Eleni Palace Heraklion

... get a sense of how noble Minoans lived. The site leaves many questions as to what ultimately happened to this civilization that disappeared after 1380 BC when a fire destroyed much of the site.

2. We left the palace shortly after 3 and drove to nearby Heraklion, Crete's largest city and home to the Archaeological Museum. David and Holly visited the museum while the rest of us explored the city, which had changed dramatically since my last visit ...

... next day and caught a cab back in to Chania. We then caught the bus back to Heraklion (or Iraklio) and the fun of finding somewhere to stay for our second night on Crete began.

P!ssing down with rain, no cagoules, no money, hungry, nowhere to stay - it was pretty rubbish. Crete is a pretty ****** place as well. Lots of graffiti around and dog poo on the footpaths. But, we managed to get another credit card working and then found an internet cafe ...

... of a water flushing toilet.

Today we will wander around the old city with trips to the open air market and the archeological museum.

The ferry and airplane rides seem to affect my (Nancy's) inner ear in a way that on land, everything continues to move. It is annoying and made hiking up and down rocky hillsides a little extra challenging. Hopefully it will quiet down now that there are nop more ferry rides.

... Greek story tellers - the Minoans were highly organized and technologically advanced some 4000 years ago, and well before the Greeks. The palace grounds were bought from the Turks in 1900, by a British archaeologist, Harold Evans, and he spent the next 35 years investigating and restoring (controversially) the ruins. Well done Evans and another yah boo sucks to Lord Elgin.

We went to one of the beach front bars near Leoniki Residence for cocktails. The view at ...

This campsite is in a wonderful little oasis directly on the beach, in fact surrounded by quiet unspoilt beaches. You can sit at the bar or restaurant and watch the world go by or just listen to the waves crashing on the rocks. When the sun goes down you can retire to the bar after a very tasy meal of moussaka or a wonderful mixed grill with very good prices !! and join the other campers or the locals and be adventurous and take the Raki's or Ouzo's ...

We had a delay. Got up around 3:45 am and left Rose Cottage at 4 O'Clock for the airport. It was already starting to get lioght as we cruised by sleeping English villages. By the time we arrived at the airport it was fully light. Stood in a lond que(sp?) for check-in where we were told that our plane was delayed adnd that would we would hear further news at 10 am! (the joy of ...

... off passengers. The scenery along the way was lovely as we followed the coast to our left and had the villages, olive groves, sheep farms, vineyards and rocky hills on our right. On arriving at the busy main bus station at Iraklio it was a further challenge to get a taxi but soon Malcolm had one organized to share with a ...

... eventual?
- In stanga spre Gouves la capat e un intreg cartier, e al fundatiei Theoxenia din Oros Athos, dar trebuie sa stiti ca nu e voie cu muzica si galagie pana tarziu, maicutele sunt foarte stricte.

Asta e dialogul pe cat mi-l amintesc al intalnirii cu Kir Paschalis, proprietar de agentie imobiliara din Grecia.
Si intr-adevar in Grecia biserica ortodoxa e foarte puternica. Puterea sa e data mai degraba de bogatie imobiliara decat ...

... sure to learn something from this site!! It was much much more interesting with a guide so I actually knew what I was looking at and was more able to picture what it once must have looked like. This place is thousands of years old, but they had plumbing with running water, air circulation system and adequate lighting even to the bottom floors. There were no artifacts or original fresco's here, they are all in the archeology museum. I couldn't quite bring myself to go ...

... with me. It's an amazing feeling to be surrounded by such beauty, to feel so grateful that I'm forging this path on my own, and yet to feel so strongly the love of people an ocean's length away. Thanks, guys! But, we all need real live people around us, too. So I wandered to the nearest bar and waited a reasonable 20 seconds or so before announcing to a roomful of strangers that it was my birthday. This is the wonderful thing about ...