Crete - Eleutherna

 The car had been sitting outside the apartment for days as we explored Rethymno on foot so we decided to drive to an archaeological site about 40 minutes away.

Along the highway, east, for a while and then up into the hills.

Not as high as the snow, olive groves, lots of yellow flowers and occasionally

sheep (which Rick kept misidentifying as goats, as he knew Christine wanted some goat pictures)

We knew from our internet research that the site itself was closed for the winter but that the new museum was open.

It was another excellent museum. The site peaked in early Greek, late Minoan times, the period that Homer wrote about in his epic poems, so there were many displays that referenced Homers descriptions.

All the displays were numbered

descriptions in English and Greek.

There were also videos of reenactments of Greek myths and stories, either in English or with English subtitles.

All in all an excellent way to spend about an hour.

The site is huge, covering two hills with a river between and, although officially closed, the museum attendant told us where we could park and walk to a couple of buildings.

Had to pull over to actually get some

goat pictures.

We ate our picnic in the car (sandwiches, olives and a kitkat) and then walked to this tower, labelled as an acropolis.

No signage, an area of ancient "paving stones" in front of it and ground sloping sharply down all around it.

We continued along a trail that followed the ridge, looking for "The Cisterns" when a shout came from behind. A older Greek man was hurrying to catch up to us. His name was Nick and he wanted to show us the way. This photo is looking down at one of the areas that is covered to protect it.

Nick open a gate and gestured us into an area of stone walls and huge old olive trees. "Beautiful" he said, "Roman Acropolis" he said. We later figured out that it had actually been a Christian Church.

We walked around, no signage, relying on Nick whose English pretty well amounted to "Beautiful" and "Roman Acropolis"

Mandrake Plant (Check out Harry Potter)

Nick headed back at quite a pace and it turned out we had missed the Cisterns by just a few feet. After examining them we thanked Nick and went to walk away, He gave a loud "Hey" and Rick went back and handed him 2 Euro. He said 3 so that's what he got. Tourists are thin on the ground right now for self proclaimed guides.

On the way to the museum we had passed a sign to a Monastery so decided to take a look if we could find it....next post.