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Today we rented a car because Crete is kind of hard to navigate by bus. We drove about 45 minutes to Agios Nikolas, a harbour city. The highways are quite nice here with plenty of signs. We found out the lines on the roads are just a suggestion. People pass you at any time no matter who is coming in the other lane. The drivers expect you to merge over to the shoulder so they can pass.
At Agios we took a boat trip to the island of Spinalonga. This was a leprocy colony during the 1900's. The last person left in 1958. Before that it was a venitian fortress. Then the turkish people took over. The island itself is very small. It took only 20 minutes to walk around the whole island. At one time it was heavily guarded by cannons. We took a guided tour and learned a lot about the people who lived there. 1046 people lived there over the years and over 700 died on the island. The guide told us there are still 14 million people in the world living with leprocy. We wanted to see this island because we had read a book last
year titled "The Island." It was amazing to see the book come to life.
We have a busy day planned tomorrow. We are seeing the Minoan Palace of Knossos and going to the Heraklion Museum. We are then driving the two hours toward western Crete to stay in a town called Hania. '
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Carol
non-member comment
WOW!
Its absolutely amazing to see the pictures of the leprosy colony after reading that book. Isn't it wonderful you picked that book out of the thousands of selections, Jessica; and now here you are walking in the footsteps of all those afflicted people. Just amazing! Looking forward to seeing you both, and hearing all your stories. p.s. I love your sandals, and the pedicure! XX OO p.p.s. the older David (Cook?) won American Idol.