Knossos!

Today we visited Knossos (just outside of Heraklion), which is the site of the palace of several Minoan kings. The new kid knows all the local secrets, so he came with us to be our guide 😀

The bus from Rethymnon to Knossos picked us up at 8:30 and the ride took about an hour and a half. The Boy enjoyed the grand view of the Mediterranean on our left, while The Girl stared at interesting rocks in the hillside on the right…

At Knossos we were guided around for about an hour before we were let loose on our own for a while. We got to see all the important stuff during the tour, but there sadly wasn’t enough time to really go exploring as much as we wanted afterwards. And the Minotaur was nowhere to be found either 😦

This was an underground storage area, but then people thought it looked like a labyrinth, so obviously this is where he dreaded Minotaur lived 😀

There was a room full of recreations of the wall paintings that were originally here. Many are now in the museum, but these smaller pictures were very nice, too. This is a very famous scene of people jumping over a bull… so brave!

The king’s throne room

For some reason The Girl found this alabaster rock at the base of a column very fascinating 😛

Close-up of the weathered stone… pretty, isn’t it? 🙂

I found a beetle in need of assistance… It just fell down and couldn’t turn itself over again!

I very helpfully offered my nose, and the beetle climbed on!

It’s bigger than my nose! We put it on the side of the road, where it soon flew off 😀

There were peacocks 🙂

And I just had time to climb a tree before we headed for the exit 😀

The bus then took us down into the center of Heraklion, where we had a choice between lunch at a restaurant together with the group, or a visit to the archeological museum. We had packed lunch, so we went to the museum. Duh!

The Girl’s favorite thing in the museum, a vessel shaped like a bull’s head

Dancing snake ladies

The Boy’s favorite thing, a helmet made of boar tusks 😀

The Phaistos disk, which is full of writing that no one can read

Some great big axes!

The ancient Minoans were apparently into beetles 🙂

A beetle with another beetle on top… 😀

After the museum we just had time for some souvenir shopping while waiting for the bus. The Girl got a fancy set of coasters 😀

All tucked in for the bus ride back to Rethymnon 🙂

It wasn’t a very long day today, but it has been eventful, and now we are pretty exhausted. Might go out to get some dinner later, but we will have an early night. Must be ready for another excursion tomorrow, possibly to Chania 🙂