Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Our return to Heraklion signaled the end of our time in Crete. We woke up early to return the car before 11. I dropped off Izzy at the bus station near the port so we wouldn't have to make a long walk carrying all of our stuff. She waited there while I took the car back. I decided to walk back instead of taking the bus because the traffic was bad and the bus seemed like it would take the same amount of time. Big mistake. At one point, I needed to cross the street so I weaved through the stopped traffic. When I saw my open break to cross, I started to run and a motorcycle came through the stopped cars and hit me. Luckily, he just cut my leg and scraped it in a couple of places. A couple of people helped me clean it and get to a pharmacy to bandage it up. Afterwards, I returned to the bus station and we headed off to the city center. We had some lunch and caught a bus out to the Palace of Knossos. 

     The palace was started around 1700 BC and finished 300 years later. It is believed to contain over 1,000 different rooms. It's not exactly a palace as we might think of a place where only the king and his servants live, but rather it was the center of daily life to the Minoan civilization. It was discovered in 1878 by a merchant named Minos Kalokairinos. Over the next 20 years, he did some excavations and some other archaeologists attempted some as well. Finally, in March of 1900, Arthur Evans, a wealthy Englishman, bought the land where the palace sits and financed most of the project. He named the people who lived there the Minoans after the legend of king Minos. There are still studies and excavations going on at the site.

     The palace has a legend that it was built by King Minos to contain the minotaur creature, a half man half bull creature, within a complex labyrinth. Later, the king was convinced the architect, Daedalus, would reveal the plans of the labyrinth to someone so he had him locked up. Over time, he was able to construct wings by tying together feathers he collected and using wax to hold them together. He also built wings for his son Icarus. One day, the two made their move and started to fly out over the sea to escape Crete. Daedalus warned his son not to fly to close to the sun or the wax that held the feathers together would melt. As they flew, the boy eventually became overconfident and flew higher and higher until he was so close to the sun that the wax melted and he fell into the sea and died.

     There were many large jars that Evans speculated contained large amounts of everyday items like salts, grains, and other foodstuffs. In other parts of the palace, there are restored frescos from the Minoans. Evans claimed he used evidence from the site to restore the frescos but some critics claim the palace's original artwork has been contaminated by Evans' misinterpretations. An interesting feature of their artwork is that it doesn't contain many military or warlike themes. The men and women are color coated and lots of their athletic pictures involve taming bulls.

      We spent nearly two hours at the palace because we played the game find the shade so we could try to keep cool. At times, it worked and we had a great breeze and nice shade. Another thing we've learned in Greece is that there just isn't any shade, unless of course you pay for an umbrella. Sometimes it comes with two chairs and a beach if you're lucky. We went back into town to walk around the city center. The city was established because of the need of a port. It is a dirty city. The main street is filled with tour companies, car rental places, and souvenir shops. We bought some ice cream from Ben and Jerry's there. The girl refused to let me give her a coin so I could get less change back. "I don't want it." She said. The work ethic of some of the people we've met is just dreadful. We poked into some shops to take a break from the heat and cool off. Just outside the center, we found some nice streets filled with markets.

     We wandered down to the old Venetian port and had a nap.. The port was built after the Venetians arrived in the early 13th century after they bought the island as part of a political deal with the Byzantines. They being traders, spruced up the port a bit and put in a nice fortress to use for defense. The sun became unbearable and we were able to find a little bit of shade to relax. I also needed to give my leg a rest and change the bandage

    There is a nice museum of artifacts from the Knossos Palace in Heraklion. We didn't have time to visit because we wanted to get some dinner before boarding the boat. We returned to a nice place we tried the night we arrived. Oddly, I ordered the same meal I got Friday night and a different dish came out. Oh well. We had a good time but our night ferry to Athens was a nightmare due to the two screaming children that didn't want to fall asleep. I guess they figured if they had to suffer, everyone would have to as well. The mom chatted on her cell phone and occasionally sssshhhhed them. We were able to sleep a bit and arrived in Athens around 5 a.m. the next morning.

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