Heraklion Museum of Antiquities

We visited today, after a rather hairy drive through the traffic, and got parked close by. The Museum is almost exclusively devoted to Minoan history, and there are many rooms and thousands of exhibits: it is really well worth going to see: especially impressive are the carved bull heads and the pottery with designs of Octopi on them also the large room devoted to the murals recovered from the palaces, which are of excellent quality. If you are in Crete, don't miss this!

Heraklion Museum of Antiquities

We visited today, after a rather hairy drive through the traffic, and got parked close by. The Museum is almost exclusively devoted to Minoan history, and there are many rooms and thousands of exhibits: it is really well worth going to see: especially impressive are the carved bull heads and the pottery with designs of Octopi on them also the large room devoted to the murals recovered from the palaces, which are of excellent quality. If you are in Crete, don't miss this!

Wednesday 27th Sept Visit to a Minoan town

Today we drove along the old national to visit a complete Minoan Town at Gournes: this was on top of a hill overlooking the sea and very scenic indeed. We have been amazed at the size of the ruins of these ancient monuments, it's a great pity that so little is known about them.
We continued along the lower coast where we found the beaches were rather stony before coming back through the mountains and the village of Kastelli.
Travel is slow in these parts and it was quarter to three before we got back to the hotel

Tuesday 26th Sept visit to Phaistos

We drove across Crete to visit the second largest Minoan Palace at Phaistos today, and it was well worth the considerable journey to get there.
It was obvious that a great deal of the site is still undiscovered and buried in the hillside, I shouldn't be surprised if it isn't at least as big as Knossos once it has all been revealed.
We had lunch in the museum cafe with splendid views out over the valley and the distant misty mountains.
The big problem with Crete (apart from other drivers) is the sheer scale of the place, and the narrow winding roads, not to mention the fact that we were on a new motorway section that suddenly turned into a very rough track as the road wasn't finished over the top of the local hill!
Still we had a good day out and arrived back mid afternoon ready for a rest.

Sunday in crete

We had a good day visiting the Malia minoan palace, followed by a drive over the mountains to Agios Nikolis and along the coast to Spinolonga island, followed by a rainy trip over winding mountain pas roads back home

Drving in Crete

Yeasterday was our first day of driving in Crete. It was an experience!
Driving on the "wrong side of the road" isn't too bad, but dealing with lunatics at the same time makes it very interesting! If the British Traffic police were drafted in to improve the local driving, most people would end up in jail, the Taxi drivers would end up being either hung or jailed for life!
(Joking of course) but boy, I have never seen worse and more dangerous driving, nor drivers that are more impatient!
Knossos was an absolute wonder, we were so impressed, and today we drove across to the other side of the island, this wasn't easy as the maps are unhelpful, and most road signs are in Greek!
Nevertheless we ha d a great day out. The scenery wa beautiful up in the mountains.

Our Crete Holiday

first day in crete and a new experience, we hired a Quad bike and explored the seafront at Gouves, it stretches for miles in all directions, and ends on a beach in both directions.
Naturally it rained aty one point, but it was a new experience and we enjoyed it