2025_0917 Iraklion, Crete, Greece...

Wednesday, September 17th, we had an 8:15am meeting in the Viva Theater for our tour in Crete. we would visit the ruins of Knossos. This meant a quick breakfast at Surfside Cafe. We were one of the first to arrive at the theater. I was able to ask the man who directs us when it is time for our shore excursion to leave the theater about the man we lost the day before on Santorini. He assured me the man was found and made it to the port. Hallelujah!

Sebastiana was the guide. She was easily the most knowledgeable guide of the entire trip. We learned she has been doing this tour for 40 years!! Yep, she knew her stuff. Yani was the coach driver.

This is a map of Crete. The Viva would dock in Iraklion, the capital of Crete. It is underlined in blue. Just below that is a blue dot that is where the city of Knossos is located and the ruins of the Knossos Palace are located there. The drive took about 30 minutes. 

Knossos is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. Once again, I watched several documentaries about this site which piqued my curiosity to see the site. The site was a major center of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. Knossos is considered by many to be the oldest city in Europe. Knossos is dominated by the monumental Palace of Minos. Like other Minoan palaces, this complex of buildings served as a combination religious and administrative center rather than a royal residence. 

In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelt in a palace at Knossos. His wife, Pasiphae. gave birth to the Minotaur after mating with a bull. King Minos had Daedalus construct a labyrinth, a very large maze in which to retain his son, the Minotaur. The myth of the Minotaur tells that Theseus, a prince from Athens, whose father was an ancient Greek king named Aegeus, the basis for the name of the Greek sea (the Aegean Sea), sailed to Crete, where he was forced to fight a terrible creature called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half man, half bull, and was kept in the Labyrinth – a building like a maze – by King Minos, the ruler of Crete. The king's daughter, Ariadne, fell in love with Theseus. Before he entered the Labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread which he unwound as he went into the Labyrinth so that he could find his way back by following it. Theseus killed the Minotaur, and then he and Ariadne fled from Crete, escaping her angry father. 

This is a diagram of the ruins of Knossos. We did not follow the line that is the suggested route as we toured. Sebastiana knows the place well and led us on the route she felt was best for us. We actually entered and went first to the place with three circles on the left center of the diagram to begin our tour. The site has a left side of buildings and a right side of buildings with a central courtyard in the middle. We toured the left side first, then we toured the right side and ended up at the 'Theater' which is #12 at the top.

Let's walk through Knossos. First we will tour the left side of the diagram. This side of the site had building two and three stories tall. The buildings would have have gorgeous frescos on the walls. Many of these are in the museum. 

Trees had tall thick trunks that were excellent for making the columns in the palace. 

Several altars were found along this wall. This would have been a grand hallway to enter the palace complex.

This are hard to see but behind these people is a monument with bull horns. Bulls played significantly in their worship and belief system. It was a symbol of strength and fertility. The bull horn monument is located on end of the central courtyard. 

On this left side of the palace complex was the storage area for the town, not just the palace. It was a couple of stories tall and had many individual stalls with storage containers in them. 

Sebastian is showing us the base of what would have been a column.

This is the best view I could get of the central courtyard. 

The Throne Room is made up of an outer courtyard when the wooden chair is located. The interior room is where a stone throne made of one slab of stone is located. There is also a purple bowl in front of it. 

Now we will walk through the right side of the diagram. This section housed the rooms for the queen and the king. This side was also four stories high. 

Located here is a spiral staircase. It is not like the circular ones you envision when you hear 'spiral' staircase. Instead it is stone steps that goes down four floors. They are evenly spaced around a central pillar and made it an easy walk up and down. You can see part of it in these two picture. 

The Queen's Room (#6 on the diagram). 

The King's Room (#7 on the diagram).

This is the workshop area (#9 and #10 on the diagram). 

A good example of the water system that was in place. There is a spout above to channel the water to a certain area. The grate at the bottom of the picture is a cistern for collecting the water. It even has a fig tree trying to grow in it today. 

Customs House (#12 on the diagram).

Road from the Customs House back into the palace complex.

A cat for Bailey.

We stopped outside of where the Theater (#13 on the diagram) is located for a final talk by Sebastiana. Note the road in front of us. There are two raised paths on the road. 

After about 1 1/2 hours of walking, Claude and I headed to the coach. Then to the Viva. 

We would enjoy lunch at Surfside Cafe before headed to our stateroom for a brief nap. Then we enjoyed our balcony view of sailboats and airplane shadows and our Snickers bars. There was an airport on the island. You would hear a big plane coming but your couldn't see the plane as our balcony faced the water, not land. Before you ever saw the plane, you could see a shadow that looked like a big whale under the water got across the water in front of our balcony. I tried to get a video of this event but was never quick enough to get it. 

Our neighbors on the balconies on either side of ours were French in cabin and Irish in cabin on the other side. Cool. 

We watched another cruise ship next to us leave port. It always takes a tug boat and the pilots boat to do this. 

Back to the Hudson for dinner. Sandi had roasted vegetable salad, lemon pepper shrimp, and sugar-free carrot cake. Claude ate French onion soup, New York strip steak and Nutella creme brulee.

For our evening, we went to Deck 8 and found a spot to sit. Richard joined us again for an update of our adventures. We thought of the man in the Viva Theater that directs us as we all try to get to our shore excursions. He told us there are two terms the crew uses on the Viva. One is 'banana'. When you do something that should be done differently, you supervisor gives you a 'banana'. You don't want a banana. The other is 'talkie talkie' for a crew member who talks too much. All crew members are over-the-top friendly and cheerful. We thought Richard might be in the 'talkie talkie' class. We appreciated him talking to us though. 

Back to our balcony for the evening to watch the sun set.