Crete - Heraklion, Carnival treasure hunt

 I needed to get the car back to Heraklion airport by 11am (or they would charge me for an extra day) so we were out of the apartment and on the road before 9am. After a nice drive along the coast, the drop off went fine and we took a taxi to our hotel (for the next 2 nights).

We were too early to check in but dropped our bags at the hotel and got directions to the Archaeological Museum. Another solitary Egret feeding on what the waves leave on the rocks.

Past the Fortress

someone was getting a private sailing lesson out in the harbour.

Nikos, at the hotel, had given us directions to go along the pedestrian streets in the old town. The old town here has a very different feel. The streets are wider and we saw no really old buildings.

But at this building there was a real party atmosphere

Last Sunday was the children's treasure hunt in the old town in Rethymno and we had been told that this Sunday there would be an adult treasure hunt. Well that was what was going on in Heraklion too.

There were teams milling around, dressed the same

with flags and costumes.

Inside, the building was packed, where the announcements were being made and every now and then it erupted in cheers, whistles and horns,  so, along with the loud music being played, it was deafening.

A person we asked said it would start at 11am and go into the evening but at 11:30 there were still announcements being made

Every now and then a person would emerge with a piece of paper and all the team members would take pictures of it with their phones and they would move off. Perhaps they were starting them gradually rather than a mass start (which would have been bedlam)

We moved away from the building to get something for lunch

and then there was a mass exodus from the building. We continued on to find the Museum.