Heraklion, Crete

Sunday, April 27th, 2014 Heraklion
Yesterday morning we had breakfast on our balcony again and checked out of our hotel by 11:30. We left our bags in the luggage room and went up into town for the afternoon to take a last look at the view. Santorini is incredibly scenic but there's only so many pictures that you can take.

 Our hotel service gave us a ride down to the new port about 4:30 pm. On the way we chatted with a young American couple who had arrived the same time we did. While we waited for the ferry, we sat on the pier and talked with them some more about travel.

 Our catamaran ferry was a little late but finally arrived. As soon as we left, several crew members walked around passing out paper vomit bags. The sea didn't seem that rough but once we got into the open water away from the islands there were long rolling waves that made the ferry pitch back and forth the whole time. Before long there were people vomiting all around us. The crew attendants walked around constantly exchanging used bags for new ones. Luckily, the ferry wasn't full so there was no-one right next to us who was sick. We just kept our eyes focused on the TV monitor, which featured a cooking show including processing raw chicken, of all things. Neither of us were sick although we weren't that comfortable.
Finally, after a couple of hours we reached Heraklion. Since we had no map and were tired, we took a cab that cost 8 euros ($12) to our hotel. It probably should have been 6 euros but you have to pick your battles.Eight wasn't that much of a rip-off.
This morning we got up early, showered and were in the hotel breakfast room by 7 am. We wanted to get out to Knossos Palace, the famous Minoan archaeological site, before any cruise ship or other organized tours arrived. It seemed like some athletic looking people got to breakfast early but we didn't think anything of it.
We got ready and headed out to find the bus. The hotel desk guy told us to where to buy bus tickets from a mini-mart and where to find the right bus stop. He said the bus went by every 20 minutes. We got tickets, got to the stop and waited. On the way, we had seen a few people who looked like first aid or emergency medical personnel on the street corners. After we waited a long time at the stop, Anita asked a woman who passed by who told us that, because it was Sunday, the bus might only come every hour. We were okay with that. Then we saw the street where the bus would be coming from being blocked off. Anita asked another woman who told us that the bus would not come because of the run. Finally we clued in that today was the Heraklion race for "Greece Runs", some kind of national running event.
We walked about 10 minutes down to the bus station where we went to the wrong counter for the Knossos bus but the right counter to buy our bus tickets to Vrysses tomorrow. Then we found the right counter and discovered that our tickets from the mini-mart would work for a bus leaving for Knosssos by a different route in 10 minutes.Finally we were off to Knossos Palace. The trip took only about 15 minutes.

 The hill where Knossos Palace is located has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. The Minoans, who possibly reached their peak a couple of thousand years BC, were probably the first advanced European civilization. However, very little is known about them. The British archaeologist,  Arthur Evans, who did most of the excavation and reconstruction from about 1900 to 1930, has been criticised for going too far with the limited evidence and using too much modern concrete to re-create his vision of the palace of the Minoans. However, if he hadn't, this site would probably be just a pile of excavated rubble. Re-construction of ancient sites is extremely complicated.

 One of the rooms that Evans re-built.

 Part of the re-construction.

When we got back to the port, we walked around past the "Koules Fort", built by the Venetians on the breakwater. Our hotel in Heraklion is inside the old walled Venetian city but, other than the massive city walls and a few nice old buildings, it's mostly a bit tired looking.
We got back to our hotel just as a thunderstorm broke. It seems to be clearing up again and the weather for the next week sounds good. Tomorrow we leave for the southwestern Crete countryside.