Today, we were supposed to visit Athens, but because of strikes, protests and all public transportation and monuments being shut down, we instead visited Crete.
We are pulling into the harbor early in the morning.
On our way to visit some ruins and passing some local businesses.
The street signs are in both Greek and English.
A typical food market.
Here we are at the network of historical sites at Knosos.
The entrance to the ruins.
This was the first area we visited.
These ruins belonged to the Minoan civilization, which was the third oldest civilization known to mankind.
These ruins date back to 3,000 BC!
Some of the buildings were amazing when considering how old they were.
A painting in one of the rooms we visited, depicting how they fought and killed bulls.
Lynda listening to our guide.
We were literally astounded at how well developed this civilization was.
This was the Queen's throne room.
Another room in the Queen's palace.
The detail of the stone work was amazing.
They took into account grading and drainage in their building concepts.
The fact that these colors are still this vibrant after 5,000 years is stunning.
Check out those columns.
There was a huge mural of a bull in what was left of this building.
They even had a sewage system that ran under their stone pathways.
An entrance road to this area of ruins.
After the ruins, we visited the capital of Iraklion which has a fortified wall around the city.
This is a plaza downtown.
A fountain in the middle of the older district.
As you can see, it is a mixture of old and new.
An older piece of architecture.
This is the place where Lynda and I ate lunch.
A typical European pedestrian market place.
We stopped here for some sweets on the way back to the ship.
Again, you have the new shopping area right around the corner from the old.
Our ship as seen from downtown.
This is a mountain that sits in the area of the ancient Minoan ruins.
Iraklion in the evening as we are leaving the port.
1 comment:
Those ruins really are neat and well-preserved. Thanks for sharing. :)
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