[rewind] 7.16.13 - Greece

     Our original cruise itinerary promised an Athens excursion, and we booked a private tour a month in advance in preparation. Unfortunately, there was a large 24-hour strike in Athens on the 16th which meant that all forms of public transportation would be shut down. Therefore, our cruise was re-routed to Crete instead and our private tour was fully reimbursed. We have no hard feelings, although we would love to see Athens someday...

Heraklion, Crete
    Confession: We thought Crete was its own country so we were secretly thrilled at the new route plan. Turns out Crete is owned by Greece, but we feel as though it's big enough to count as a place of its own. It is quite a large island some distance away from the Greek mainland, after all. :) We cruised into the port of Heraklion and, having done no research whatsoever on this unplanned stop, we decided to explore it on our own.
     We took a city bus to Knossos and explored the ancient palace ruins where King Minos was said to have ruled and where a minotaur was said to have been born by his wife. Slightly unbelievable...but worth the trip nevertheless.

     After touring Knossos, we explored the streets of Heraklion in search of Greek gyros. We found the perfect place.

Katakolon (near Olympia)
    After walking non-stop in three consecutive cities (Venice, Dubrovnik, and Heraklion), we dedicated our stop in Katakolon to be strictly a beach day. Dave swam in the Mediterranean sea for the first time. It was gorgeous.

 

     We had just one more full day left on Norwegian Jade before returning to our initial departure point: Venice. Nicole was very excited to take more pigeon pictures... But since that was still several hours away we took pictures on the boat instead.

 

-David & Nicole