My travel in Europe:
Crete, island of Greece, 2018

Content:

• Day 1: Planning and Hersonissos
• Day 2: Knossos and Heraklion
• Day 3: Hersonissos, Koutouloufari, Piskopiano, old Hersonissos and Malia
• Day 4: Heraklion and Koutouloufari
• Day 5: Boat tour to Spinalonga
• Day 6: Jeep tour to Gortinas, Phaistos and Skinakas
• Day 7: Hersonissos and Koutouloufari

Day II: Visit to Knossos and Heraklion:

Every day we check the weather forecast and plan our day after that. Today no rain and then we decided to go to Knossos and if there is time left after that we do a short visit in old city of Heraklion. Anyway we stop at Heraklion central bus station because we had to change the bus.

Google Map over Crete, travel to Knossos and Heraklion from Hersonissos:

Road from Hersonissos to Heraklion:

The road from Hersonissos to Heraklion follow the coast with beautiful views. The number of the bus was 30 and the ticket cost 3.30 Euro. At Heraklion central bus station we change to a new bus to Knossos, the number of that bus was 20 and the ticket cost 1.70 Euro. The total distance is 30 km.

Knossos:

Here we had arrived at Knossos village and that's where the bus stop. From here just a few hundred meters to walk to the Knossos museum.

Knossos museum:

In late September there isn't very much visitors to the museum. The entrance fee was 15 Euro, but we added one Euro and then we also got a ticket for the Heraklion museum, we have three days until we must have used it.

From the entrance there is a short walk to the archaeological area.

Not all the ruins have been excavated, here you see building stones that still partly is buried in the sand, about two meter of sand cover the building stones.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Knossos:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Knossos (Knossos, Wikipedia)

This place has been called Europe's oldest city, about 9000 years old. What you see here is buildings from the Palace from the Minoan period about 4000 years ago.

These walls belongs to the West Magazines.

The big square in front of the walls with a fundament of a column.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Minoan Civilization:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Minoan_civilization (Minoan Civilization, Wikipedia)

This looks like a water drainage, think about it, this Palace is maybe 4000 years old and they solved the problem from heavy rain and flooding. Something we not always can handle today.

Turn on the satellite data in the Google map below and zoom in to see the details of the Minoan Palace of Knossos:

When they excavated and built this museum they also restored part of the buildings with the look they believed it had once.

The symbol of the Minoan people, horn of a bull.

New made details of concrete of the restoration about 80 years ago.

Probably a socket for a column.

This was very interesting, exactly such pits we have carved in the rocks in Sweden. We do not know exactly what they were used to, but probably they had oil in them in a ceremony process.

Theatrical area and Royal road, the excavator Evans called it so because he thought it has something to do with a theatre.

Now we have walked around here for more than three hours and taking many hundreds of photos and doing videos. Exhausted!

Heraklion:

Back to Heraklion by bus, we stopped at the Eleftherias square. We are standing nearly or on the old city walls and have a terrific view over the landscape. Here is also the Heraklion museum that we shall visit some of the following days.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Heraklion:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Heraklion (Heraklion, Wikipedia)

We decided to walk down to the harbor and visit the fortress, but first something to eat. From the restaurant we have a view towards the fortress.

Even if Heraklion is a big modern city today we could see old fishing boats in the harbor. It looks like they use them also.

Behind the road you see four arcs, we could later read that it has been shipyards. Once they were connected to the water and even tall sailing ships could go direct inside.

Koules Fortress, it was built about 500 yeas ago but it has had many different shapes over the years.

The walls are massive!

We bought tickets and enter inside the fortress, the entrance fee was just 2 Euro.

Behind the bars you see the new groyne, the old one ended just outside the walls of the fortress.

At the afternoon it starts to be a bit windy, at Knossos it was very hot.

At Wikipedia you find more information about the Koules Fortress:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Koules Fortress (Koules Fortress, Wikipedia)

In old days the ocean went all the way to the wall on the right side.

From the beginning it was not a fortress here, it was a light house, maybe the tower you see is a rest from that.

After a long day with long walks we now heading home.

When walking to the central bus station we passed the Venetian port and we had the Venetian walls around the corner. Inside the tunnel there were old photos from the early 20th century. On these old photos we could see that the old harbor was almost intact in those days.

At Wikipedia you find more information about the Fortifications of Heraklion and the Venetian walls:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Fortifications of Heraklion (Fortifications of Heraklion, Wikipedia)

Now we are really tired and need to sit down and rest. Lot of people at the bus and they have to bring in one more. The local busses was of very high standard.

Yes, something to eat! We are now back where we live in Hersonissos and could relax.

The Greeks served water in very small glasses, they called the water Raki.

The last chance to see this sign, in just a few hours the wind and rolling waves have taken it down.

Really heavy wind coming in and rolling waves. Also the table we sat and eat at yesterday evening is gone. Will the storm affect our planes for tomorrow?