We awoke to a sunny day. I have to admit that having a hotel room with a balcony and shuttered doors (glass as well) is very nice. We can open the glass doors, leave the louvered shutters shut and have fresh air flow into the room. Today is laundry day and we plan to visit. First we headed down for breakfast.
As we went into the dining room we were amazed at the display of food available for us as part of the hotel room rent. We have been used to coffee, juice and bread. Here there are hard boiled eggs, many different types of breads and loafs, pasteries, toaster, etc. This is a great change. Tomorrow I will take the camera and get a picture for the blog.
As we sat down to eat we started to chat with a couple who turns out are from Victoria. We adjusted our seating to sit with them and visit while we ate. We had a great time comparing travel and adventures. They travel a lot since he works in the oil industry and currently is working in Syria. They take a month every 3 (I think) to meet up and travel since they tend to work in different parts of the world most of the year. We had quit a discussion going about policing, society and the food industry and before long we realized we had relaxed and chatted for almost 2 hours.
We went across the street to the Laundromat to learn that we are expected to leave the clothes and they wash them for us. We had some difficulty sorting out costs etc since the lady who works there did not speak English. Finally we figured out that we simply dropped off and picked up. So we did that. We were told to pick up the cloths tomorrow around 1 pm which meant we had to rethink our plans. We had thought of moving on tomorrow to Chania but this means we would have to spend one more day in Heraklion which actually was not a problem since our schedule seemed to have been busy this morning we would be able to put off going to Knossos (the capital of Minoan Crete) till tomorrow and we could do a few other things today.
To start the day we wanted to have a look at the Venetian Fortress which was the original fortress guarding the old port. There does not appear to be much of a natural port here but this was remedied by building a breakwater structure out from the land in a semi-circular design and put a fortress at the end guarding the narrow neck left for ships to pass through. Our first disappointment was to learn that the Venetian Fortress is currently closed and under renovations. So we decided to walk out to the end of the new breakwater which has created a much larger port. I would guess the breakwater is about 2 km long and this was a beautiful walk. We had great views of the harbour, the city and the mountains beyond. We were really interested to see mountains with snow on them in the background.
Since we plan to take the intercity bus to Chania we needed to get some bus information, schedules and even tickets for this Wednesday so after we returned from the breakwater walk we headed off to find the bus station. It was interesting to learn that many tourist information centers have no information on buses. So we followed our map to locate the bus station which was a bit of an adventure since it is tucked away on a main road that is accessed from the port and we were coming from the city center. Finally a nice lady pointed to a set of stairs and said to go down to the bottom and we would find the station and she was right. Signage is not great here but we are able to find our way once we know where we are going.
We got our tickets for Wed and then returned to the tourist information center to ask about the Gorge we wanted to hike outside of Chania. We were told that it was unlikely to be open so early in the season because of run off and snows. To help us out she phoned to find out and got no answer so she took that to mean they are closed still. This put a hole in our plans since that was one thing we had wanted to do. But being quick thinkers we still want to visit Chania and now plan to spend one night there giving us what remains after travel on Wednesday, and all Thursday to visit the area. We will leave on the 9 pm ferry to Athens. We booked a berth on the ferry since it gets in at 5:30 am so we can sleep on route. Now we have our plans in Crete organized and only need to deal with the hotel in Chania which we decided to do online.
Our next fact finding venture was to learn which bus to take to get to Knossos. We discovered the bus number, the cost for tickets, where to buy the tickets and finally the place to catch the bus. All is good.
Wow, all this planning and we have spent most of the day walking from place to place to get information and organizing things. It was early afternoon when we spotted a McDonald’s (yep even here in Crete) so we stopped for a quick lunch (even though it was about 2 pm) and continued on to find the Museum of History. This required that we walk along the harbour which gave us wonderful views of the ocean and city. In particular we were able to see many of the ancient shipyards called Neorias.
The shipyards were large oblong buildings with barrel vaulted roofs capable of housing ships in need of repair, protection or construction. Three different shipyards were built at different periods of time between the 15th and 17th centuries. They comprised of a total of 19 vaulted roofs of which today only 5 have been preserved.
We also walked by the beginning of the 25th of August Street. 25th of August Street runs from the Meidani, the central crossroads of Heraklion, down to the Venetian harbour and the fortress of Koules. Along it are the Basilica of St Mark, the Loggia and the church of Saint Titus. 25th of August Street is now a paved pedestrian street, and boasts the most beautiful Neoclassical buildings in Heraklion. Today they house banks, travel bureaux and tourist shops. These buildings were erected after the catastrophe of 1898, to give Heraklion the air of a modern city. The street was ironically known as "Odos Planis" ("Illusion Street"), because visitors who come up from the harbour and see these beautiful edifices form a favourable first impression of the city which is cruelly disappointed further on.
25th of August Street may have been first cut by the Arabs in the 9th or 10th century. It has always been the main thoroughfare of Heraklion, linking the town centre to the harbour. During the Venetian period (13th-17th century) it was called the Ruga Maistra (Main Street), while in Ottoman times it was known as Vezir Tsarsi (Vizier's Market) after the Vezir Mosque.
The modern name of the street is due to a tragic event. On the 25th of August 1898, the feast of St Titus, a maddened Muslim mob slaughtered many Christians, including 17 British soldiers and the British Consul Lysimachos Kalokairinos. This wanton act of violence spurred the Great Powers to place the island under their protection, leading a few years later (1913) to the Union of Crete with Greece.
Another historical monument that we walked beside was the Monastery of Ayios Petros. The monastery and Church of Saint Peter in iraklion was built by Dominican Monks in the early 13th century, it was converted into the mosque of Sultan Ibrahim under the Turks. It contains the only remaining 15th Century frescoes in Heraklion but it is currently closed for restoration and what looks like rebuilding.
We were looking for the History Museum and finally we found it. The history museum takes up were the Archaeology museum ended (which is closed today). Starting from The early Christian era with much emphasis on the Venetian occupation and the Cretan war (1645-1669) which is illustrated by plans, maps and a highly detailed model of Candia (Heraklion as it was then named). There are rooms with pottery and other ceramics dating back 15 centuries and also the Altar and other finds from Gortys.
The struggle for Greek independence is illustrated by portraits, flags and weapons of revolutionaries. There is a reconstruction of the studies of Crete’s famous writer Nikos Kazantzákis (as well as extracts from his Diary and letters) and Emmanuel Tsouderós who was Greek prime minister at the time of the battle of Crete.
There is a large display about the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation during the war and also a memorial to Cretan people that were shot by the Germans during the war and buried in mass graves.
Finishing off the exhibition is a large collection of Folk art and handicrafts including a mock up of an old Cretan house.
We had to leave the museum at 3:30 since it closes so we did not have as much time as we might like. At this time of year all museums, galleries etc. are closed at 3 or 3:30 so it does limit opportunities. Not a problem since we had been on the go steady so a break for us was to wonder back to the hotel and take a break. For me I needed to start to work on writing up my blog and sort out the pictures.
As we wondered back we took a few new routes (there are so many here) and ended up in the center city square where we had walked last night. However to our surprise we found the Morozini Fountain which we clearly walked by last night and never noticed. Of course at that time we were focused on finding a hotel and not sight seeing.
The Morozini Fountain is at the top of 25th August St in El Velizelou Square (Lion Square). It was built in 1628 by Francesco Morozini who was the Venetian Governor of the Island. A 16km long aqueduct was built to channel the water to it from Mt Giouchtas. It has 8 circular basins decorated with reliefs of Cherubs, Mermaids, Dolphins, nymphs and mythical creatures. Above the Lions (which are from the 14th century and were incorporated into the fountain when it was constructed) would have been a statue of Neptune. The fountain works but is very rarely in operation.
I have added some pictures today of the streets and the traffic just to show some of the sights we have seen as we have walked around the city.
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