Palace of Knossos

To satisfy Campbell's fascination, we needed to check out some Greek Mythology. The beauty about Greek Mythology (and I'm sure many other cultures' myths and legends) is that it is myths, legends, fiction and stories all intertwined with reality. The part that I find so fascinating is the long-lasting impact these legends have on our lives today.

For instance, there's the story of Theseus, who was the son of the King of Athens, Aegeus. He had many adventures; one saw him sail across the seas at the request of his father. He sailed south to Crete to slay the Minotaur which was trapped in the labyrinth below Knossos (that's a whole other story). Chicks dig guys who can slay Minotaurs, and as such, the Cretan Princess Ariadne fell hard for Theseus. She was the daughter of King Minos, and Theseus promised to take her back to Athens and marry her. However, he left her stranded on the island of Naxos. What a jerk. Dionysus, another character, found Ariadne and married her. He threw her crown into the sky and that's how we got the constellation the Corona Borealis.

Meanwhile, Theseus continues back to Athens, victorious after his bullfight. His old man is waiting for him, but forgetful Theseus forgot to change the sails on his ship from black to white, a prearranged signal to his father that he was returning in good health. Aegeus saw the black sails approach over the horizon and assumed his son had died on the expedition. With no other explanation obviously apparent to Aegeus, he hurled himself off the palace clifftop and into the ocean to his death. A bit of an over-exaggeration, maybe just wait until the ship docks??

And that is where the name the Aegean Sea comes from. Pretty cool. Side note, Theseus went on to build the Acropolis in Athens. More on that in a few days.

Back to present day, we set off early and jumped on a bus which would take us along the Cretan coast to the town of Heraklion and the Palace of Knossos. The scenery along the journey was stunning. When we arrived we spent a good few hours touring the site with our tour guide and heard all about the fact and fiction. Campbell, and the other boys, lapped it up. We walked down the oldest paved road in Greece (and possibly in Europe) and then were dropped back into the main town for an hour's free time.

We wandered through the ancient streets of Heraklion, capital of Crete and stumbled upon a lane with a small restaurant called Made with Love. We found a few seats inside and hungrily accepted the home cooked food from the Greek Nonna's inside. It was arguably the best food we experienced in Greece.

With full bellies, we checked out the town's museum with artefacts from thousands of years ago. Sarah took her time in the museum while the boys and Rowan flowed through a little quicker. We headed across the road to a playground for the boys to expel some energy before the long bus ride back to Chania.

Exhausted, we got some takeaway pizza from around the corner. Tom's run of having pizza in each country continues....Read more