We rented a car for Tues. afternoon, Wed., and Thurs. to see the island of Crete while we waited for a weather window to begin our journey to the west end of the island. With the northern side of Crete being the leeward shore for the whole Aegean Sea, I don't want to get caught out again with steep waves and strong winds. Fortunately it is a month later in the season so the chances are diminished.

Tuesday afternoon we took the car around to Spinalonga, or at least where we could get a good look at it. This island sits at the mouth of a beautiful and well-protected bay/anchorage. It was first used by the Venetians as a fortress and was later converted by the Greeks to a leper colony up until 1953. (Where do the lepers all go now? I can't figure that one out.)

Anyway, in our exploring we managed to do some 4-wheeling in our mini-Hyundai through some olive groves and saw some really tiny towns and some very remote parts of the island. It was pretty cool. There are also a bunch of wind farms cranking out electricity, so the island is doing what it can to be self-sufficient.

Wed. was our big day to Heraklion. This is the capital of Crete. Crete is governed by Greece. But the mentality on the island is that they are their own country. Heraklion sits on in the middle of the north coast. The north coast is the coast with all the harbors. There aren't many, but there are more there than on the south coast. The south coast has steep cliffs and few natural harbors and so is fairly uninviting.

Heraklion is home to Knossos. In 1898 they discovered the ruins of an ancient palace from the Minoan civizilation. We are talking around 2600 - 1100 BC. So this palace was about 4,000 years old!! The Minoans were (I think) the center of it all during the Bronze Age. After they fell out of power the Greeks took over and you can run with your modern history from there. (I am not sure where the Egyptians fit in with that timeline.)

In any case, this palace was huge!! It took up over five ACRES! We aren't talking courtyards and gardens. We are talking about one, big, continuous structure! On top of that, it had 3-4-5 stories!! It was well situated so it could look over the fertile fields around it. There were many homes built into the palace. This was not only the residence for the leader of the Minoans, but it was also the center of commerce, government, celebrations, and worship.

It was discovered in 1898 and in 1900 an English archaeologist, Arthur Evans, began excavated it. By 1903 the whole thing was dug out. So ole Arthur didn't waste any time! But what is peculiar about Knossos is that Arthur put a heavy hand -- a real heavy hand -- in the reconstruction of the palace. It isn't uncommon for these archaeological sites to be put back together. But I guess ole Arthur 'interpreted' Minoan culture perhaps a bit more than he should have. Consequently, there is great controversy over teh work he did. He stayed with Knossos till his death in 1931. But experts are divided on whether his work stands as a tribute or a disgrace to the Minoan culture.

We didn't go to the museum at Heraklion which has all the little items they found when they dug up the palace. Our experience with these museums is that they are awe-inspiring for the first 20 minutes, then mind-numbing after that. You walk out in a daze saying to yourself "Yeah, sure, another 4,000 year old necklace. Big deal."!!! It probably would have been good to go, but we were t ired and hungry and went for food instead.

Yesterday we took a trip to the east end of the island. This is the fairly uninhabited part and roads are a bit tricky. They are very windy as they curve around the face of the steep cliffs. We got some incredible views along the way. The Cretans are improving the road and trying to turn it into more of a highway like the one we took to Heraklion. But it will be another 50 years before it is complete. They are doing it in sections and there are parts that would be just too impossible to "straighten out".

Right off the bat we came to another Minoan village, Gournia. This one did not have the magnificence of Knossos, but it was just as interesting. It was so well preserved! You could see the plan of the whole town -- streets, steps, house plans, everything. All the walls were still intact. All of the upper stories have since crumbled. But the one-piece slabs of rock that served as door thresholds, the stone basins used for washing hands and face, and even the benches used for pressing the juice from the grapes were all still there! It was really quite amazing and we were glad we stopped for the 2-3 hours.

So anyway, there I was in my Ferrari Hyundai rental pretending I was on a road rally. Parts of the road were real curvy so I could practice my cornering. Other parts were straight and open, but gravel. There I could pretend being in a road rally, particularly with occasional detour that was announced at the last minute with some small sign.

I am not sure how Will and Ruth fared. Ruth got quiet a few times! But Will seemed to enjoy it all. Of course, with them in the car and no roll cage I didn't push it like I would have liked to. But it was still fun!

We drove down to the south coast (Lerapetra) and saw that before completing the loop back to Agios Nikolaos. Today I am debating whether we should go or not. I have been pouring over the weather charts much of the morning. They call for 10-20k NW Fri. and Sat. and then decreasing Sun. throuh Wed., then a southerly on Thurs. Southerly would be good as we want to head north. But the southerly is supposed to be short-lived.

So I think we will cut the marina's umbilical cord this afternoon and head out into the bay for a short, 6 nm jaunt over to Spinalonga. That will shorten Saturday's leg down from 38 nm to 31 nm. Then we will motor/sail Sun., Mon., and Tues. to the west end. The plan is to jump off on Wed. for the mainland and get as far north on the southerly on Thurs. before more pressure arrives on Friday. But that is a whole week away and those weather guys don't know what they are having for breakfast tomorrow, so who really knows?!!!

We'll just have to play it by ear. But after 3 months in Marmaris and 3 weeks in Agios Nikolaos, it will be good to finally start the sailing season!!