September 20, 2024

Heraklion, Crete

 

                            

 

We docked in Heraklion, Crete just before sunrise and we saw the large mountains to the east. It was an easy morning as our tour did not leave until 8:45 AM, so after a leisurely breakfast (salmon as usual, Greek yogurt and honey as usual) we got ourselves ready for the tour to the Palace of Knossos.

 

Our guide, Marina, was not local, only having lived here since 2006, but very knowledgeable and professional. We drove through the city of 200,000 in light traffic.  But like all the Greek cities we have been to, it had narrow roads and too many cars.

 

                                    

 

It was only a 15 minute bus ride to the Archeological park, the discovery of Sir Arthur Evans, the Palace of the Minoan Kings (Minos as Evans surmised). The weather was pleasant, mid 70’s and the mostly sunny. 

                                            

 

Sir Arthur excavated this site in the early 1900’s and Archeology was in its infancy.  He used his own money to buy the land and restore parts of the palace. Paul is in front of one of the restorations – a part of a procession of men bringing offerings to the goddess.  We know they were men because of the dark color of their skin.  Women were portrayed in light skin (and often bare breasted).

 

                                    

 

This is the money shot for most tourists – the so-called throne room.  It was the only place there was a queue to enter. We say so called because that is what Evans called it sans scholarship. It was still very neat.

 

                                    

 

The main courtyard of the palace was thought to be a place where the bull ceremony would take place. Perhaps you have seen pictures of a bare breasted woman vaulting over a bull. 

 

                                    

 

This is the Queen’s Megaron (Apartment?).  The paintings were part of the restoration – this time with grounding as it was partially intact.

 

                                    

 

There pillars were also restored but not as they were.  Evans used concrete while the Minoans, after much experimentation used wood on stone in an inverse taper.  Why?  Because this design was most resilient to earthquakes! There were many insights that Marina described that gave us a whole new respect for the ingenuity of these people. They had indoor plumbing.  They had a sewer system. They had piped water brought from the distant mountain. They crafted fine jewelry. They wrote in Hieroglyphics and later in a script called Linear A. Neither have been deciphered (although by using AI, “they” think it won’t be long.  It seems AI will do a lot of things.) This civilization was pretty clever.

 

                                    

 

This was the money shot for Paul – the bas-relief of a charging bull. I hope Evans got this right because it is awesome!

 

                                    

 

And so, we took a selfie 

 

Many places we have been to seem smaller than they do in the movies and on YouTube.  Not so with Olympia, Athens, Delphi or Knossos.  All have exceeded expectations. And coupled with the expertise of the Viking Tour Guides the experiences so far have been inspiring. The Minoans did a lot for some 4500 years ago.

 

After the tour we purchased a replica of the Phaistos Tablet, the undeciphered example of Minoan Hieroglyphs as our remembrance of this cruise. And back to the bus we went to the next piece of the tour.

 

The Village of Arolithos is a quaint place, with period (early 1900’s) displays and a hotel, restaurants and a popular wedding venue.  We toured the grounds, had a treat (Raki – which is Cretan Grappe’ and nuts.). Nice place for pictures:

 

 

 

Shirley’s take—A wonderful day!!  This morning I had a banana, cocoa, and beetroot smoothing—quite good.  When we returned to the ship, at lunch I had the soup of the day—Potato Garbure, Bearn Style.  It was a very smooth potato soup.  After lunch, we returned to Heraklion and walked around a bit before returning to the ship in time for rest and the Port Talk on Rhodes.

 

We had a lovely dinner in The Chef’s Table.  Tonight’s theme was the British Isles.  We had Scotch eggs, fish and chips, brisket and Yorkshire pudding, and Whim-Wham (a lovely sponge trifle) for dessert.  Quite good with wine pairings for each course.

 

Another day in the life of a cruiser 

 

                                

 

Oh – and 7090 steps and 4 flights of stairs Anna

 

ps.  Then as we sat on the veranda writing this we saw the moon rise: