Tuesday, 5/3. Heraklion, Crete, Greece. First impression was of bad air. Visibility was poor in an unusual way. Later we were told that dust storms from Africa is not uncommon.
Our Excursion was for the palace of Minos, which is the origin of so many myths. The site is full of reconstructions done by the original archeologist, which is illuminating on one hand, but confusing on the other. We couldn’t tell what was fact or fancy. They did show us what’s likely the first “road” in Europe. That it had no traffic, I had some doubt that it was an actual Grecian road. (Haha.)
Our guide’s audio transmitter failed off and on, so many in the group choose to adjust their audio boxes to receive another guide’s lecture. We did that. But our guide was devastated by the failure, in tears. I felt very sorry for her.
To be truthful, we’re a little tired of ruins. I’m very likely to Google the places we’ve visited. But the visuals are beginning to run together.
The next stop was a village museum. Beautiful flowers and some excellent displays of historic homes and professions. Tried some local liquor. It wasn’t Ouzo, thank goodness.
My feet were really bothering me, so upon returning to the ship I spent a lot of time in the various hot tubs. That helped a lot!
Dinner was at “The Chef’s Table.” A set menu and wine pairing. I felt the pairing suffered from having a limited selection of choices for the ship to choose from. “Sweet Potato Chips” was two exceedingly small mouthfuls of a chip loaded with sour cream (tasted like blue cheese). Crab Cakes on a bed of avocado was fantastic. To calm the palate we had frozen Moscow Mules, which was interesting. The seared halibut was marvelous. Desert was some kind of mandarin orange cream sorbet.
The Explorer’s “Thank you” party was interrupted by technical problems, so they relocated to the night club, my normal hangout. I had to relocate.
I had to go online to get a $50 visa for Turkey. Yoriko, holding a Japanese passport, didn’t need a visa. We both need to have our temps checked today (and tomorrow) to gain the authority to go ashore tomorrow. The ship’s facial recognition system is disturbingly accurate and fast.
