Not just ancient history, but REALLY Ancient history

World History is not necessarily a favorite subject growing up, especially Ancient World History.  In America, we typically focus on Greek and Roman history as they were the most advanced civilizations during those eras.  We learn about the Greek philosopher Socrates or Roman Emperors like Julius Caesar.  But what about the Minoans?  You've never heard of them?  I hadn't either until we started planning this trip.  It turns out the Minoans pre-date the great Greek and Roman periods of history -- by a lot.

We arrived in Crete in time to visit the Archaeoligcal Museum of Heraklion before it closed.  It has extensive exhibits of artifacts from the Minoan period that were found throughout Crete.  Minoan is derived from Minos, king of Knossos in Crete in Greek mythology.  The Minoan world started during the Neolithic period circa 7000 BC, continuing through the Bronze Age, and lasted until about 1100 BC.  Knossos is considered to be the oldest city in Europe, older than Athens and Rome, although now it's just a memory.  

A few of the ancient artifacts we saw are pictured here:

The Bee Pendant -- famous gold ornament from Malia on the coast of Crete (1800 - 1700 BC)

The Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Palace of Knossos (1600 - 1400 BC)

Portable ovens (4500 - 3000 BC)

Kamares Ware Pottery (1900 - 1700 BC)

Vasiliki Ware -- various wine jugs and tea pots (2400 - 2200 BC)

The ruins of the ancient Palace of Knossos are just a few minutes south of Heraklion and we will visit this site tomorrow.  Looking forward to learning more about Minoan history.

The Adventures of Wendy and Bryan -- the sequel

Last year I went to the UK for 11 days with our good friend Wendy.  We had a blast in London and then driving for a week around Wales and Cornwall.  Mona was gracious to let me take a trip without her, and because we had so much fun last year, Wendy and I decided to do another trip.....this time to Greece!

Wendy and I are beginning our Greek adventures on the island of Crete.  We've arrived after 13 hours of travel from DC with a change of planes in Zurich.

Crete is the largest island in Greece, both in size and population, and sits about 250 miles south of Athens in the Mediterranean Sea.  Like many places in this region of the world, various empires controlled the lands and seas at various points in history.  Crete is no exception, and you see the historical, archeological, and architectural evidence of the Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman empires that ruled over Crete at various times in its history.

You could easily spend a week or more exploring the island (not counting just lounging around on the beach), but we only have a couple of days, so we are focusing our time in and around the capital city of Heraklion. 

I had good intentions of blogging the entire trip last year, but for those of you who followed along, I didn't even make it out of London.  Our days were so full and we were having such a ball exploring that I simply didn't have the time.   My plan is to do better with this trip, but we'll see if I do.  This may be the first of many posts, or it may be the only one.  Either way, it's going to be a fabulous trip.