May 10, 2025

May 10, 2025

This morning we packed up after breakfast to explore more of Crete. We met our driver who took us east along the north shore. Crete is scenic but not a land of plenty. It is a rocky, mountainous land with meager rainfall. The only agriculture seems to be olive trees. Fortunately for the economy the warm sunny weather brings tourists from all over northern Europe. Plus the highways are completely lined with colorful Oleander bushes in full bloom.

After an hour we reach Crete’s "third city" of Rethymno. It was also a Venetian fortified town. On one end sits a fortress protecting a small harbor with a lighthouse. During the Middle Ages, Venice had a string of these trading ports in the Eastern Mediterranean. Crete was the most strategic and the most guarded. They controlled Crete for 450 years until the Ottoman Empire conquest of 1645.

We walked into the city but got waylaid by shopping almost immediately. We eventually found the narrow lanes of the old city and the tourist crowds. There we also found remnants of Crete's long history: Orthodox churches for the locals, a Catholic church of the Venetian overlords, and a mosque of the later Ottoman rulers. Two dolphins have been an emblem of this city for millennia. We noticed it is even memorialized on the utility covers. After this quick tour we returned to the port and had lunch on the water. Aimee and I shared a Gyros. It came without the expected Pita bread.

Back on the road we drove ninety minutes to Heraklion, capital of Crete and stronghold of the Venetians. This large city is enclosed within a giant stone fortress. After checking into our accommodations, we took a walk into the town center. It is a modern version of Chania and Rethymno. We finished at Morosini Fountain adorned with four Venetian Lions. Aimee did a little shopping on Daedalus St. named after the legendary engineer who built the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur. He famously escaped Crete on waxen wings while his son Icarus perished into the sea.