Day 4 Finding Success

Well folks.... today turned out a bit more like we planned! We headed out this morning by 9:00, heading over to the eastern side of the coast. Not to the far east, because that would take a long time to drive, but central east. If you think like we did and wonder how it could take so long when the island is only 40 km by 160 km wide. That's because the average speed is about 50 km/h (30 mph). The entire island is made of switch backs that take you through the mountains. As soon as you see a straight stretch and start to speed up, you quickly have to hit your breaks before making a 180 degree turn to head in the other direction.

Fun to drive..... not so fun to ride! Jay will tell you that first hand! He was having fun being a race car driver, but when it was my turn to drive, he wasn't so fond of the curves!! He was holding on pretty tight and taking lots of gasps of air! (Mom... he sounded like you! : )

The first place we went to was an ancient Minoan palace in Knosos. Most of it looked like rubble, but a lot of it had been refurbished. This palace was thought to be built around 6000 B.C. That is so hard for me to even fathom. As Jay put it.... that is three times as many years on the otherside of the timeline than we currently are. (6000 B.C. to 2000 A.D.) We could have taken a tour, but we weren't quite that interested in the place. They had posters up all around that explained what we were looking at. Those were good enough for us.

Our next stop was the Idean Cave. This is the place where Zeus grew up. He wasn't born here (that's where we are going tomorrow) but spent his childhood here. We had to drive way back and up to the top of the mountain. When I say up... that's exactly what I mean! We were above the clouds and into the snow! I felt like we were five steps from heaven! You can tell in the picture below how we were looking down at the clouds.

Once we parked our car, we had a good 20 minutes hike up the mountain. There was somewhat of a path made out of rocks, but it certainly wasn't too smooth. We made our way up nonetheless.... Jay a few feet in front of me. I was gasping for air as the oxygen level was a bit on the low side! Anyway, once we got to the cave, Jay climbed a little higher to get some pictures. The snow got the best of him as he fell through, but thankfully only to his knees. Can you find him in the picture?

We then climbed down into the cave, which was quite scarey. The slope was steep and the snow was slippery. There wasn't much to see down there. It was just dark and wet!

On our way down, I had to try out the snow! It was just like a snow cone, minus the flavor! Not snowflakes like we are used to, but more like ice crystals.

Jay got a kick out of me rolling up my pants, but there was a lot of mud and these pants have to last me another week!

We then headed home again. This is when I got to drive as Jay was tired. Instead, he sat in the passenger's seat and took pictures the whole way home! We have some lovely signs....

But also some great shots...

My photographer... standing on top of the world!! (even above the clouds)