FIVE ON THE SUNSHINE TRAIL

Coffee at Vinzi's

We had fun showing our friends all our favourite places and they were blessed with reasonably fine weather for October which is traditionally the month for heavy rains.

Vinzi's in Panormo is a lovely coffee place at the top of the cliff perched amongst old castle fortifications and overlooks the little harbour and a small, sheltered beach. Marina, the proprietor treated us to delicious HOT chocolates, and nice ice cold beers and we fought over the different variety of crisps and peanuts while enjoying her choice of music.

Having Lunch at Margaritas

Margaritas is a famous tourist destination being a village not far from us up in the mountains where 15-20 potters live and work. It is a very pretty village, with a number of very interesting churches, the remains of an old monastery and a new monastic building on the way out of town. The five of us wandered up and down the narrow streets looking at all the ceramics and enjoying all the new ideas. One French potter had made a range of interesting musical instruments and another traditional pottery showed a range of huge Ali Baba pots and ceramic basins and seemed to give pottery lessons.

Raki Making Time

We sat down at the least super smart of the tavernas for lunch and ate a really splendid meal from the small menu which the lady proprietor offered. Each of the dishes chosen was good and we ate under a shady vine while we watched 'Superwoman' at her work. The lady (Elina) supervised the Raki making which was taking place in the back garden, cooked and served the meal, looked after their grandchild and totted up our bill. We took photos of the Raki Still with the fire glowing underneath and discussed how the process worked, stopping to take pictures at various intervals during the meal. Eleni gave us all a bottle of her Raki from last year's vintage with the change from our bill. We noted on the way out that she ran the local Post Office as well … What a woman!

Simply Huge Minoan Pots at Knossos

Sir Arthur Evans controversial reconstructions at Knossos

The best day of the week was Sunday when we were booked for a tour with the Curator of the British School of Archaeology based next to the palace workings in Knossos near Iraklion. Don, our guide was immensely knowledgeable and even if we had been to Knossos previously, all of us agreed that the input from our Guide added a new dimension to the whole day. We learned so much more about the history of the place than we had read in the past or learned before. We were amazed that the settlement at Knossos went back many more centuries than the Minoan age, which we knew about, before the Bronze Age, and there was evidence of settlement there back to Neolithic man with so much more there still to uncover. It made me want to do a bit more homework.

Style of Minoan Wall Paintings with interesting details

The Throne Room

As the tour of the workings ended, we had a meal at a taverna nearby and it was at this point that the heavens opened and the rain began to fall in buckets. Fortunately, we all had umbrellas and concluded the tour by visiting the buildings of the School of Archeology, which has a wonderful library, accommodation for visiting archaeology students and an enormous place to study and store artefacts. I was amazed to find myself walking past the Villa Ariadne – a house built for Sir Arthur Evans at the turn of the 20^th century and a place with a rich history of its own as a school for archaeology, a field hospital, the headquarters for occupying forces during the war and a rather imposing house which has now become too costly to maintain by the Greek government! However, having read Ill-met By Moonlight, the opportunity to see the scene where that story took place was unmissable and I was hooked!

Entrance to the Villa Ariadne

The last of our party had to fly home from Iraklion Airport after the day out and we were glad that they had had the best of the weather because it hasn't really stopped raining since then! The torrential rain has gone on for three days and nights but we woke up to a lovely blue sky this morning to cheer us up. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there is some more sunshine up there stored up because our son arrives for a visit next week and we want him to get the chance to see some sun!