Sunday!

So we didn't quite make it down to the glendi last night. It was really cold and windy and actually rained briefly, so the Gournia people gathered and started their own party. Brian played the guitar and sang and Dave played the drum, so it was quite the little party.

Sunday was a day of adventures, though! Dean and I went off to see Malia and then the Dictyan Cave. (Which is spelled... Somehow or another.) It was another surprisingly cloudy day, but that made exploring somewhat nice, at least. Our first stop was the Minoan Palace of Malia.

Which has some lovely, high walls to wander about. I tried not to take too many pictures since I've taken a million here before.

This staircase is my favorite part of the whole site, I think. It was the grand staircase leading up from the central court and would have connected to the second story of the complex.

It's also a great spot to look down into the surrounding architecture. Like into this pillar crypt!

Malia is perhaps most notable because of these huge granaries (probably) that stood on site near the palace.

They've also got some huge pithoi, which would have been used for storage, too. They seem awfully unwieldy, though. As Dean illustrates, they'd likely have stood over the heads of most Minoans.

The best part, though, was that Quartier Mu was open! Well, not all of it, but last year nothing was open when Brett and I went. It has this great roof, protecting the structures and mud brick underneath it.

This was an area with a couple very large, fancy houses, sureounded by what seems to be an artisans district. Pottery making, stone work, metal work, and seals time making we're all evidenced here, if I recall correctly.

We couldn't get to the far side over there, though!

Look it those clouds! They're so weird for this time of year!

We left Malia and headed towards Lasithi Plateau to see the cave, and passed this fun sign pointing back to Malia.

The ride was a lovely one through the mountains and parts of Crete that I hadn't seen before, which was fabulous.

I wish I had a better picture! We paused briefly on the way up and you can only sort of see the fantastic view we had riding up.

We made it to the plateau, though, which is actually more of an elevated valley kinda thing, as its ringed by mountains... But it's lovely and patch worked with fields of all sorts.

That was the view from or hike up towards the cave, because we had to go up to go down. And down indeed it was! When we crossed the edge, the cave mouth yawned dark before us. A ursine to myth, this is the cave where baby Zeus was taken and raised in secret so that his father Chronos wouldn't swallow him as he had his brothers and sisters. He was nurses in secret and great noise was made in order to hide his cries. Eventually Zeus was old enough to challenge his father and become king of the gods himself.

And it was a loooong way down into it.

The upper mouth of the cave was coated in fuzzy green moss.

And the first glimpse of the cave itself was a fantastic one. 

It was dark, though lit enough that you could see, and cold!

One could well imagine why ancient Greeks might have worshipped at such a place.

I did take a bunch a pictures, having never seen the cave before... And it was really cool anyways!

At the bottom was this little shelf area where people tossed coins. Offerings to Hades, god of wealth and the underworld. (Or so I like to think.)

Coins glittered from the bottom of the water running beside the boardwalk, too.

Here you can best see the lake at the bottom. Cold still water which made the cave damp compared to the arid air outside.

The view from up there really was spectacular.

And these lovely hydrangeas bloomed like crazy near one of the tavernas by the parking lot. 

 

One last glimpse... And then we headed to the other side of the valley to see a different cave.

Which was very well marked. >> That's supposed to say "Trapeza Minoan Cave."

Some kindly passerby helped with the signage, in case one missed the other sign.

The path up was a lovely little thing, really, if a bit run down.

These lovely little flowers, that look like crumpled tissue paper, grew here and there along the stairs.

And then we made it to the cave!

I don't actually have any pictures of the interior, though, as this cave was unlit. It was much smaller, but still pretty cool! From there it was a somewhat long, but lovely ride home. And then to bed!