Knossos, minoans, and moving towns

We went to Knossos (pronounce the K) today and then to the archeology museum in town. We overdosed on Minoan artifacts. I was in love, but the kids thought it was all rather boring. Erin's begging for a beach.

We took the bus out to Knossos palace. I have mixed feelings about what Sir Evans did with the place. He reconstructed some walls and rooms. That's fine. But I don't like how hard it is to figure out what's original and what's fake. With cement floors and stones, it's easy, but then he redid things like the Bull's head fresco. Argh. The real fresco was moved to the museum, so we saw it there. We also saw one disk with linear A text on it. I think it's really interesting that no one yet has translated that language. Some things are still secrets for us to reveal. Isn't that what life's about?

We're heading to Agios Nikolaos on the east side of the island. We're getting two rooms for 50 Euros a night. The Greek currency used to be the drachma/drakma, which was a weak currency, so everything was really cheap for us. But now they are using the Euro, which is about $1.26 per 1 Euro, everything is expensive. The main city is also very expensive, so we'll likely get much cheaper hotels and meals outside of the city. I should clarify "expensive" for those who haven't been to Greece. It might seem reasonable for you to spend $90 on a hotel in California. Heck, you can't get anything that isn't flea infested in SF for less than $130. But here, that 70 Euros gets you a room with no A/C. There isn't a TV usually. There's no comforters on the beds--just a single white sheet. And the best part about Greece is that you can't flush toilet paper, so you have to put it in a trash can next to the toilet. So, for that, you pay 70 Euros a night. Also, no one has family rooms. Can you imagine hotels in the US with only single beds? Or only one "double" bed? Nope. All of our hotels have rooms with two queen beds. Dinners here are about the same price in the states. We're spending about 35-50 Euros. When we were here last, you could by dinner for about $3-4. So yeah, prices have gone up a lot. (Do I sound like some whiny old geezer saying "you know, when I was a kid pop was 5 cents!)

Anyway, the busses are cheap. Renting a car is expensive...about 30-50 Euros a day. No Orbitz special deals here.

But we're all having fun just being together. We got a bit of a scare today when Erin locked herself in the toilet at a restaurant, but I managed to talk her through undoing the latch. Whew. Poor kid was very scared, although it seems hilarious writing about it now. (Bad mom! Bad!)

So it's after 10pm here. I have to go pack for tomorrow. If you don't hear from me for 5-7 days, don't worry. We're going to the sticks and may not have internet access. We'll see.