Heraklion, Crete

The next morning we arrived in Crete, which is Greece's largest island. We got off to a late start so we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore around.  (7am is when we were able to disembark the ship, there was no sleeping in on this cruise!) Once again, we took cabs to the main attraction. On this island, it was The Palace of Knossos.  This cab ride was the complete opposite of our cab ride in Patmos! Patmos it was "how fast can you go?" Crete was "how slow can you go?". Either way, we got there...had a view hours to venture around the Minoan site and search the souvenior shops, then head back to the ship.

This palace was first built in 2000 BC and after 300 years, was destroyed by an earthquake.  The second palace was immediately rebuilt but destroyed again in 1500 BC.  The excavated site revealed ruins of the two palaces, as well as Europe's first amphitheatre, evidence of the earliest drainage system known, and the first flush toilet in history. Crazy, huh?! This palace was more like a maze and had many different areas such as workrooms, living spaces, and storage rooms. They stored such things as wine, cereals, and olive oil in large clay vases.

While this was our least favorite of our adventures, it was still cool to walk through the area, reading the history.  Had we had more time to explore the island, we would have chosen to tour the vineyard instead! Next time!
After we were done exploring the Palace, we roamed around the souvenior shops and headed back to the ship.  We only had about two hours to do all of this, including transportation! Ahh...maybe we shouldn't have stayed up so late the night before! ;)
On to the next island!