Countryside of Crete

From our ship, docked in Heriklion, Crete, we took a ride through the hilly roads of Crete. There are 2472 islands in Greece. The isle of Crete is the largest with about 600,000 residents in its 24 villages and four major cities. Less than 7% of the island are inhabited. The scenery was of villages and farms. The first village had a typical Greek Orthodox Church. Orthodox priests are required to be married. And they must have children before they can have their own parish. Olive trees have silvery leaves. The olives grow from green, to grey, to black. You will find green olives are smaller as they are not fully grown. The black olives produce the most juice which is the olive oil. The olives are pressed between layers of stone in a temperature controlled setting. The first press is the extra virgin olive oil. The third is mostly used in soaps. The seeds and skins of the olives are used for fuel. They were used in the pottery workshop to fire the kiln.Read more