Our first lamb lunch and the ruins of Knossos – Greece Day 3

This post is part of our adventures in Greece during the fall of 2013.  To see other posts in the series, click here.

After an early morning bus ride and a visit to the museum in central Heraklion we looked for a place to grab lunch before heading to the ruins of Knossos.  Greece is famous for its lamb and so Li decided to try his first set of Greek lamb chops.  Even though the restaurant seemed very ordinary the lamb was excellent – it started us on a quest to try as much lamb as possible during the remainder of our visit.

The first set of lamb chops – that we continually tried to top

Then we found the bus stop and road the bus to the end of the line where the reconstructed ruins of Knossos waited for us under sunny skies.  Because of the special event that weekend – World Tourism Days- entrance was free, so avoiding a guide who tried to sell us a pricey tour, we entered.

Layout of the palace – with the original descriptions from renovation #1

The ruins had been reconstructed nearly 100 years ago in a way that was very modern – it was supposed to give you a sense of the way that the palace was laid out.  However, since that time, archeological practices have changed so we eavesdropped on several guides who were explaining that many of the descriptions and renovations are now not seen as culturally accurate.  Under any case it did give you a sense of grandeur of the Minoan civilization and gave me a sense of wonder that so long ago this very large building with multiple levels and staircases was constructed.

Ruins with the pines and mountains behind

A recreation – to give a sense of what may have been

View of a storage room with many jars

Recreation of the Minoan Bull mural in one of the rooms at the top

We wandered for a couple of hours then headed back to the city of Heraklion where we discovered the rest of World Tourism Days waiting for us.

Another recreation evidenced because I don’t think cement was commonly used at that time – you can see how there were multiple levels

The beautiful blue sky

An ancient road – think who may have walked along these steps…

Where have you seen your favorite set of ruins?  Does ancient history or modern marvels sit at the top of your list?

Apologies for the delay in the posts – my travel continues, but I’ll get on track eventually.