A very large Palace

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Geo: 36.8245, 22.2806

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands on the Aegean sea and was the centre of the Minoan civilisation in 2000BC. Knossus Palace near Heraklion to the north of the island is one of the most famous sites and gave rise to the myth about the Minotaur in the labyrinth.It was built by Daedalus ( father of Icarus) for the Minoan king. In order to get there we hired a taxi for 40 Euros an hour which we had for 4 hours so much cheaper than the tour price from the ship and gave us more freedom. Our driver Costa had arrived at the ship at 4am in order to be in the front of the queue. He was 5th in line when he arrived which is a reflection of how badly the Greek economy is at the moment. However he had a lovely Mercedes so it was a comfortable hour's drive from Aghios Nikolaos to the Palace. He waited outside while we spent an hour or so exploring the site.(6 Euro entry fee or twice that if you took the guided tour). There were loads of tour groups which take 2 hours but we did not join one of these as we prefer to spend whatever time we feel. To be quite honest there is only so long that one can peer at endless rows of stone foundations! There are some lovely large urns and a few frescoes and it is a very large site.It was discovered by a British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, who unearthed most of it and also recreated bits of it to give people an idea of what it might have looked like but really because it had been destroyed in the past by both fire and earthquake no one really has a clue.

After this our driver took us to Sissi which is a small seaside town where we had our regulation beer. We were the only people in the bar as it is the end of the season and everywhere was very quiet. Luckily our driver got another passenger straight away when he dropped us off at the ship.

After lunch we took a stroll round the town of Aghios Nikolaos which is quite a pretty town situated around a Bay with nice views from the top overlooking the Bay. Not much to buy in the shops apart from the usual souvenirs.

The bad news is that we are now 4th in the Team Trivia stakes. The other bit of bad news is that we were looking forward to a whole day at sea but unfortunately the weather has deteriorated and it is cool and cloudy so no sunbathing. Time to do the Martini tasting instead!

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