Today I set aside to go to a fair size town, Agios Nikolas named after this stern looking priest. Known for many things—historically a port, a fine museum of preMinoan to Roman artifacts, and one are where the movie Moonspinners was filmed in 1964 starring Haley Mills and Elli Wallach as well as silent film star who they persuaded to un-retire for her last film.
Down by the port is a statue of Europa being carried away by a bull aka Zeus in disguise making yet another one of his conquests. Europe was named after her. I did some shopping in this area for a few necessities including a map of Crete should I be out of range for GPS to work. Window shopping has revealed that Greek women are very much into animal prints.
From there, I went back up the hill to the archeological museum where they seemed quite happy that a non-Greek was visiting. The artifacts were indeed impressive.
The early Cretans collected triton shells to use as ladles and also made stylized reproductions. The dragon fly was considered a symbol of immortality and were popular in many cultures and particularly with Minoans. Their pottery has many free flowing designs and they used sea inspired glazing a lot. The gold pieces are a diadem to which the small leaves would attach individually. There is no shortage of large jugs that have been unearthed and reassembled as well as these that were recovered from a shipwreck.
It was also interesting to see how Crete was influenced by Egypt due to its close proximity and trading that occurred. The female figure head was once painted—all that remains is a little blue in her eyebrows. She is so expressive even with out color! The skills are evidence of the first known brain surgery. They would drill a hole on the skull to release excess fluid on the brain. Last but not least, we have King Triton’s trident!
For those who are more interested in eating, I had a wonderful Greek salad and whit mushroom pizza for a late lunch. I love food in Europe it is always so fresh. It’s no wonder Americans hate vegetables; most of the ones we get have no flavor !
I still had some energy and time left to get to Gournia before it closed at 3:30. When I got there, the lady said they close at 3:00… but she only charge me two euros instead of three. Honestly with the lack of signage, it was possible to see the whole site in 25 minutes. When I got home, I consulted my archaeology book which said “Gournia is one of the most fascinating sites in the world.”
Maybe if I was an archeologist I would so rhapsodize about Gournia. No doubt ti was an impressive city on its day and some of their relics were important displays at the museum. It was also a connector to Ierapetra where I’ll be going tomorrow on the south side of the island as well as to the port below. It’s is thought an earthquake cause the destruction of this site and its community.
Then it was home for happy hour at sunset but it was still too windy and I had to cut that short. My friend Miranda was happy to come inside and cuddle up with me.
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