Crete is aMAZing

The Stinsons at Knossos; Palace of King Minos and the legendary Minotaur
see all photos »

Here we are in "sunny but not quite as warm as Rhodes" Crete. I think the hottest it has been here is 35, and there is often a wind that is cooler than on Rhodes. Our hotel is in a town about an hour east of Iraklio, or Heraklion where we flew in. We got here quite late on Wednesday night. It was really hard finding our hotel in the dark. It's very hard to find street names and all the towns and cities are quite convoluted. You think you're on a main road, and all of a sudden it's so narrow you can't drive down it. Cars park on both sides of the road and there is barely room for one skinny little car to drive inbetween. Forget meeting another vehicle!

The Baynes' at the entrance to Zeus' Cave; high up a mountain in central Crete
see all photos »

Our points of interest so far have been: Knossos, the Minoan Palace of King Minos. The legend of the Minotaur and the Maze of the Labrynth. Daniel was hoping we'd find a maze underground, but apparently the whole palace is the labrynth. We had a very interesting tour guide. She had a strong accent though. When she was describing Griffins, a legendary animal part lion, part eagle and part snake, Shannon had to ask her 3 times to repeat "eagle" before some of us got it. But she was a very smiley, knowledgable lady.

Brad in the Dikteon Cave, or Zeus' Cave
see all photos »

After that we visited the Archaelogical Museum, back in town (Iraklio). It was under construction, but the stuff we did get to see was very interesting. There were frescoes, jugs, jewelry; all sorts of stuff that was found in the palace when it was excavated. It was tricky to actually find this place, but we did it. Perhaps a GPS would come in handy here....

After supper back at the hotel we walked the streets of Agios Nikolaos. It is a very pretty town on the coast, with a bit of a bay, beside the main bay....lots of stores and boats that go in and out at night playing music. We saw one of these ships come in and Julia thought it looked like lots of fun; with the people standing up waving their arms to the music.

The girls going up the mountain to the cave on a donkey!
see all photos »

Today, Friday the 18th we headed off after breakfast to the cave where Zeus was born!! The Dicteon Cave. Brad says it doesn't matter how I spell anything, as every sign and book and pamplet spells everything differently. Going through a tunnel on the highway the sign reads: tunnel on one side, and tunel on the other!! We had to deek off the main highway for about an hour or so, and the road was very narrow and winding. Up and down hills, through little towns.Some of us got a little carsick after awhile. There were tavernas on the side of the road and people at little stands in the middle of nowwhere selling homemade honey, wine, and their own walnuts and almonds. We found 3 kinds of little plums that were very sweet. (On the way back we bought some stuff from an grandmotherly lady to eat on the road. This was actually a highlight; stopping at a roadside stand. I have never had such good almonds, the almond extract just oozed out. They were so flavourful!)

Enjoying a beach about 20 minutes from our hotel in Agios Nikolaos - thanks for the cover up, Kris!!
see all photos »

But the cave was very interesting, all lit up with stalagmites and stalactites. It was cool in there but not as cold as caves in BC. There was a 15 minute hike from the car to the cave, and Brad bought the girls a donkey ride up the mountain!

In the afternoon we vegged at a beach about 20 minutes south of our town. It had WAVES, which we loved.

We are relaxing at the poolside tables now, heading to bed soon. Tomorrow we may do the beach again. Sunday morning we have to leave early to get to our fast ferry by 9:15 in Iraklio to head to Santorini.