Advertisement
Published: July 21st 2017
Edit Blog Post
July 16 Sunday
I need a vacation from my vacation! I did not go to bed until 1 o'clock this morning. And I was up at 5:30 to get ready for today's excursion into Heraklion on the island of Crete. After hitting The snooze button three or four times I finally got ready. It was just beginning to get light outside so I headed up to the top of the ship and took some pictures of the mainland. Then, I made my way down to the breakfast buffet line in the same place as yesterday. Apparently they saw how chaotic it was yesterday and they kind of restructured it better. It was a lot easier getting in and out of the breakfast this morning. Once again, everyone gravitated to the first buffet line even though there was a completely similar buffet line on the other side of the room. So instead of waiting in the line for the one buffet, I walked over to the other buffet.
Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city with constant habitation from the Neolithic era until the 5th century
A.D., is beyond doubt the land that gave birth to the first civilization of Europe, the Minoan. The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The first settlement dates to about 7000 BC. The first palace dates to 1900 BC. The first excavations were began in 1878. According to tradition, this was the residence of the wise King Minos.
We left the ship at 7:30 am to tour Knossos. It was a 15 minute drive to get there. About half of our group went with about half of the other group. We arrived and met the local tour guide. She was very ditzy. About a quarter of the way into the tour I finally broke away from the group. She was going on too long and it was very hot. I was able to see more of the ruins than the rest of the group who stayed with the tour guide. Also since I was not with a large group I was able to get better pictures without a lot of people around me.
Heraklion was founded in 824 and is an important homeland of many contributors to
literature and art.
We then headed back to the city of Heraklion to see the Venetian architecture and local landmarks. After seeing the fountain in the town square I headed back to the Heraklion archaeological Museum. It was only €10. The two-story building contained artifacts from Minoan and Greek Periods of the island. The museum was well put together. Thousands of artifacts of vases, weapons, jewelry, and statues from the Minoan culture took up the first floor. The second floor held group items of antiquity. The best part was the Greek statues and one hall. There were statues ranging in size from heads all the way to full body. It really pulled together what I saw at Ephesus. I had just enough time to get back to the bus after getting an ice cream bar at the corner shop. Within return to the ship.
See next blog for continuation of this day.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0413s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb