August 1 Heraklion, Greece

August 1, Monday - Heraklion ( Crete ) Greece 

The major attractions here are the Palace of Knossos and the Minoan maze. They are both a bit of a drive out of town. We chose to walk again today. 

The ancient fort guarding the harbor, Koules Fortress,was our primary objective here. It was a long walk from the ship along the water. It was very hot and we were very determined. We purchased admission tickets from a very dour clerk clerk who would not give us the senior discount because we were not from a a European country. She was angry that we even dared to ask for it. Oh well, we would not let that get us down. 

We did the usual Finn museum tour. We read everything and walked or climbed every open route. Alice did a wonderful job of negotiating stairways. We got all the way to the top of this impressive fort. 

Fort is much taller than picture portrays. 

We Left the fort in search of the Orthodox Cathedral. It has become apparent that you can’t get to any major attraction without passing innumerable restaurants and shops. It makes us wonder what industry other than tourism exists here. We wonder how all of these ventures survive in the off season. They are certainly crowded now but do the locals support them when we are all gone?

We managed to navigate our way through the tourist stuff with the help of Maps.me and Google Maps. We were glad we persevered because what we found was beautiful and we had it almost to ourselves. 

On our way back to the ship we passed a fountain that was once the focal point of a large park. That is now a square full of restaurants. We quickly walked through it dodging tables and diners on the way. That took us into a neighborhood of nice apartments and simple shops. We stopped in a small park to rest and drink some of our water. As we relaxed a pigeon on a branch overhead pooped on Alice’s purse. Thank goodness it was not on her head. It was a devil to clean up. 

The Dirty Birds

Refreshed we walked into another neighborhood. This was more cramped feeling than the neighborhood we had just left. 

Unexpectedly we stumbled on a small Catholic Church. We were very surprised. Its simplicity is stark by comparison to the Orthodox cathedral. 

A walk through another neighborhood got us back to the sea and the terminal. 

While this may sound like our typical day, we actually walked 5.3 miles. As we have so often discovered, nothing is as close as it seems. 

We returned home to Oosterdam pleased with our progress. After dinner and the show we had no problem falling asleep. 

Another fine day.