March 29, 2012
The wake up call today was at 6:15 a.m. We had planned on being up at 6:00 a.m. but Brenda's alarm did not go off for some reason. We got ready and went to breakfast. Brother David and his wife Linda joined us. Our group assembled in the Metropolitan Lounge at 7:35 a.m. for disembarkation for our excursion to the Palace of Knossos. The ship was docked at the Heraklion Port on the Island of Crete.
Snow on the mountains near Heraklion
Venetian Heraklion: (13th-15th Centuries)
Red Buds on Crete
Beautiful Greek fruit
Knossos refers to the main Bronze Age archaeological site at Heraklion. The palace was built over a Neolithic town. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built. It was the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan Civilization and culture. It appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, 1380 – 1100 B.C.
Peacocks at the Palace:
Our local guide gave us the tour of the Palace of Knossos- but the tour took over an hour and she did not talk loud enough and talked way too fast. She was very difficult to follow. We had about 20 minutes after the tour to look in shops and then get back to the bus by 10:30 a.m. Brother David was getting a bit nervous because "all aboard" was at 11:30 a.m. We were back in plenty of time.
Heraklion, Crete
We had a meeting with the cruise director at 11:30 a.m.- she gave us instructions for the next port of call and also disembarkation instructions for tomorrow when our cruise ends. After that, Brenda and I had lunch on the pool deck. We had a yummy vegetable stir fry.
After lunch, we went up to the Star Lounge to relax for awhile. We are due to arrive at the Island of Santorini around 4:30 p.m. (maybe a little earlier)
At 3:00 p.m., they actually had enough people for line dancing. I joined right in. A couple of the waitresses also danced a bit. First, we learned "Achy Breaky Heart" and danced to it. Then she taught us another one and we started to dance to it, but had to stop right in the middle. We were approaching Santorini and the cruise director highly recommended being on deck to see the island as we approached.
Brenda and I went back to our room to gather our stuff for the afternoon excursion. Then we went up to deck 5 and watched our approach to the Island of Santorini. It is a gorgeous island with whitewashed homes clinging to the cliffs.
Brenda looked really short at this particular spot on the deck - LOL!!!
The ship could not dock at the small port so we took tenders over to the island.
There were only three ways to get to the top of the island: you could ride a donkey (uh, no way...), walk where the donkeys walked (ewwwww) or take a tram car. In this picture, you can see the zig zag walkway going up to the top - that is how the donkeys get up there. We took the tram which is to the left of the trail.
Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic explosion that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and created the current geological caldera. A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 7.5 by 4.3 mi, is surrounded by 980 ft high, steep cliffs on three sides. The capital, Fira, clings to the top of the cliff looking down on the lagoon. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption, which occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 68 mi to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Minoan eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis. (Wikipedia)
The views from the top of the island were spectacular!!!
We walked around town for a while and bought some souvenirs.
Cave homes
Santorini was by far my favorite island - it was gorgeous!!!
We took the tram car back down around 7:00 p.m. and took a tender back to the ship. We dropped our stuff off in our room and went back out on deck to watch the sunset.
Then we went to dinner. We ate alone this evening. After dinner, we stood in line to get our passports back (the ship holds onto them during the cruise). The it was back to our room to pack up. We had to leave our luggage outside our room by midnight. Finally it was time to crash for the night.
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