Matala Bay Heraklion

... and we had about one hour before the ship was scheduled to sail at 8 pm. Sandra was nursing a cold (blame the bus air conditioning), so she headed back to the ship with David and Holly while the rest of us strolled the shops that were still open. I found a couple of reasonable souvenirs among the stores offering traditional Cretan artwork, copies of pieces from different archaeological museums, jewelry and embroidery. And Yahoo! I found an ATM ...

Well I suppose we were pretty spoilt in Santorini. But I have to say Crete wasn't exactly what we had in mind!

We left Santorini on the slow boat (took about 3 hours) to Crete (which we heard was fabulous) and were sorely disappointed!

The weather was grey and pouring with rain - like really p!ssing down - and neither of us had any wet weather gear (or cagoules). Bugger. Not such good weather for people with yucky head colds!

Anyway, we ...

Yesterday we got up at 5am in order to catch our plane from Santorini. Most of our group was on the same plane , so we said our sleepy good byes. We flew on Aegean Air which has nice new planes. We went to Athens and then basically retraced the short flight by flying to Crete. We staggered into hotel Lato at 10am where we received a special bonus upgrade to the 5th floor executive suite. 2 rooms on the 5th floor with an ...

We had decided to go to Knossos on our last full day (Friday) as it is close to Iraklio where Chris and Milly will fly from on Friday night. But it made sense to take the last day in a more leisurely fashion and visit the Minoan palace of Knossos on Thursday. So we did.

After a brisk drive through the usual nightmare traffic and narrow streets, and our usual lunch, this time just across the road from the palace, we entered the grounds. The entry fee is €6 ...

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 ...

... a while but I am really ready and looking forward to it! Flying into Vancouver next wednesday then somehow getting over to Victoria where will meet dad, Lena and Karen then on friday mom is arriving! oh man it is going to be so much fun! then on sunday we are all flying home together! Which I think is really nice!

So thats about it have to get out in that sunshine to keep up my dark tan ;-)) Life is so hard!!!

... jump in and it takes your breath away. So creepy mc creepy comes with us and I go right away and buy dave and myself a beer (now the beers here are probably half a litre) BUT you can buy other things but we all felt like **** so why not a little hair of the dog- anyways you can go to the beach bar and you can grab a beach chair and just sit and relax but it is just rude if you don't get something to drink as you are there using the facilities. So Dave is his usual ...

ok so I have gone this long in my life and hear I am thinking how WONDERFUL life is sitting in the shade of a olive trea feet up on another chair reading an engaging book sipping on Ouzo and coke and then BAM sharp pain in ALMOST my arm pit! AGHHHHH I YELP a high pitch EEEE into the air jumping out of my seat slapping at myself profusly (thinking a nasty spider has copme along dropped on me bitten me and is now in my dress) but NO look into where the pain was (hard ...

... stationn which didn't even GO to the bus station dropped me off on this dark road and poiunted for me to walk down this even darker alley... WHAT! haha well what could I di! jumped off adn walked with my luggage clenching my fist thinking allright I can take ANYONE on (which is a TOTAL lie I would be stabbed and robbed before I knew what hit me!) So got to the bus station JUST as they were closing up GREEAT stuck in ****** Heraklion! like Athens but ...

... but also about the foibles of archaeologists. "Here are the rooms for storage, here are the rooms for religious practice, here are the rooms for banqueting, here are the living quarters.... We know this palace was at least two stories high, even four stories in some sections, but when all you have left is the basement after 3000 years, your theories tend to cram all the activities into the only level you can see."