----- Crete, Greece ---------------

My visit to Crete was short so it is tough for me to say much about the island in general. I wanted to visit this place called Samaria Gorge, but it was pretty far, and seeing that Crete is a very large island, I was limited in what I could do. In Crete, I visited the ancient palace of Knossos the home of the famed labyrinth and the Minotaur a half man half bull. Knossos was pretty interesting but the ruins were obviously rebuilt and not as they had excavated it. The huge pottery jars in one of my pics below were actually authentic pieces. All in all it was cool to look at the Minoan frescos and colorful walls and pillars. The site was bombarded by tourists as it is the second most visited ancient site in Greece, second to the Acropolis in Athens.

After visiting Knossos, we traveled to a village outside of Heraklion to see local life. Well the village was beautiful, but I'd have to say it was built as a tourist spot. It was interesting to note that this village was on the side of a mountain and pretty much only carob trees grow there. Carob is a substitute for chocolate and quite healthy I hear.

A corner in Knossos	Minoan frescos	Hill behind Knossos
Main central section of Knossos	Behind the main palace section	Bright red pillars
Central section through the trees	Mountain reaching up in distance	Ruins in a corner section
Corner room area	Large pottery jars	Red interior pillars
Frescos and red pillars	King Minos throne replica	Inside the throne room
Crete countryside	Carob trees	More Crete landscape views
Arched pathway	Door entrance in the village	Village entrance
Nice narrow alleyway	Plants adorn this village everywhere	Simple yellow house