Crete, Greece

Crete is a beautiful Greek island with rich history dating back 5000 years, culture and world famous beaches. We are staying in a villa in a village called Sfinari which is on the western coast of Crete.  It is about an hour to the major city Hania or Chania but its pretty close to some world famous beaches - Falarsana, Elafonisi, and Balos.

Driving

Driving here for the first time can be confusing. The signs are written in Roman and Greek alphabets, and some signs only have Greek letters. For someone with no knowledge of Greek, try figuring out where you are going..

Some of the interesting sites in this place are the shrines along the roads. Some are modest while some are quite elaborate, marking sites of accidents or dedications by people who survived accidents or tragedies. A first time driver, has to be careful on the winding hill-top roads, whilst admiring these shrines.

Famous Beaches


Greece has very beautiful beaches, and the most amazing ones are here in Crete.  We have been to Falarsana and Elafonisi.  Falarsana remains one of the best beaches we have seen. The big waves and log rollers are great for splashing around.

Elafinisi is a stunning beach, with powdery white and pink sand. Great for children because of the shallow lagoon and turquoise water.

Raki--is the local drink around here. (It is their "kaikai"). It is offered at dinners. It is quite different from the Raki we had in Turkey.

Wild goats are all over the place. You can only imagine sweet and tasty pepper soup one can have of these naturally grazing, animals. Yum, yum.

 One travel writer relates that this is place where some one accused of stealing will go to Church and swear in the name of Zeus that they are innocent! Quite interesting.

Hania

 It is the largest city on the western coast of Crete and was its capital till 1971.  It played a significant role in the Battle of Crete (WWII).  The Cretan Resistance along with Allied help kidnapped the German commander and suffered severe reprisals as a result.  Some of the damage is still present.

   

Old City--Hania
We went into the Old City - lots of history - Minoan, Venetian, and Ottoman.  

Mosque of Kioutsouk Hassan (a/k/a Mosque of Janissaries) Now used for exhibition.

 

Church of Agios Nikolaos
This church was built by the Venetians in 1205; in 1605 the Ottoman converted it to a Mosque, but in 1918 the Orthodox Church recovered it.  It has one of Hania's remaining minarets

 The Byzantium and Greek flag at Agios Nikolaus, celebrating victory over the Ottoman empire:

Venetian Lighthouse in the background at the harbor

Palace of Knossos, Heraklio, Crete

We arrived Crete at 5:30am on the ferry Preveli.  Our car rental guy was there to meet us and confirmed that the ferry has been running irregularly….Just think if we had missed our ferry in Rhodes – we could have been stranded there. 

We got our car, bought some gas and since we could not check into our villa before 2 pm, we decided to go to see some historical sights and get them out of the way.  Our first port of call was the Minoan Palace of Knossos – “The home of the Minatour and The Labyrinth of Greek Mythology”.  We drove to Knossos - about 15 minutes from the port.  We found parking, stayed in the car for about an hour and then went to a taverna for breakfast.  After a quick breakfast, we went to get our tickets and asked about hiring a tour guide.  At a cost of 100 Euros, we opted to split a guide with another family and started off on the tour. 

The Palace of Knossos: 

The Minoan civilization is the oldest in Europe, while others were stuck in the stone age, the Minoans were living in complex multi-storied palaces with pipes for transporting water, drainage systems,  and indoor plumbing – bathtubs and toilets.

They left behind wall frescos which showed their art with vivid colors and objects – gold, metal and lots of pottery have been found.   Knossos seemed to have functioned as the capital and there have been other palaces and royal retreats found at other locations primarily in Eastern Crete.  The Minoans had a script which has still not been deciphered, and a lot is still unknown about their culture and traditions.  They seemed to have worshiped female deities and we do not know if they were ruled by men or women.

 

 

The Palace of Knossos which is about 4000 years old has been partially and controversially restored but as a result there is more to see for the tourist.  The first palace was destroyed by an earthquake, the second palace (the palace we saw) was built from remnants of the first but much larger and complex was also affected by an earthquake/tsunami related to the Volcanic eruption of Santorini (which is about 110 Km from Crete) and then destroyed by fire.

The palace was built near the sea and river with fresh water coming from the river and dirty water drained into the sea.  One enters the Palace on the Western side which contains the courtyards which seemed to be used for public/religious ceremonies.  This is where we saw the double helix and the bull horns – symbols of the Minoans that repeat around the palace.

Then off to the throne rooms of which there were two.  A copy of the throne found at this site sits at the Hague – a gift to the world of the oldest throne in Europe.

The entry to the throne room:

 The original, 4,000 year old throne.

 In the first throne room is a fresco of a Griffin – a mythical creature with the head of an eagle, body of a lion, and sometimes the tail of a snake.

 In front of a huge, 4,000 year old clay pot.

 There are other frescos – showing bull leaping and another with just a bull. 

The Eastern part of the palace contains the royal living quarters and had some great frescos – dolphins and rosettes, and a woman dancing .  These quarters were situated below ground.  On the way out we saw the exit ramp from the processional west side – a ramp with decorated bull frescos and a theater like structure that was shown in one of the frescos. 

The oldest road in Europe, 4,000 years old.

All in all, we saw a lot and learned a lot.  Then it was off to the Heraklio Archeological museum to see finds from the Minoan culture.  The main museum was closed but they had a temporary exhibit – that takes about 30 mins to 45 mins to walk through and yet they still charged 4 Euros! Should have set the temporary exhibition on the grounds of the palace, and for little or no cost. We saw the original frescos and some interesting pottery as well as some significant jewellery finds.

Photographs of original pieces:

Oh well, we got done with sight-seeing and got in the car to make the 3 hour drive to our villa on the western end of the Island.

Ojemba Meets the Knights

Rhodes, Greece.

Dan Brown’s Da Vinci’s Code got a lot of people excited about the Catholic Church, Knights Templar and conspiracies. For anyone intrigued by the Crusades, the rise and fall of the Medieval Knights—the Hospitallers and Knights of St. John or Knight Templar—Rhodes is the PLACE—maybe next to a visit to Malta. 

The Grand Master was the head of the Knights. One of the main attractions of Rhodes is the Grand Master’s Palace.  It was largely destroyed when the Ottomans took over, but it seems to have been rebuilt to get back to its original stature by the Italians during WWII. There is no doubt that the Grand Master, whoever it was at a time—was important and breathed fear across the world. 


These guys fought for Jerusalem—for the Christian church, and served as protector and paramedic for Christians on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They started off on the good books of the Pope; in fact at some point, they were almost sovereign, exempt from taxation and dues to any government and territories. Kings and royalties were encouraged to donate cash and assets to them—in fact felt obligated to them—because they fought the “good fight.”  As with a lot of things, in some instances, they became so powerful that they threatened the Roman authority. The church had to cut them down to size. The leaders of the Templars were burn at stakes, while the Hospitalliar remained in the good books of the church.

Rhodes was one of the Knight Hospitallier and St. John headquarters.  This was Knight Hospitaller’s last stand before their heroic fall to Sultan Sulayman the Magnificient’s rootless soldiers—(200,000 Ottoman soldiers against 7,000 knights).

You have not seen an old fortified city until you have seen the old city of Rhodes! The Knights built this to withstand all sorts of enemies, with layers of secure walls. No wonder it took the Ottoman thousands of soldiers and years of besieging this place before it fell.  The palace and the church were destroyed but during WWII, the Italians occupied Rhodes and Mussolini restored the Grandmasters palace (evidently for himself but alas he did not get a chance to vacation here) to what it is today.

By the main gate to the Grand Masters Palace:

Stairs in the Grand Master's Palace:

One of the tricks that worked out for us during the tour of the Palace is to hitch on to a great tour guide. We happened on an English speaking, great tour guide leading a good sized group. We stayed a little behind, but close enough to hear everything he had to teach about the place. The strategy worked out perfectly. We all started at the entry to the palace, and left the palace together. We even learned a lot of things that you couldn’t read or quite get from guide books and brochures.

The Old City
At the central square in Rhodes--old city

Cobble stone street leading to the Palace and Church

Big eyes watching

Inside the Rhodes archeological museum

Rhodes  is one of the most visited islands in Greece. It has Old town and the New city. Most tourists seem to stay in the old city. It is the most commercialized, tourist- obsessed small town. Everything seems aimed to separate you from your money. From the guy showing off the cute and smart parrots, to the young kid playing music on the accordion—everyone has the same goal.

Eating and drinking and playing with parrots - see beer boot

Following our short stay here, we got on an overnight ferry to Crete. 
We got to the wrong pier 30 minutes before ferry departure - we had to take a taxi to the boat—for we would have missed the boat if we tried to walk to the ferry rather than pay the 7 Euro Taxi fare. (We thought, after all, it was around the corner).  But we got on the ferry - so on to Crete