About in Crete

Friday 6th – Heraklion / Knossos and about in Crete

A really nice breakfast again down in the hotel.  We seem to be getting cooked breakfasts and not continental as expected which is more points for you Renee.

We headed off to see if we could catch a bus to Knossos to see the birth place of civilisation as we know it.  We find a bus stop in the square and a machine to disperse tickets and a young lady only to willing to give us a hand to play the machine.  Our tickets are still being printed as the bus arrives but no problem and we get on board for what works out to be a 20 minute bus ride.  Knossos is a bit more organised and it costs us E3 to get in because Ngaire lied and said we were Poms and over 65.  It was hard to believe that people would think I was over 65 but we did have one Pom and two over 65ers in the group.

Three of us decided to get a guide.  It cost us E60 but as we had come so far we really wanted to get our value out of it.  It was a bit like another Pompei only 2,000 years older.  If it really had been as the people had surmised then it was truly amazing.  Clay water pipes and a water delivery system.  The columns were actually trees placed routs end up.  The place was a huge palace with supposedly 1440 rooms.  One and the largest of three such palaces in Crete of very similar design and the only one that was being restored.  The weather was quite cold and just as we finished it began to rain.  Fortunately it didn’t come to much.

We caught the bus back into town.  For some reason we couldn’t work out this cost us nearly double what we paid coming out.  It may have been because we had to buy tickets off the driver.

Back in town three of us had a cheese pie for lunch and Doug a filled roll.  Wouldn’t be in a hurry for a cheese pie again, pretty dry and mostly pastry.

We agreed to meet for wine and nibbles at five and each of us went off in respective couples to explore the city.  Margaret and I got up on what I thought was the old wall but what could have been a brilliant tourist attraction was nothing.  I think back to my walk around the wall of Chester and this was nothing.  We found some famous authors grave “Kazantzakis Tomb” on the highest part of the wall but that was not much more than a marble slab and a wooden cross in the ground. We dropped back into the city and wandered before going back to the hotel.  Ngaire had found an even cheaper wine E2.90 for 1.5litre plastic bottle.  I reckon tomorrow it will be 2litres in a plastic bag.  We still had no problem demolishing it with a few chippies as we reviewed all our photos.

We headed out for a meal at about 7.30 and found some upstairs restaurant.  There was hardly anyone else in it so maybe that was a sign.  It was so so but nothing special.  Doug had barbequed Chicken.  I had a beef Frap thing without the Frap and the girls shared a Pizza.  We went for a wander after tea but not much around and a very cold wind so it wasn’t long before we were back in our hotel.

Really hard work we were tired.

Saturday 7th May – Our last day on a Greek Island

A lovely day but that cold biting wind remains.  A big breakfast before we venture out.  We are off to Athens today so need to be back at the hotel by one to get a taxi out to the airport.

The Archaeological Museum is first stop.  Unfortunately that was under renovation but apparently most of the good stuff had been taken out and shown in temporary accommodation.   It was all stuff that had been found at Knossos.  Really interesting.  Somebody must have been good at jig saw puzzles as a lot of the stuff had been glued back together. Nods was fascinated with an etching of a love triangle although she didn’t want to be the one in the middle.

We headed back into town where if you stayed in the sun and sheltered it was really nice.  Got in the shade and unsheltered it was bloody cold.  We wandered through town again and down towards the fort that was guarding the port on the water front.  The waves were crashing too high to be able to walk around it and it was all closed up anyway.  Ngaire & Doug had tried to get around it yesterday and were beaten back by the waves then as well.  We headed back into town and had a coffee at Starbucks,  yes I know you would never see me in one in Wellington but we were desperate for a half way reasonable coffee.  It was ok and good for that part of the world.  It was back to the hotel to pick up our bags and off to the airport.  Our plane was half an hour late but a very enjoyable short flight to Athens in an Airbus A320-200.

Arriving at Athens we decided to be adventuresome and catch the Metro into town.  By the time we had our tickets we worked out it was E7 cheaper than the taxi and still left us with a bit of a walk at the other end.  Not to worry we were here for adventure and that’s what we got.  When we got out of the train at a change over station I discovered I no longer had my wallet.  A pick pocket or just lost it from my pocket I’m not sure we did go through an interesting pack squeeze to get out and of course us with our suitcases made it worse.  Bugger shit dam.  I had about E120 in it but of course my only card.  I rang throught to NZ and had my card stopped and am going to have to rely on Margaret for the rest of the trip.  There are positives in everything.

We hopped off the Metro at Metaxourghio and found our hotel straight away.  Renee there was talk of upping out rating on the hotel as the sun was shining onto out balconies and it was beautiful and warm. Some even thought the new rooms were bigger.  I think that was just the effect of the smaller rooms we had had on the islands.

Doug went out and brought this horrible bottle of wine which we managed to polish off before for setting out to find somewhere to eat.  We found this really nice Chinese restaurant upstairs and down some back alley.  The food was awesome and there was talk of breaking the never repeat rule.  I had spicy chicken, Margaret a fantastic lemon Chicken, Doug sweet & sour prawn and Ngaire Sweet & Sour Pork.  We all cleaned our plates.

We went out and found a hole in the wall machine and back to the King Jason.  We have the next two days to explore Athens.

Tired again, it is tough as you know being a tourist.