Making my way east across Crete, my next stop is the town of Rethymno. This city was built almost entirely by the Venetians in the 13th century. Even though it’s a bit sprawling, it feels like more of a small town to me. There’s not a lot going on here, but there were some interesting sites in town. My first stop was the Archeology Museum. Right outside was this, what I assume is a Venetian Gate. There was no information about it though.

Everything in Greece is closed on Tuesday this time of year, and with this also being Christmas week, I need to make the most of my time here. The Archeology Museum was pretty small, but somehow they managed to put the best artifact they had, the almost complete statue of Aphrodite, in the absolute worst spot in the building. Also, out on the pier is the symbol of the city, the two dolphins. It was used on their coinage in ancient times, but I’m not sure where it came from exactly.

There seems to be a weird absence of Greek history in Rethymno, it’s all Venetian and a little Ottoman. The Neratze Mosque below was built around 1600AD and was originally a church. It was converted to a mosque at the end of the 17th century and is now used as a concert venue.

The old town is basically a lot of winding pedestrian streets with all kinds of shops. Occasionally, a little piece of history pops up, like the original gate to the city, the Guora Gate.

The old Venetian harbor reminds me a little of the one in Chania, but a LOT smaller. Here it’s very quiet and the only thing you can here is the water.

The focal point of Rethymno is the giant Venetian Fortezza. As I mentioned, this is Christmas week and I wasn’t able to make it inside because it was closed. I also found out the Greeks devised a way to take an extra day off. Not only is everything closed on Christmas day, but the Greeks also close everything on the 26th, or as they call it, the second day of Christmas.

Even though I didn’t get to explore the inside of the Fortezza, I really enjoyed walking around the whole perimeter of it. It’s a really impressive place.

Right in the middle of the old town is the fountain built in 1626 by one of the city’s rectors, A. Rimondi. It still spouts spring water to this day.

On Christmas day I headed up into the hills to see some sites that didn’t require opening hours. To my surprise, though, the 16th century Arkadi Monastery was actually open.

The Arkadi Monastery is probably most famous as one of the focal points of the Ottoman resistance. In 1866, a little over 900 Greeks took refuge here. It’s an ideal spot with its high fortification walls, but it was overrun by Turks anyway. Rather than be taken or killed by the Turks, they decided to blow up all the gunpowder reserves that were being stored here, killing themselves and a bunch of Turks with them. That olive tree below didn’t survive either, but they keep it around as a sort of memorial. It even has an Ottoman bullet still embedded in it. They also built an actual memorial just outside with the skulls of some of the dead Greeks. It’s a little morbid, but very interesting.

Nearby, I went to try my luck at the site of ancient Eleutherna. I knew it would be closed, but I heard you can pretty much see everything here by just hiking around the site.

Some of Eleutherna was fenced off, but I was able to see everything through the fences. Plus it was nice to stretch my legs a bit.

The one part I almost missed was the Roman cistern. I saw a little side trail and went to scope it out and found this. I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.

The one part of Eleutherna that wasn’t open was the museum. No problem, I went back on my last day after all of the Christmas stuff was over and saw it then. For some reason they don’t allow any pictures in this one. I did however sneak a shot of the famous bronze shield though. This shield is one of the earliest examples of Cretan bronze art, dating back to around the 8th century BC, and was found in the so called Tomb of the Warriors. I thought it was pretty cool.

On the very creative “Second day of Christmas” I decided to do the really big hike I had planned for this stop, Mt Ida, the highest peak in Crete. It was open.

I’ve never been to a mountain with a more confusing name. The massif is called Psiloritis, the mountain is named Mt Ida, but the peak is named Timios Stavros. Whatever, I’m attempting to climb it today. When I saw the mountain two days ago it was clear. Yesterday we got some rain though and now the mountain is covered in snow, so we’ll see.

It’s a fairly tough steep climb up, but very doable. And the weather today couldn’t have been better, a bit cold up there, but clear skies and thankfully, no wind. Awesome! I figured if it was just a little bit of snow up there it should be no problem. But about two thirds of the way up I hit the snow line and discovered it wasn’t snow. Instead, it was extremely hard packed ice.

I kept trying to kick that ice as hard as I could to get a foothold but it just wouldn’t give. I made it as far as the top of the ridge (below) and I had that peak right in my sights (above), but that ice was just too hard and I’d already fallen on my ass more than a few times, so I called it. I was a little heartbroken about this one, but at least the views were spectacular.

It turns out most of the ruins in Crete are even older than the ruins in the rest of Greece. This is the land of the Minoans, who had their prime from 1900-1100BC, even though they started around 3000BC. I decided to take the long way to my next stop by driving back to the southern coast of Crete to check out a couple of important sites there. First up was Phaistos.

There was actually quite a bit left of the Minoan palace in Phaistos. The first palace was built around 2000BC and went through many renovations over the millenia. I especially liked the giant courtyard entrance to the palace, seen above. And I’m not sure how I did this, but I barely managed to make it out of this place without a new cat. There were so many of them and they were all so friendly and affectionate. Every time I turned around one of them was trying to adopt me. Close one!

Nearby, was an archeology museum spanning this whole region. They didn’t allow pictures either for some reason, but you know me. Most of the artifacts were Minoan, but they had some cool Greek stuff too, mostly from the later Roman period though.

The next site was the ancient city of Gortyna. Partnered with the city of Knossos, which I’ll visit in a couple of days, they pretty much ruled all of Crete. Gortyna is a weird site to visit though. There’s the paid part with the Odeon, seen below, and the fenced off theatre. But most of the ancient city is scattered out in the nearby olive groves.

After visiting the official part, I headed out to hike around the endless olive trees and look for ancient ruins. The site is still being excavated and studied, so I had to enjoy it through the fences, but it is a fantastic site. The highlights were the Temple of Apollo and the Roman Praetorium, which is like a government headquarters or a governors palace.

Way off in the fields I found the not yet excavated and not fenced off Roman Theatre. It was a different sort of ruin to experience, but very fun. I wish I had a shovel.

From there I drove back to the northern coast and to my final stop in Crete. The Christmas holiday slowed me down a bit, but I was expecting that. Now if I can just get these Greeks to stop playing Christmas music everywhere, I’ll be back on track. Stay tuned…