Greece Trip (6/5/2007 Knossos Palace, Hirakleo and Back to Athens)

We got up early in the morning to catch the No. 2 Bus to Knossos Palace. It's about 40 minutes ride even including the traffic.

Knossos Palace is one of the most famous ruins on Crete. It's considered a must-go if you are on Crete. It's the largest ruin we have seen in Greece so far. The amazing part of the palace is that it showed how ancient Greeks handled plumbing system so well.

That Tuesday happened to be a religious holiday in Greece. There were so many groups in Knossos Palace that it reminded Biajee and me of crowded NYC, Forbidden City and downtown Los Angeles. It even rained a bit so the umbrella turned out really worth bringing because we at least should shelter Arnold.

We finished the tour of the palace by lunch time and dined at a very expensive restaurant outside the Palace. One thing we need to emphasize: originally the Palace cost 6 euros per person for entrance fee, but since it was a holiday, nobody was there collecting money so we got in for free.

After we got back to Hirakleo, we found that we had the whole afternoon to kill because we were booked on the night ship to Athens and it wouldn't depart till 9 pm.

Biajee, Arnold and I went to every places of interest in Hirakleo. There was this castle right next to the port, a fountain, a church that was originally orthodox, but converted itself to Christian after The Turks invaded and went back to Orthodox again after The Turks left. The highest point that could have a panaromic view of the city was a graveyard that we walked up to.

Greeks are not very good at wars as what was told in the legend. They destroyed a lot of buildings and constructions by themselves when Romans and Turks invaded. Delphi's Apollo Temple is a great example.

Our ship back to Athens cost us 77 euros per person because I booked a cabin so that we all could sleep for the night. It was scheduled to arrive in Athens at 5 am. It's the biggest ship Biajee had ever got on so we toured around the cabin a bit. I successfully sold Biajee the idea of taking a cruise for future vacations. Most likely it was a hotel for us that could travel. We got two beds in our room and a bathroom as well so we all took a shower and cleaned up. The ship is named after Knossos Palace in memory of the great ancient city we visited.

If you want to travel cheap, you could also pay only 53 euros per person and get a couch in the cabin for the night. But most people were smoking, drinking and watching soccer. Traveling with a baby gave us a lot of excuses for being luxurious. I almost forgot how spendthrift we were before we had Arnold. Of course, the most important thing was that we used to have carry-on bags only and no diaper bags. Those days were gone for a while. We'll always have more to worry about when we take a vacation.