We finally felt like we had gotten enough chores done that we could relax and go have fun. So, yesterday afternoon we rented a car and went back to Bali to hang out with the family for a few days. Maria and Costas were working, so we picked up John and did some more sightseeing. First, we drove around the town of Bali, which is an adventure considering the curvy mountain road only wide enough for one Smart Car. There were quite a few times we needed to back up a hill to a place with a shoulder so that the car we were head to head with could pass us. Even scarier is the number of tour busses that use that road. At one point a bus was coming the other way and it created a very long back up of cars desperately trying to get out of the bus’s way. We went down to the small quay area, which was filled with jet skis and small power boats for rent, scoping it out to see if it was a suitable place for us to tie Kosmos up. Definitely not, but it looks like the bay is a decent place to anchor. Bali is cute, but it is definitely nothing more than a tourist area.
Driving around Bali didn’t take long, so we went to a larger town to the west of Bali called Rythmeno. The town has been occupied since the days of the Minoan civilization, and is recorded during the Roman and Byzantine Empires as a city of minor importance. The Venetians really built up the city during their rule, making a town full of decorative buildings, a nice port, and a fort to protect the city.
We literally had just gotten to Rythmeno when Costas called and told us to come back to Bali to meet up with Costas, Maria, Koralia and some friends of Maria’s for dinner. It was yet another late night for us with them!
John has gone to Crete almost every single year for the past 30 odd years to see Maria and Costas. Eric and Christi almost fell over from shock when we found out John had never been to the famous Palace of Knossos or the town of Agios Nikolaos, so of course, we felt it was our duty to drag him to those places today.
The city of Knossos is believed to be inhabited as far back as 6700 BC. It became a major city of the ancient Minoan civilization. The palace was originally built in 1900 BC. In 1700, it was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt even bigger and better. In 1450 BC, all of the other Minoan palaces on Crete were destroyed, probably by the Myceaneans. It is believed the Myceneans occupied the palace, and by 1380, most of the palace’s former glory had been lost. The palace was more than just a royal residence for the Minoans. It also housed priests, officials, and even some ordinary people. The temple was considered the religious-ceremonial center and the administrative center of the city. Workshops were housed there, as were warehouses and burial grounds. Knossos palace really was the city center in every way.
The archeological site was discovered by a local in 1878. In 1900, Sir Arthur Evans began excavating and restoring the site. Evans spent 35 years and $500,000 of his own money excavating and reconstructing the palace. Evans did an amazing job with the reconstruction. Knossos is not small piles of rubble, like most of the other sites. Many of the multi-storied buildings are fully and partially rebuilt, complete with restored frescoes. This has met with a lot of controversy in the archeological community, who believe accuracy may have been sacrificed in Evans’ quest to rebuild. Controversy aside, you definitely get a strong sense of what life was like in Minoan days, and it is amazing how advanced the civilization really was. For example, they used clay pipes to bring in fresh drinking water from nearby streams, and also had extensive drainage systems to get rid of excess rainwater and waste water. Rooms were built with shafts to bring in light and ventilation. The architects knew what they were doing.
Knossos is surprisingly large. You kind of think it’ll only take an hour to walk around an old palace, and are surprised to see that there is a seemingly endless collection of buildings. It is definitely a destination you can spend several hours at. Knossos is another place we studied when we were in school, and it was really exciting to be there in person to see it for ourselves. Christi vividly remembers writing a mid-term on the Knossos frescoes, and could almost hear her art history teacher’s voice pointing out the details within each of the frescoes. The first shot is what they believed the palace looked like in it’s hey day. The pictures following are of a sampling of the rebuilt buildings and restored artwork at the site.
Once we finished walking around Knossos, we all went to Agios Nikolaos. We have only explored on foot, and with the car we were able to see some new areas we had not been to yet. Here is the beach between the marina and the commercial harbor from two different angles. Eric and John are actually standing in the same spot in both pictures, Christi just moved the camera angle.
This gives you a sense of the narrow, hilly roads. Keep in mind that the only reason the road appears so wide is because all the cars are parked on the sidewalk.
This is the pedestrian walkway in the center of town. It is lined with shops and restaurants and parallels the lake.
This first one is a cute little church tucked in between two big buildings in the heart of town. These old churches are not allowed to be torn down by law, so modern buildings are just built around them. The second one is a new and modern church, and as most of the churches we have seen, is built in the neo-byzantine style. It is also in the heart of town.
John really enjoyed sightseeing in Agios Nikolaos. It is a nice town. In the evening we went back to Bali and out to dinner at a taverna (bar and restaurant) near the hotel with Costas, Koralia and Maria. As every night with them has been, it was a late night with lots of good food and fascinating conversation.