March

Spent a lovely morning sketching and painting down by the lake in the centre of town (see later blog for end results!)

Work to do on the boat. We are busy insulating the fridge - the blue polystyrene, then fibre glass and now gelcoat. It's been a long job but will be worth it to save the drain on the batteries when we leave the marina, the weather warms up and we are relying on solar power for all our electric

The last Sunday BBQ at the sailing club before David and Lindsay leave to head for Venice. David is the Englishman with a knotted hankie on his head!

The sailing club at the end of our pontoon where we have the BBQs, Thursday get togethers, music practice, wine tasting etc.

Meal at "Sammie's" just before Chris and Dessi (on the right here) leave to head for the Ionian. They have sailed from New Zealand via Tonga, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Philippines, Indian Ocean, through the Somali pirates (they met the crew from Quest just before that boat was boarded and they were all shot), up through the Red Sea, through the Suez canal and into the Med - they have some amazing stories to tell!!!

A great evening which, as usual, ended with a singsong - we are convinced that Chris knows the words to every song you name!

Sad to wave goodbye to our friends David, Lindsay and Lucifer the cat on Rosa de Venti.

Also a sad day when we said goodbye to Chris and Dessi on Skylark II 

Saturday ramble (yes we were wearing waterproofs!) A bit wet at times but still warm and Dave was able to do the walk too. A beautiful route through woods with such an abundance of wildflowers.

One of the 8 watermills we passed en route. They were often used in sequence to move water up the hillside for irrigation etc.

Bob the dog having a well earned rest at the top of the hill. He and his brother and sister were found in a box in the marina but all are rehomed now - Bob lives on Jolini with Jerry and Caz and is a very popular member of the marina group! 

A wonderful time of year for wildflowers including several varieties of orchid

The view from the village where the walk started and finished - a lovely smell of orange blossom from the trees in the foreground.

Phaistos

Saturday ramble and we met up with Dave and David who were sitting painting part way round our route - subject = a deserted village on the opposite hillside.

Day trip to Phaistos - a Minoan palace on the south coast of Crete. This is the view from the entrance - they had this sort of vista 360 degrees from the palace.

A lot of ruins have been excavated but not reconstructed as they have at Knossoss so a  more realistic idea of how it was.

A diagram of the Phaistos stone that was found here (now in the Heraklion museum - see later) This is written in a script known as Linear A and has still not been deciphered. 

Beehives out on the hillside on our walk from Phaistos to the villa 3km away. We hadn't intended walking there but.... when we came out of the palace "someone" managed to lock the keys in the car! As we were about 2 hours from the car hire office we had quite a wait for them to drive over to us with a spare key - whoops!! Still, looking on the bright side,

 we did have a wonderful walk which we wouldn't have done otherwise!

The following week a trip to Heraklion museum to see all the frescos and treasures from Knossos and Phaistos. Wonderful reconstructions of the frescos from original fragments - incredible to think these were painted nearly 4000 years ago!

If you zoom in you can make out the original fragments that they found and used to complete the fresco

Unfortunately, the section containing the Minoan treasures (including the Phaistos stone) that we had particularly come to see, was closed for renovation.

A view of the centre of Heraklion - a much sunnier, calmer day than when we were here in the boat on our way to Aghios Nikolaos.

Having fun in the Natural History museum where they had a temporary exhibition of optical illusions and holograms. We also went on an earthquake simulator which was interesting!

Thursday evening wine tasting at the sailing club. 14 bottles of wine (must be Greek and cost less than 7 euros) 30 people testing them and scoring them out of 5. Amazingly our bottle came second!! Jill and Paul on the right organised the evening - they used to run a chain of hotels in Nigeria and then Malawi. Paul started his career working as a chef at the Dorchester.

Day Out

Our Thursday day trip out to explore Crete

Breakfast stop with Agios Nikolaos way off in the background. Dave, Chris and Dessi.

First stop was the Venetian fort at Kanes in Ierapatra on the south coast of the island. Lovely to come across these places and just be able to wander round with no admission charge or cafes/ gift shops etc

If you remember the old Bounty bar adverts apparently this is where they were filmed. According to the Telegraph Travel page "For the exotic Caribbean vibe – this is where Mars's "taste of paradise" Bounty bar advert was filmed in the early 1970s. Also known as Finikodassos (Palm Beach), this gently curving golden sand beach is backed by Europe's largest natural palm grove – some 5000 towering trees in an oasis fed by a stream – which have stood here for over 2000 years. According to legend, the palms grew from date stones discarded by Saracen pirates and washed up by the sea."

Apparently in the summer months you can't find a space on this beach to lay your towel down - we are so lucky to be able to go at this time of year.

Afternoon tea stop at the beach - a flask of coffee and Dessi's Anzac biscuits - wonderful!

Our final stop was at Zakros, the ruins of a Minoan palace

"It is believed to have been one of the four main administrative centers of the Minoans, and its protected harbor and strategic location made it an important commercial hub for trade to the east."

"Zakro was first excavated by D.G. Hogarth of the British School of Archaeology at Athens and 12 houses were unearthed before the site was abandoned. In 1961, Nikolaos Platon resumed the excavation and discovered the Palace of Zakro."

A trip to the local market in Agios Nikolaos - all of this for 3 euros (£2.49)!! The yellow fruits at the top are not lemons - they are bergamottos. Bergamot is what flavours Earl Grey tea but I have no idea what to do with these. It seemed a good idea at the time to get some but Google can't really help! I didn't intend buying quite so many oranges but after he had weighed and priced the ones I picked he then added 5 more. Good sales ploy though - I go back to his stall every week!

Saturday ramble & BBQ

Sunny blue skies for a Saturday ramble. Lots of wild flowers - particularly anemones in various shades of pink and purple. Also 4 species of orchid and many others

Down the valley to the beach for a brief stop before the steep climb up 

BBQ at Roger and Begitta's house -fabulous location with the most incredible views but a steep climb up from the beach. Also only a very rough dirt track for access

Christmas

Harry cooked an amazing roast goose and all the trimmings for our Christmas dinner. It was wonderful to all be together.

Lulworth Cove on Boxing Day

Spent a couple of days with Harry and went to Corfe Castle

Knossos

Had a great trip out to Knossos site with Chris and Dessi. It is an amazing Minoan Palace dating from 1900BC which was extensively excavated by Arthur Evans in 1900. He restored sections of the building and reconstructed some of the frescos.

An overview of the site as we approached. Arrived at 8.30am and the place was deserted.

A beautiful setting

Some of the store rooms with two original storage pots (pithoi). These would probably have contained olive oil

A massive site - the palace itself covered 150,000sq. ft. Some parts were single storey and some 2 or 3 storeys. This was the home of King Minos and the extensive corridors and many rooms inspired the  legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. The "labyrinth" was constructed by Daedalus who later escaped with his son Icarus.

Some parts have been reconstructed with concrete lintels indicating where the wooden beams would have been. There has been much criticism of Arthur Evans work and use of concrete but it does give a feel as to how it might have looked.

Frescoes have been remade from sections that have survived

Chris and Dessi on the steps up to the theatre area

Fresco showing the rite of passage where boys had to leap across the bull's back while one woman holds the bull's horns and another is ready to catch him. Women were painted in white and males in red.