, sometime in the next couple thousand years, after earthquakes and invasions decimated Crete, Western Civilization artwork began to focus on warriors and scenes of battles. We had used a "free" parking area in an olive grove that encouraged you to eat at their outdoor restaurant located in the grove and we did so as we were famished by this time.

That afternoon we went to the Archeological Museum in Irakleo. It was a very large museum. One section contained artifacts collected at Knossos and a scale model which they believe replicates the huge multi-storied palace. There were exhibits describing Linear Script A and Linear Script B which we had seen referenced at some of the other sites. Linear Script A was the recorded language of the Minoans and remains undecipherable where as the tablets with Linear Script B with a combination of Linear Script A marks and ideographics (images like hieroglyphics) marks the earliest known texts written in Greek and have been partially deciphered. We also saw artifacts from the Diktean Cave of Zeus. It was an extensive collection and it took us all afternoon. That night we again roamed the streets of Hersonisos, but asked for take-away as we were exhausted from a long day of sight-seeing.

Thu June 19 Rethymno was our first target for the day. It is further west on the north coast. The plan was to do a big loop hitting Rethymno, going across the center of the island to see some of the area that is famous for its scenic gorges, hit another ancient Minoan palace at Phaestus on the south coast, and then loop back to the hotel in Hersonisos.

In Rethymno we started with the Historical Museum in a converted Turkish Bastion. This had more of a 'folk museum' feel to it. There were ancient site artifacts, but there were also historical displays of clothing, musical instruments, and even examples of the decorative loaf of traditional wedding bread. We walked through the old town and found a nice spot for lunch before attacking the Fortetsa which is above the harbor. The Fortetsa is not hard to find - rises above the city, but locating the exact cobblestone 'street' you need to reach it is a challenge. The ramparts on all sides are almost all intact and inside are the remains of a mosque, small church, several governmental and religious residences, and the support buildings such as munitions houses you would expect in a fort. As we walked backed through old town to the car Dennis was determined to find, and he did, the Rimondi Fountain. This beautiful 17th century Venetian fountain with its large marble façade and lion head spouts sits amongst all the small cafes and shops.

We headed inland in search of one of the famous Crete gorges - St. Antonio's gorge near Spili. We combed the Tripadvisor comments to get hints for finding this spot as most of the guide books said it was hard to locate. It turned out that the best hint we had was that there was a nice taverna named Drumos at the head of the trail into the gorge. Those signs were scarce too, but we followed the signs to this taverna only to be stopped 2 km short by a tractor blocking the road. It was a dirt road at this point and they were doing some repairs - no passing allowed. But it was a beautiful drive through that part of the mountains. The search had taken longer than we planned and so at this point we decided we were too late to go to Phaestus; it closed at 1500, as do many of the establishments in Greece (some open up again 3 hours later in the evening for a few hours). In addition, Dennis had contacted a local Rotary club and had made arrangements to meet them in Irakleon that evening. We drove back to our room, very quickly freshened up, and hightailed it back to Irakleon. The club normally met on the first and third Thursday of each month (we were there on the third Thursday) but because it was the end of the term year for the club board, they had decided to meet the last Thursday of the month. Even though they did not have a scheduled meeting that night, they agreed for a few of the members to meet us at the bar at the Grace Hotel. Dennis dropped off Virginia while he found a parking place (very difficult all throughout Greece so far). The four men were waiting for us and we had a very pleasant chat with them about their club. The current President, ending his term this month, presented Dennis with a banner and book prepared for the club's 50th anniversary which they are celebrating this year. This particular club has only male members, but other clubs in town have women members too. Virginia was asked if she was also a Rotarian. She mentioned that she was a Soroptimist and started to explain about the organization when one of the men, Ioannis, excitedly said that his wife, Maria, was a Soroptimist. He called her and arranged for us to meet with her later that evening. Virginia was kicking herself for giving up on trying to locate Soroptimists. The last country that had responded to her emails was Australia. She had tried most recently in Turkey to get in touch with several clubs with no response. Wouldn't you know that the first country she doesn't try puts a great opportunity right in her lap. After an hour or more of conversation with the Rotarians, two of the men had to leave. Just about that time Maria and her sister Helen, current president of the Soroptimist club, arrived. We moved to the Marina café near the harbor for some ice cream. Virginia swapped information with Maria and Helen about Soroptimist and then we had a pleasant time learning about each other. John is a retired Telecom engineer. His English is excellent even though he constantly apologizes for it as he never 'studied' it and just picked it up on his own. Maria is an archaeologist (exciting job to have in Greece!) who sounds American when she speaks English. She went to college in London and said that everyone there also thought her accent was American. Helen is a civil engineer. John whispered that she is in the top position, Director, of the government agency responsible for Public works. She was a live wire - full of questions for us about our adventures. We had a wonderful time that evening with the Rotarians and Soroptimists and promised to keep in touch.

Fri June 20 we headed back to Naxos aboard a Hellenistic Seas ferry. This would be a four hour trip and it was a huge ferry. We had assigned seats and somehow it seemed that all couples and families were split up as there was a lot of seat swapping. There were high winds and rough seas that day. They announced that we would be a bit delayed in leaving as the captain was plotting an alternate course to help mitigate the rough seas. We zig-zagged our way back. Virginia popped one of her meclizine pills and was fine. About an hour into the trip, the pursers began to hand out nausea bags. (Glad we decided not to bring Libertad here and try to sail back against that wind). They wouldn't allow anyone to be outside on the back deck due to the conditions. That is the only place on this ferry where you were allowed to smoke -thank goodness. When we stopped briefly in Santorini to let off several passengers and take on a few others there was a mass run for the back deck with cigarettes in hand. Next stop was Naxos and we were hustled off quickly as they were running late and still had more islands on the day's schedule. Thankfully, the run from Santorini to Naxos was not nearly as rough.

We didn't get to see all of Crete in our four day visit, but we packed in a lot, enjoyed it all, and made some new friends.