Garden Ramblings: Crete

Heraklion

The final stop in our Island hopping was the Isle of Crete. Crete has been inhabited since Neolithic times (7000-3000 BC), but is most famous for it's advanced Minoan civilization and as the mythical birthplace of Zeus.

We arrived by ferry from Santorini at the port in Heraklion, where we spent the night before heading to Chania. We saw a bit of the waterfront, including the Venetian fortress. We stopped at Knossos, the most famous remaining Minoan palace, which were only uncovered in the early 20th century by Sir Arthur Evans. The site is still being unearthed, and some of it has been restored to what is assumed was it's previous glory.

Our main destination was Chania, which was the site of the 20th annual AGP! In addition to traveling with Craig and Stephen and Tony and Deane, there were a total of 19 New Zealanders who had made the trip to Greece for the picnic. And, two Americans!

Our ferry boat from Santorini

The walls for the Venetian fortress along the waterfront in Heraklion

More of the fortress walls around the harbor

The Venetian fortress

Konossos

The path into the Palace of Knossos

Some of the ruins

The ruins with some reconstruction

Stephen, Pat and Craig

Some of the ruins with reconstruction - we weren't sure how we felt about that... it might have been better to see the ruins as they were discovered

This is an actual Minoan frescoe. They had some of them on display at the National Archeological Museum in Athens. Notice the royalty thone on the right wall.

The front of the palace with the fresco of a bull

Chania

Chania is a pretty little coastal village with a beautiful old town situated around a harbor. Our accommodation was in old town Chania, a small pension, right in the middle of things - delightful!

A typical street in Chania - note the snow on the mountains in the background!

This is in old town Chania - lots of sidewalk Tavernas and shops - and no cars! Our pension was to the left of this taverna. The food here was fabulous, by the way!*

The central market. We all went shopping for provisions for the AGP

This market had everything! Here's a display of fish

Here's where we called home - the Iason Studios. That's our balcony on the 3rd floor*

This is the view from our balcony and typical of the little narrow streets in Chania

Desbina, who owned our studio, did our laundry for us and when we came back it was hanging on the line from our balcony! We were locals!

More of old town Chania

We really enjoyed wandering around the little village*

So picturesque!*

The fountain in the town square

Ok, we saw these "foot spas" all over the islands. And there were actually people in them, sitting with their feet in tubs of nibbling fish - Couldn't quite do that!

The beautiful Chania waterfront*

A busy, bustling place!

We were amazed by the age of some of these structures - we decided that the only thing holding the building in the middle up was the new ones beside it!

Chania's lighthouse

We walked out along the fortress walls to the lighthouse and some nice people took our picture!

On our last day in Chania, Stephen discovered that our studio had a rooftop terrace! So we took our bottle of wine and enjoyed the sunshine up there*

Cheers!*

Stephen, Lee, Pat and Craig at dinner on our last night in Chania*

AGP (annual general picnic)

Tony and Deane chose a beautiful spot at a small church overlooking the sea for the 20th annual AGP. There was a spot to set out the very ample picnic and plethora of wine, and beautiful views in all directions!

The picnic was a great success! Thanks, Tony, Deane and Suzanne for organizing the picnic and chosing Chania for the 20th annual!