Kriti

In February, Rob and I took a week long trip to Crete with our fearless leader Bob Bridges and the rest of the regular members. Rob and I both agree that we had the most amazing time on the island. The weather was gorgeous, in the mid to high 70s most of the time, and the food was fantastic. We took an overnight ferry from Piraeus into Hania where our trip began. While in Hania we visited two cemeteries with burials of those who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941.
This is the Suda Bay cemetery where many British soldiers are buried. Many of them are left unidentified, but each has a memorial. Their resting place was very beautiful and peaceful.

The people of Crete also maintain the cemetery of those who invaded them. This shot is of the German war cemetery near the Maleme airfield where many of them died as the parachuted from their planes. More than 4000 men are buried there.

Two of my favorite things about Crete are the Venetian influences, and the natural beauty. We had lunch on the harbor in Hania with the mountains in the background.
The next major city on our way across the island was Rethymno. Unfortunately we only had an afternoon here, but we made the most of of by grabbing a quick sandwich and walking around the city on our lunch break. Here are shots of the old harbor, the new harbor, a cute street, and a four-wheeler delivering gelato!
We continued our trek on the island by heading to Iraklio where there are many museums holding the most famous antiquities of ancient Crete and we also spent a few hours at the Minoan site of Knossos. This site is somewhat controversial because excavators decided at the time of excavation to reconstruct what they believed the site would have looked like. Therefore, many of the walls have been repainted and walls reconstructed. I really enjoyed Knossos because of this! Here are a few photos from Knossos followed by a picture of the Phaistos disk we saw at the museum in Iraklio. This disk still has not been deciphered.
One of most memorable sites of the year came next at Azoria. This site is located in the mountains of Crete. We got to ride in the back of pick-up trucks to get there because our bus was not able to maneuver the rough road. Needless to say, it was a hysterical ride up as we all tried not to fall out of the trucks!! Here are some final photos of us in the truck and at the site.