vale and valley (10. 250)

Making an excuursion to points west, we went beyond Chania and toured the Monastery of our Lady of Gonia (Panagia Hodegetria, Μονή Γωνιάς), the host of a 2016 synod of the Greek Orthodox Church and a museum with a collection of vestments, papal seals and sigils and some of the most iconic icons to peruse. The blue of the sea blended in to sky on the battle-hardened balcony and further atop the promontory.

Our route followed the length of Topolia gorge from the port of Kissimos down to the beach at Elaphonisi, renowned for its pink sands and circular lagoon that one can wade across to a nearby rocky cliff.

The drive through the gorge and back was quite breathtaking—in reference to our last trip, I told H I’m calling this place „hot Scotland“ but with on coming traffic on this narrow lane with hairpin turns and serpentine bends, there was not many opportunities for picture taking (credit to the tourism board)—plus I didn’t want to distract the driver.

ρέθυμνο (10. 249)

We had intended to pay a visit to Rethymno (corresponding to the ancient cities of Rhithymnia and Arsinoe, chiefly known as a mint in antiquity with coins bearing a double dolphin insignia that’s the modern city’s symbol) along with Knossos but it was already too much to see and so made a return trip with a couple extra stops along the way. First we came to the resort village of Georgioupoli (Γεωργιούπολη)—originally a fishing community and identified with Amphimalla on ancient atlases with an islet connected to the mainland hosting the church of St Nicholas. 

Next we came to Rethymno, an ancient seat of the Minoan culture and dominated by a Venetian fortezza as a fortified commercial station between Chania and Heraklion—the main feature of the citadel dating from the Ottoman era with central Sultan Ibrahim mosque (formerly the Agia Nicholas). 

Afterwards, we explored a gorge (Mili / Μυλοι) just parallel to the city that was absolutely tropical amid mills, waterfalls and citrus orchards as well as groves if banana plants ornamenting a taverna hidden in the valley.

𐀒𐀜𐀰 (10. 248)

With evidence of human occupation for the past one hundred and fifty thousand years and settled some five millennia past in the early neolithic period, we visited the archaeological site and partial, creative reconstruction of King Minos’ palace compound at Knossos, considered the oldest city in Europe and with the Minoan culture the origin of the first intelligible writing system with Linear B. 

We drove through Souda Bay along the Northern Cretan highway to the central coastal city of Heraklion. Abandoned for unknown reasons during the late Bronze Age, the site was unearthed in the early 1890s by one Sir John Arthur Evens, whose father excavated Hallstadt, and whose career included prior turns as war correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, a spy in the Balkans and the caretaker of the Ashmolean Museum, who secured digging  rights from the Ottomans around the same time the up-until-then legendary Troy was rediscovered by Heinrich Schliemann (the pair somewhat in correspondence and competition with another) in another part of the Empire.

The term palace turned out to be possibly misleading, rather than interpreting the over thousand connected chambers of workshops of this administrative centre the maze that held the dread Minotaur. Moreover labyrs (𐀛)—whence ultimately labyrinth was Cretan for a double-biting axe head, a glyph inscribed at corners, sort of like an evil eye, to protect what’s inside the walls, and could be interpreted as guide marks to find one’s way back out. 

We found parking in an olive grove near a traditional tavern near the entrance to the site. The host said we were welcome to park in the shade at his establishment, and just might consider dining there afterwards—not a bad business model.

ausflug kreta (10. 247)

Despite extensive study and having seen plenty of pictures ahead of time, reaching our accommodations late at night, we weren’t quite certain what to expect for the view and surrounding terrain but our spot on Angali bay looking out on the Sea of Crete, located on the westerly third of the island did not disappoint. 

We took a trip early in the day to the ancient provincial capital Chania (Χανία, pronounced Hanya), a settlement dating back to the Minoan civilisation in the Neolithic age some five-thousand years ago and influenced by the Greeks, the Venetians, who built the port, lighthouse (Φαρός) and shipyard as a naval outpost to protect their thalassocracy against piracy, the Byzantines and the Ottomans before rejoining Greece again. 

After exploring the city, we visited the monastery Agia Triada Tsangarolon (Μονή Αγίας Τριάδος, the Holy Trinity) in Byzantine style and dated from the seventh century. Like many of the active communities in the region, the estate produces its own wine and olive oil. 

Later in the evening we went into the nearby village of Stavros and had dinner at a restaurant in a converted windmill on the beach, the same location where the 1964 film Zorba the Greek was shot, at least the “Teach me to dance” scene.

sine motu curro (10.246)

Artist and designer Pierre Brault has installed a collection of arresting, colourful timepieces on buildings in Paris and other cities as part of his Pop Sundial project (see also), designed to encourage people to look up and contemplate the passing lights and shadows with the classical Latin adages and invocations of history.  See more at designboom at the link above.

 

we’re a culture, not a costume (10. 245)

City Hall of the town of Prossler in the state of Washington with a supreme lack of awareness ordered an Halloween display gently ridiculing the class of entitled white women whose litany of complaints and slights run from minor perceived offences to using law enforcement officials as their own personal racism concierges taken down after a Karen found the installation to be incendiary and a personal attack. The effigy, the Kare-Crow, while not meant to be a Karen-cature of certain individual felt singled out for public humiliation and in response, municipal authorities pledged there would be mandatory trainings as to why such statements were insensitive and offensive to the community. That’s ghastly and pretty terrifying.