(Note: Click on small pictures to see a larger version)

The island of Crete, right in the middle of the Mediterranean, has been a crossroads since the invention of ships. Before the Greek city-states got organized, a great civilization arose on Crete which dominated the Mediterranean about 5,000 years ago. This is the Minoan civilization, named after king Minos who built his palace at Knossos, just outside the current capital city and principal port of Heraklion. For a detailed course in the Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean from Dartmouth, click here.

The Palace of Knossos was partially restored by Sir Arthur Evans who did the early excavation around the turn of the century. It gives a taste of just how magnificent the structure was, and how extensive. Running water was piped through the palace giving the Minoans the worlds first indoor plumbing. The complexity of the palace gave rise to the myth of the Labyrinth of Minos and the Minotaur.

The Archeological museum holds many treasures, including the Phaestos disk which helped decode one of the two Minoan scripts. The other is still a mystery. A number of symbols common to Minoan art can be found here: The bull (their sacred animal), the double headed axe, and the octopus.

When we finished our tour of the museum in Heraklion, we decided to walk back to the ship rather than take the tour bus. Heraklion is a much larger, busier city than any of the Greek ports we had put into so far, and we took a couple of wrong turns. This made the walk quite a bit longer than we had planned, but the adventure was not unwelcome.

Along the way we looked for a likely place to have lunch. A little restaurant seemed popular, so we sat down by the window. The owner invited us back to the kitchen to select from what was prepared that day. I don't know what it was, but it was GOOD! When asked what we wanted to drink, Fritz hesitantly asked for some Retsina, "But good Retsina ...?" "I know just what you mean,"replied the owner, "I have some that I guarantee you'll like: my father makes it!" Sure enough, it was a nice, dry white wine seasoned with a hint of pine. Very refreshing, and just the thing for eating Greek food and watching the people strolling by.

Some day we'll have to come back and visit the rest of this large island...