Crete: Gortyn, Phaistos, Aghia Triada, Matala and Herakleion

We got an early start, meeting off the ferry at 7:00 and then taking a bus to the hotel to drop off our bags. After that we started driving southeast, making a pitstop just outside Herakleion to get lunch.

I don't remember taking this, but it's pretty. Crete was a welcome change from Athens, with better views and, since we were usually on hills near the coast, not nearly so hot.

While we went to Crete primarily for the prehistoric Minoan ruins, the first stop was at Gortyn, a settlement not founded until the classical period. Most of the ruins dated to the later Roman period. When the Romans got around to invading Crete, Gortyn wisely sided with them and was made the provincial capital. It was later wiped out by the Saracens in the middle ages, presumably the same ones who founded the modern capital of Herakleion.

Gortyn
The odeon. This is the big highlight of the settlement, and the building where the town council met.
The odeon here is particularly famous because they inscribed their law code along an outside wall to keep it handy. It's apparently pretty boring, but gives a good idea of day-to-day life and government.
A church dedicated to St. Titus, the oldest surviving church on the island, was originally the Roman basilica at Gortyn.
Now it's home to a few doves.
They still have to share, though.
Marcus Aurelius, I think.

After Gortyn we kept going to the Minoan palace at Phaistos.
The entryway was pretty neat. The admissions area is under some scaffolding with grape vines growing on it.
Looking out over the countryside.
Minoan palaces centered around an open square with stairs functioning as seating for spectators.
Ruins.
The Greek government typically does small amounts of reconstruction on these sites to give visitors a better idea of what they looked like. Here's a guy doing some of that work, and most of these columns are an example of the end result.
This room was designed to be partitioned off by curtains or screens placed between the supports. You can see the bases of those supports.
Apparently you could see them in 1936, too.
A great view.
There were a few cacti alongside the path in and out of the settlement, and people have carved little messages into them.

From there it was a short drive to Aghia Triada, a smaller Minoan site known for mining gypsum, a mineral the Minoans and Mycenaeans liked to use for decorations.
Ruins
Part of a network of little storage rooms.
A squad of less dedicated photographers.
A room with partially reconstructed columns and the basis of seating around the floor.
A later church next to the ruins.
Another view. I want to say this was St. George or something. The Holy Trinity church the site is named for was farther away and we didn't see it.

We got to the town of Matala around 1:00 or so and spent the rest of the afternoon on or near the beach. Matala's situated on a little bay between two rock walls. Looking out to sea, the wall on the right is a limestone cliff with a bunch of Roman-era tombs carved into it. The cliffs were covered with tourists and very climber-friendly. I made it a little bit above the highest tombs before getting hungry and turning around to go get food with a bunch of the girls. Dan, AJ, Deanna, Doug and Avni made it all the way up, but climbing down took a while so they almost ran out of time to eat. The rest of the group enjoyed the beach. The beach was mostly small, smooth pebbles but a couple of feet out into the water it turned to solid limestone with sea moss or something growing on it. It was pretty slippery and it was fun watching people try to wade back onto the beach without slipping. Most of the town that we saw was a long stretch of restaurants, all serving basically the same thing. The one we ate at had a live band, and the girls got them to do a few Bob Marley songs.

"Today is life, tomorrow never comes."

We had to leave around four or so and spent the night in Herakleion. We were all still pretty energetic, so we had dinner at a taverna near a big Venetian fountain and then wandered around for a bit afterward.

Here's a shot of the group by a statue of someone I'd never heard of. The guy in the yellow was a Finnish tourist making his way through Greece by himself, and whose name I can't remember.
Left to right: Deanna, AJ, Alex, Sheila, NaDea, mystery Finn, Doug, Avni, Rachel, Dan. Kat and Ana had already gone back to the hotel, and Pete spent most of the evening trying to catch up for being unable to sleep much during the first few days of the trip.