Love affair with Crete. ]Palace of Knossos]

Snake Goddess. Crete

Before the age of mass tourism, it was possible to sit on King Minos'  throne, and eat your lunch of sandwiches. How many Athenian boys and girls made this same journey to the Cretan King's Knossos Palace all those centuries ago, we will never know. A journey, that saw their lives end in  devouring jaws of the Minotaur.  This annual tribute of seven boys and  seven girls of course  is pure mythology, but it is pleasing to see that even then, there appeared to be gender equality. But, Sir Arthur Evans' reconstructed palace is very real, and whether you approve of its " restoration" or not is of little importance. What really is rather sad however, is how that open world, has now been confined behind guards, ropes and no entry signs. When I was young, you could wander from room to room, up and down the grand staircases, admire the frescoes of dancing girls and charging bulls. You could  feel, what life might have been like, some three to four thousands years ago.

Early Mimoan house that may have line Europe's oldest Street in Knossos'

                                              
To enter the Queen's bedroom with its en-suit bathroom [who said all these things belong to the modern world]. View its ancient plumbing, her clay bath, and  toilet, complete with other ancient wonders. Still, even today, it is still possible to stroll down Europe's oldest street; built long before the Romans were even thought of, to imagine this street lined with ancient Minoan houses. The cobble stones are still there, slightly worn to a smooth glow.

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Archaeological site of Phaestos, currently work is going on. This is perhaps the second most important dig on Crete.

Heather and I travel to Crete, as often as finances, and the opportunity allows, with its proud people and checked history. When we first visited the island in our youth, the elders still wore traditional dress, baggy pants and long black boots with an large elaborate silver handled dagger trust through their belt. The civil war had not long finished,  and you felt then that you were standing on the
 edge of the world. Both of us fell in love with this island, a love that still burns bright even today.

Harbour of Agis Galini, along the southern coast from Phaestos.

 This land that had sent troops to the Trojan War, has known  occupancy from many conquers over the centuries. An island that has been fought over time and time again. The Germans during the 2nd World War, the Ottoman Turks, the Venetians, Byzantines, Romans, even Egyptian consorts, each bring their own brand of havoc. The Ottomans and Venetians seemed to take it in turn to conqueror Crete time and time again. Each Turkish occupations saw  half the population perish, with tens of thousands put to death, either through massacres or draconian laws. Over the centuries, this island was a sort of cutting edge between Islam and Christianity, even today one's  belief is taken very seriously.

Chania Harbour looking down onto the quay.

On a recent visit to Crete, we had the good fortune to find accommodation in an old Venetian Palace, at the end of the harbour quay in Chania. Often at night, you would feel a coldness come over the room, even though it was mid summer. It often seemed, that you could feel the presence of departed spirits and souls from the past.

Particularly, when walking down stairs, a rush of cold air would go past despite there being no source whar ever. Once,  Heather felt as though she had been pushed over, our landlord informed us that once everyone in the building had been put to the sword by the Turks. So the palace had a bloody history on more than one occasion. The Christians would persecute the Muslims, who in turn did the same thing back when their turn came. Still, despite its bloody history  Crete is an enchanted world, a  world were everyone is treated as family. The sort of world, that seems to be sadly fast disappearing, bu teven today, all over the Greek islands, that sense of the sacred still lives on. Who knows whether that stranger is a god returning  to the human world for some dalliance.

Minoan Snake Goddess.