We arrived in Crete to find its shorline looking much like Athens (not a compliment). There were two tours offered: Palace of Knossos tour and "A taste of Crete" (a winery tour, countryside stops for Greek "tapas" and more wine tasting, etc.) The historians of the group went to Knossos and the rest of the group were tasting Crete. Might be fun to try and guess where your family member ended up. I am outting myself by telling you all that I went to Knossos. I spend time in art history covering the subject and I wanted to see it in person. There are mixed reviews from the group that went to Knossos and I'll save my bottom line here. The tour is very much from the archeological angle of this Bronze age archeological site. The connection that most would have to this site is the mythological Minotaur/labrynth and King Midas with the golden touch. This civilization, like so many we see on these rich historical tours, display the tremendous engineering skills and modern approach to life, with civic planning, infrastructure, plumbing both indoor and out, "air conditioning," etc. While this place is too much to recap here in the blog, it is worth noting that the mark of Sir Arthur Evans on the site, is indelible. He is the well respected archeologists that oversaw the excavation of the site and the controversial reconstruction of much of what we see today. He has been able to date the earliest inhabitants of Knossos to 8000BC while carbon dating has been able to pinpoint it to approx 6500 BC. Either way....tis old and very interesting.
We went back to the ship and ferried along to Santorini, dissembarking at about 4:30 to tender boats that took us ashore. All of this boat transport happens into the area of the island that is a crescent shape and the point of speculation about this being the place of the lost city of Atlantis. In reality, this speculation has arrisen because of a tremendous volcanic eruption that took a huge center portion of the island below the sea, leaving a crescent shape ocean, with the arms of the island wrapped around it. I had to work very hard to consider any place more beautiful that I have seen, than this. Rum Point Beach in Grand Cayman. Isle of Capri in Italy MIGHT run the races with this place, but definitely nowhere else. We wove tightly to the side of the mountain to ascend to OIA village of Santorini by charter bus. Oia is the white homes with blue domes and shutters that you think of when you think of Greece. This is also where The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed. It's a beautiful site, despite the arid ground that is as much dessert like as it is green. It's very rocky (volcano, duh) and dry, dirt, etc. and intermittent green space. As long as you look through this, at the houses and then off the ocean which seems infinite, it's breathtaking. Mom and I decided to perch on the second story of a taverna and take it all in from there as we only had about an hour. We shared two local appetizers: Fava bean salad (theirs are yellow..this salad was yum!) and a shrimp cocktail spun Greek style. Good food, good company and great food. We were able to see rooftops of the rich, sunbathers, hear the churchbells of the town square being wrung by one man, etc. Oia, is like a stage and and all of these actors are putting on a play for the tourists. In fact, this is how they live and it's as unique as it is charming.
I will have to get a first hand account from the adventure group that went out on a sail boat to a volcanic area to climb up and then ferry out to a place where they could dive off of the boat and swim. I shall save their account for it's own blog as I am sure it's a fantastic story.
We are off to pack "10lbs of potatoes into a 5 lbs sack" as the consequences of our shopping are here and now. We will dissembark tomorrow morning and pray that we can get home with all of our goodies and no extra charge for our luggage.
We went back to the ship and ferried along to Santorini, dissembarking at about 4:30 to tender boats that took us ashore. All of this boat transport happens into the area of the island that is a crescent shape and the point of speculation about this being the place of the lost city of Atlantis. In reality, this speculation has arrisen because of a tremendous volcanic eruption that took a huge center portion of the island below the sea, leaving a crescent shape ocean, with the arms of the island wrapped around it. I had to work very hard to consider any place more beautiful that I have seen, than this. Rum Point Beach in Grand Cayman. Isle of Capri in Italy MIGHT run the races with this place, but definitely nowhere else. We wove tightly to the side of the mountain to ascend to OIA village of Santorini by charter bus. Oia is the white homes with blue domes and shutters that you think of when you think of Greece. This is also where The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed. It's a beautiful site, despite the arid ground that is as much dessert like as it is green. It's very rocky (volcano, duh) and dry, dirt, etc. and intermittent green space. As long as you look through this, at the houses and then off the ocean which seems infinite, it's breathtaking. Mom and I decided to perch on the second story of a taverna and take it all in from there as we only had about an hour. We shared two local appetizers: Fava bean salad (theirs are yellow..this salad was yum!) and a shrimp cocktail spun Greek style. Good food, good company and great food. We were able to see rooftops of the rich, sunbathers, hear the churchbells of the town square being wrung by one man, etc. Oia, is like a stage and and all of these actors are putting on a play for the tourists. In fact, this is how they live and it's as unique as it is charming.
I will have to get a first hand account from the adventure group that went out on a sail boat to a volcanic area to climb up and then ferry out to a place where they could dive off of the boat and swim. I shall save their account for it's own blog as I am sure it's a fantastic story.
We are off to pack "10lbs of potatoes into a 5 lbs sack" as the consequences of our shopping are here and now. We will dissembark tomorrow morning and pray that we can get home with all of our goodies and no extra charge for our luggage.
No comments:
Post a Comment