Phaestos, Knossos, and Arzak expansion

12 June 2018

Early morning today as we were up and on the road to the Palace of Phaestos at 8am. The kids were less than thrilled about looking at "4,000 year old rocks" but some of us found it fascinating that these walls and some pottery were still intact after so many years. How many of OUR homes will be archaeological sites someday?

We then found our way back to Vasilla's (where the Derzak's had their first meal that set the bar extremely high for food on Crete). All I can say is, "Wow!" The food elsewhere, while delicious, just doesn't compare to this place run by a few brothers and their uncle who use ingredients they grow themselves. So, you order something simple as your meal, like pork souvlaki, and you get not only your pork souvlaki, but also tzatziki with pita and bread, 3 different dips, fresh fruit, ice cream, apples and yogurt, and something called raki at the end which, for lack of a better definition, can be referred to as local moonshine. Thankfully, they flavor theirs with peach or passionfruit or something to make it more palatable for the moonshine shy. All of this for 8 people for €110. Tummies full, next stop...Knossos.

Knossos is another 4,000 year old palace that essentially served as a little city for the peaceful Minoan civilization in that area. A brief history lesson, King Minos was the legendary ruler of the island whose name is used to describe this Cretan society. The Minoans came to power before the Mycenaean civilization in mainland Greece. The Minoans did not speak Greek and they did not have a proper alphabet, but rather utilized hieroglyphs that we refer to as Linear A. But now back to the story. Knossos was unearthed by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the early 1900s. He rebuilt parts of the palace in how it likely appeared as most of the contents of the palace, including frescoes, are now on display in the archaeological museum in Heraklion.

Oldest paved road in Europe!

Palace of Knossos

Next step...Derzaks and Claire off to gather provisions for our big, early day at Samaria Gorge tomorrow while remaining Arnolds head to Heraklion to collect Jackie and Xi!

Little beach on the drive back to Asi Gonia