More Crete

I stayed back down at the coast on Thursday night, as you know, since the woman at the olive oil place said it was the closest town that would have places to stay.

So Friday AM, I headed back up into the hills.

This is the view from up the hill from the town where I stayed.




Olive Groves in a Stony Land

There was something pretty timeless about the groves of olive trees up here as I crossed into the higher country from the coast, and the old stone walls certainly added to that sense.





Here’s a view south on the other side of the road.




More Pot(s)

The first place I stopped was the ceramics-specialty town, Margarites,





where I didn’t buy any ceramics, but did meet this really nice, serious photographer French woman, to whom I should have given my business card.

Damn!

She was very nice and we had a very nice little Franglish conversation. She lives in the part of France I’m hoping to visit next year, Provence.

Here’s someone’s grape arbor that seemed particularly restful—





And some other scenes in the town.










Eleutherna and Lovely Sound Effects, Too

I was in the old Greek complex at Eleutherna next,









But as you can tell from the pictures, the place was closed— it was an active dig, but there wasn’t any one around.

This was the acropolis (citadel) of the place, most of a Km away







and while I was up shooting the acropolis, some guy down in the little valley below me was moving his sheep and I could hear the wonderful sound of the sheep bells from almost 200 feet away.

Lovely.


Arkadhi Monastery

In Cretan history, this is a pretty sacred place.

It was a monastery (there are lots of them here) and during a Turkish repression of (another) rebellion, 1866 this time, hundreds of local people came here for safety.

Thousands of Turks attacked for a couple of days, and finally broke through the gate and were in the courtyard when the powder magazine blew up, killing many of the villagers and many, many of the Turks.

The local version is that the explosion was ordered by the local archbishop.

Anyway the Turks were so angry they killed all the remaining villagers.

The place is a rectangular two-story building, maybe 100 by 200 feet, the outside of which is the walls of the place, with the little church in the open courtyard center. It’s now full of flowers, mostly roses, and is lovely except for the tour busses.

I was arriving as the two there were loading up to leave, and left most of an hour later as the next two pulled in.



This woman was a feature of the place.









And on the way to the next place, I saw the most amazing thing!

A haystack moving all by itself. . . .




Honest, Officer-- They Told Me it was Oregano. . . .

Finally I went to a town called Maroulas, which has specialized in herbs and herbal remedies for tourists. . . .

There was some old olive processing equipment





and some wonderful flowers on the houses.








Great View— House Needs a Little Work

Finally, here’s an example of an unfinished house— it’s for sale, and has a great view, and is awaiting the final story. . . .