Travel | Crete, Greece pt.1

Hi there! It's hard to believe, but it's already been a month since I came back from Greece. And now I have warm memories, tan and some photos I want to share with you.

In the first part of the whole Greece post, I want to introduce you to the ancient Knossos Palace and wonderful "Venetian" town Rethymno.
Here at the beginning, I have to say that we traveled to Crete by ourselves and we didn't buy any guided tours or something. It's just my personal tourist experience.

Knossos Palace




Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered Europe's oldest city. The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos. The site was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos (Μίνως Καλοκαιρινός). The excavations in Knossos began in AD 1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and his team, and they continued for 35 years.
- Wiki 


The ancient Knossos Palace is located near the Capital of Crete - Heraklion. Bus communication on Crete is really convenient for traveling if you don't drive a car, so you can easily get to Knoss by bus from the centre of Heraklion.
This place is full of tourists, at least at the season when we've been there. I suggest you get a guide for Knoss so he can tell you much more than you would learn on your own. Unfortunately, we didn't think about it, so probably it wasn't as interesting as it could be. But on the other side, it's impossible (at least for me) to follow and listen to some guy when it's about +35ºC and all I want is water, water, and maybe some more water (oh, and ice cream!). So it depends on how you feel and want.


That's a weird moment when you know you are in an ancient place, you can touch it, but you don't really feel much. And only being home I finally realize that I saw something really worth seeing. Is it just me or you know that feeling too? haha




Rethymno



Rethymno is a city of approximately 40,000 people in Greece, the capital of Rethymno regional unit on the island of Crete. It was built in antiquity (ancient Rhithymna and Arsinoe), but was never a competitive Minoan centre. This region as a whole is rich with ancient history, most notably through the Minoan civilisation centred at Kydonia east of Rethymno.[2] Rethymno itself began a period of growth when the Venetian conquerors of the island decided to put an intermediate commercial station between Heraklion and Chania, acquiring its own bishop and nobility in the process. Today's old town s almost entirely built by the Venetians. It is one of the best preserved old towns in Crete.
- Wiki 


After visiting Knossos Palace we decided to go to Rethymno. This town was in our bucket list, so we just went for it. We just had to find Central Bus Station in Heraklion (it wasn't that hard, to be honest, haha). /Now I have to apologize, cause I lost my bus ticket, so I can't tell for sure how much the ticket costs. I think it was about €8,50 per person. You can't get a round-way ticket/

So after 2,5-3 hours, we got to beautiful Venetian Rethymno. It's a truly wonderful town. We decided to start from the Castle (or fortress) of Rethymno from where you can see the whole town. 


Views from Fortezza of Rethymno.

The fortress is quite large, we spent about 1 or 1,5 hours walking around it.
And then we still had some time until our bus so we decided to get to town, to walk on its small streets and get lost a bit, of course :)


 


After a looong and hot walk, we went to one of the many cafes and had a delicious Meze (sorry, I was too hungry to capture it haha). Meze was for 2 persons and it was really huge (and really tasty as well, costs only €19). And as a bonus, there was such a nice sea view. 


Before going back to the bus station we went to see one more sight of Rethymno - the Lighthouse.

And then we realized that we have to hurry up to get on the bus haha. 

In the second part I'll show you photos from a place we lived in - Amoudara, and some other random photographs that I enjoyed taking. I'm really glad that I had an opportunity to visit this beautiful island and to see these historic places and cities.


[ Create an account and get $26 off your first Airbnb trip here! (Works only for new Airbnb users) ] *affiliate

Have you ever been to Crete? Or maybe you're planning a trip? I'd love to see your response in comments :)

xx, D 

Instagram