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Today we headed off to the Palace of Knossos to see the ancient Minoan Ruins. This is Crete's top tourist sight and a great visit. It turned out to be a free entry day, nice for the wallet but decidedly not nice for the crowds. Greece is busy and there are often queues (and it's not yet the busy season in these parts). People were swarming everywhere. That didn't really ruin anything tho, just a few photos. As it was free entry there was no queue at the gate but there was a 20 minute queue for the ladies toilet, much to Liz disgust!
We left to drive to Elounda after a good look at these ruins, about an hour's drive to the east coast where we caught a ferry to Spinalonga Island.
First things first, the ferry tickets. We wanted a coffee but when we went to buy the tickets the next ferry was at 2pm - in 5 mins. The guy told us that the next one (so he said) would be at 2.30 so we opted for that one, allowing us to have our coffee first. Greece being Greece, no ferry went at 2.30 (actually, the 2.00 ferry had only left ten minutes earlier) so we had to wait until 3.00. This was fine except that the island closes up the site at 4.00 so we had to rush about a bit.
The ferry trip was lovely and the old ruins of the colony at Spinalonga were a highlight. We could have spent ages longer here but we loved what we saw. Spinalonga was a leper colony in the 1900s, only closing in 1973. The other ruins were ancient Venetian and the best preserved ones we've seen. A fascinating journey through a complete village of ruins set atop an island visible from the mainland.
Back on the ferry then by car down the coast a little to Agios Nikolaos, set around an ocean inlet which is flanked by boardwalks and traditional Greek restaurants. We wandered around the streets then had dinner on the waterfront. Lovely meal, professional restaurant in contrast to some of the laid back tavernas here.
Another lovely day in Crete!!
- comments
amanda I think it might have been the bay of nikolaos i had a painting of in my room/clinic at work :)