Moore jottings from Mochlos...



Internal view of 'office' (Taverna Kokylia)

Hello from the 'Cretan Office'. In our earlier blog we showed you a picture from the office, now here is an internal view - just to show you it really exists! The next picture is another view from the same taverna, this time showing Roman fish tanks in the foreground and in the background is the Island which we were about to visit for the second time this trip.

View from 'office' with underwater Roman Fish Tanks

 

View to the island (this is taken from our apartment)
See the blue sky - 'turned out nice again'

The boat trip to the island is 5 euros return (the first time we went over a couple of years ago we were told it was 5 euros over but 20 euros to come back!! - he was only joking).  In saying that, last year we both swam over and swam back but this is very much dependant on the wind and therefore the current.  The other day we watched the archaeologists coming back over from their work on the island and some of them thought they could swim back - but the current was strong and they had to be 'rescued' by the boat they should have come back on!



Dudley checking out the staircase



Stuart & Dudley on top of the Hellenistic Hillfort









The island is the site of a Minoan (3000 - 1450 BC) settlement. Minoan is the name that the archaeologists have given to the ancient Cretans.  However, the island does seem to have evidence of later occupation in the 4th century BC (Hellenistic- see Dudley and Stuart on top of the Hellenistic fort, which is the highest point of the centre part of the island).  The Minoan foundation ruins on the island are in fairly good condition (Dudley just had to test out the staircase).  On the upper west (left) side of the island are the royal tombs, where we rested after our trek over the rest of the island.  The view from the island over to Mochlos village is quite outstanding.



Resting by the 3000 year old tombs - not a bad place to
be spending eternity (until the archaeologists dug 'em up!)

To get the boatman to come and collect us from the island we had to ring the church bell to attract his attention at the taverna Kokylia where he whiles the day away.  For those of you who are interested, this is the island that we drank champagne on after we got married last year - so it's a special spot for us.

On our return to the village we needed our cold beers in Kokylia, plus a little bit of lunch for sustenance.  Not too much though, because that evening we went round to Mochlos Mare (where we used to stay, and where Stuart & Ivona were staying) to have supper.  As is now usual, and in true ancient Cretan style, Panagaiotis had 'sacrificed' a rabbit, which Sterie (his wife) cooked up for us.  For those of us who are not too partial to rabbit (i.e. Stuart and I), there was plenty of other delicious home-cooked food on offer (in fact too much) - all washed down with plenty of homemade wine - oh yes and lashings of homemade raki too!



View from the island back to the village of Mochlos

Sunday we luncheoned at Kokylia and then were given the TV controls to watch Wimbledon where Roger Federer was playing some chap called Murray who we believe came second.  Our exact recollection of the result was somewhat dimmed due to drinking solidly from 4pm (2pm UK time) until sometime much later in the dark evening.  The bill for lunch, the whole afternoon and evening session (comprising beer, wine then raki and also dinner) came to an horrendous 62 euros for all 4 of us (that's £50 to you!) - don't ask !

Monday morning sadly saw Stuart & Ivona's departure for wetter shores (i.e. back to the UK!), although Stuart threatened to be back in a couple of weeks to help celebrate our anniversary.

Standing amidst a veritable collection
of 3000 year old pot remnants

Going back to these archaeological sites, the amount of 3000  year old pot sherds (bits) just lying around is unbelievable.  At Vasiliki, for example, there are literally hundreds, nay probably thousands, of broken pieces of pot just sitting around minding their own business.  In the UK, we (British archaeologists) get excited about 1 piece of pot the size of your thumb - here that is too insignificant to even bother about, as can be seen from the picture of me standing in just one spot at the site of Vasiliki.

Moon rising above the mountains

To end, here is a picture we took a few days after the full moon, when we stopped off on our way home after supper in the village and spotted the red glow of the moon rising behind the mountains - beautiful !




Rules for running in Crete!



'Cretan Office' (before raki)

So, having decided we would run 3 times a week, we've now realised there are a couple of rules we should have considered before we started:
#1 - get up early and be running by 7.30am latest, otherwise it's too hot
#2 - don't drink raki the night before or you won't be able to adhere to rule #1 !!

So, yes you've guessed it, not only did we not run Monday, but failed on Tuesday as well.  However, we finally made it out this week on Wednesday and it was all the more worthwhile as when we got to Mochlos Mare (our now usual stopping stop), Panagiotis and Sterie were there and gave us a large bag of salad items, a melon and also invited us for a rabbit supper on Saturday (along with Stuart & Ivona).



Malia kernos
(not sure what it is, so must be 'ritual')

So, we'd had raki on Monday afternoon (!!) because we were doing some work down at the 'Cretan Office' (aka the Kafeneo at the back of Kokylia) and Nicki had given us first a glass of raki each, "to help with the work" and then a carafe because she obviously felt we needed it!

storage at Knossos
(we wondered if the pithoi jar shown
was filled with raki!)

Having not run on Tuesday morning, we set off to visit Malia (the archaeological site, not the 'party zone') and then Knossos, with Stuart and Ivona.  It was interesting (for us) to see what Ivona thought of the two sites, not being an archaeologist - and she said that Knossos was definitely the best for her, because you could gain an idea of what the site might have looked like (even though it's what Arthur Evans thought the site would have looked like of course).  Before (and after) we went round Knossos, we stopped off at Manolis taverna (first in the row outside the site and closest to the BSA where we have stayed before at the 'taverna' - slight misnomer for the 'hostel' that it is).  Manolis said he hoped to be coming over to Mochlos during the summer but it would depend on how business was going over at Knossos.  One of our 'small world' experiences when we met Manolis first and said we were off to stay at Mochlos, he replied that his girlfriend (now his wife) lived in the next village (Lastros), and he is very fond of the taverna's in Mochlos - especially Kokylia!
 

full moon rising


Tuesday evening we had supper at Kokylia and watched the full moon rising above the mountains, took several photos of which this hopefully gives some idea of the sight of the moon rising and casting light shadows on the water.



mountain goats

en route to the waterfall

Thursday saw us set off for our second trip to the Richtis waterfall, this time with Stuart and Ivona.  In contrast to our first visit on a Sunday, we had the waterfall to ourselves this time, which was lovely.  Our walk through the forest was shared with the mountain sheep and goats (sheep tails go down, goat tails go up), and they seemed intent on following us - or was it just that we were in their way?

Just us and the waterfall

wildlife in the forest
(Stuart takes the credit for this photo)

more wildlife
(also taken by Stuart)

To finish off on Thursday we went down to Bogazi for supper and Greek music (with our 'friends' Vagelis and Yiannis).  And to finish as I started this posting, Manolis gave us raki at the end of the meal, so guess what happened to our run this morning.................

Dudley & Sarah's first jottings from Mochlos....

This is our blog for our summer in Crete, where we are spending time in Mochlos, or paradise as we sometimes call it!

Well, I’ve only just managed to work out how to set up a blog and we are already on our 12^th day in Crete, so I’ll try to summarise that first week and a half, together with a few pictures.

It already seems quite a long time ago that we were picked up at 0440 from our house on a misty, damp morning in England and then just less than 7 hours later were collecting our hire car from Yiorgos and Nikos at Iraklion airport and setting off for Mochlos.  We had one ‘incident’ en route when passing a large tree branch, where the wing mirror on the passenger side flew off!  Oh well, at least no-one was hurt.

View down to Mochlos

Alexandros

Here on the left is one of our favourite views of the village, after descending down past the modern quarry, Mochlos Mare (the apartments where we first stayed) comes into view.

For our summer in Mochlos though, we are staying at Alexandros villa,only a short walk away from Mochlos Mare.

Having unpacked and checked out the apartment we wandered down to Mochlos Mare to meet Maria & Joan who had decided to stay on for a further week after the Sussex CCE trip to Crete so that they could see even more Minoan sites.  We also saw Panagiotis, Sterie, Yiorgis and Demeter, who all seemed pleased to see us (as were we them).  

For our first supper in Mochlos we went to Kokylia Taverna and reminded Yiorgis that we would be here until September!


Myrtos Pyrgos - Courtyard

For our first trip out we collected Maria & Joan on Thursday morning and set off for Ierapetra museum, where the lady in charge was very friendly and tried to help us with our Greek (it’s such a difficult language!).  After spending some time in the museum we drove on to Myrtos Pyrgos, where after a short climb we reached the Minoan settlement on the top of a hill with a stunning view – although as usual Greek ‘health & safety’ meant that there was no fencing, just a sheer drop (but then anyone should be able to work out you are at the top of a hill).

Pseira Island

On the way back from Myrtos, we stopped at a Nissan garage where they managed to find a (secondhand) replacement wing mirror for us (hurrah!).  We then had lunch at the Pixidia taverna in Platanos with stunning views across to Pseira island.

House I 1 at Petras

Hieroglyph Archive at Petras

Not put off by their first day out with us, Maria & Joan joined us again the following day (Friday) where we went first to Sitia museum and thanks to a very nice lady there managed to borrow the key to the site at Petras (kept locked and not currently open to the public, although it has been laid out very nicely with informative visitor boards).  Spent a good while wandering round Petras, trying to remember how it had looked when we first visited a few years ago.  We both remembered clearly the numerous storage areas as well as the ‘palace’ area, and of course the great view that so many sites have.

After lunch at a beach taverna in Palaikastro we then went round the site itself, where much has been covered over since the original excavations, and is generally a bit of a jumble, but still worth wandering around.

Saturday marked a ‘day off’ sites for us all and notably was also Maria’s birthday so we had a celebratory supper in Kokylia that evening.

Morgos (or is it Bobby)

Sunday, 24^th June – our 4^th day in Crete, marked our first run on the island!  We took our ‘usual’ route down past the ‘French quarter’ to turn round at a taverna and return – stopping at Mochlos Mare, mostly because we were worn out, but also to say hello to Panagiotis, who ‘rewarded’ us with apricots and cucumbers.  The dogs were also pleased to see us, although I still can’t work out which is Morgos and which is Bobby !

On the way to the waterfall at Richtis

Ready for the day ahead after our early morning exercise, we set off with Maria & Joan to visit the site of Chamaizi (more Minoan ruins!) then on to Richtis where we took a very windy road down to the beach and a walk through the woods to the waterfall (our guide book said the walk would take 30 minutes, but it took us considerably longer, although it was made all the more pleasant by Joan explaining the sites of nature that greeted us along the way).  The waterfall itself was extremely busy with many locals out for a picnic and a swim!

Waterfall at Richtis

Monday saw us take a boat across to Mochlos island (with the ‘new’ boatman Yiannis) where we then spent about an hour and a half walking round the site, up to the Hellenistic fort on the top and round to the Minoan graves.  The American archaeologists were working on site, and some were more friendly towards us that others!  Rang the bell to summon Yiannis to take us back to the mainland and then met up with Nick.  Stuart and Iwona arrived late afternoon and came round for drinks before we set off to meet Maria & Joan for their last supper in Mochlos.

View back to Mochos from the island

Having had a lazy day on Tuesday, we managed our second run on Wednesday (27^th June), again ending at Mochlos Mare where Panagiotis had a freshly picked melon ready for us!  Our aim is to run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (with Saturday and Sunday ‘available’ as reserve days should we not make it during the week!).

'Ancient Olive Tree' at Kavousi

Now we have ‘fresh’ set of willing victims for showing round the sites (Stuart & Iwona), we set off on Thursday to visit Gournia, where another set of Americans are working!  We also went down to look at the Minoan harbour and then back to Pixidia restaurant (with the view) for seafood salad.  Meeting up for drinks in Mochlos Mare garden proved a little ‘dangerous’ as we ended up having one (or several) glasses of raki with Panagiotis before we ‘escaped’ for supper at Bogazi and live music (Greek of course!)

Vronda - looking around

Friday morning (unable to run after the raki of the previous night!), Stuart wanted to make use of the jeep they had hired, so we went off to Kavousi and drove into the mountains to see the ‘ancient olive tree’ and the archaeological site of Vronda.   The route was pretty bumpy, but the jeep did well!  We then went on to the Minoan site at Vasiliki (open but the ‘gate’ is under the fence) before another lunch at Pixidia.

Vronda - still looking !

Vronda - the jeep and the view

Saturday we had to use our ‘reserve’ running day, but we made it and were greeted at Mochlos Mare, this time only by Morgos and Bobby.  We went off to Plaka with Stuart and Iwona, and spent a very lazy and pleasant late morning and afternoon having coffee, browsing the shops and having lunch at Thalassa, a very nice taverna on the seafront.  Whilst there we looked across the Spinalonga island and saw lots of black flags on top – apparently an ‘art exhibition’ the cost of which is a bit of a controversy at the moment, our waiter said 300, 000 euros had been paid by the government, but a lady in a shop wasn’t so sure !

Black flags flying on Spingalonga

Today, 2nd July, Stuart took us out in the jeep where we went looking for the Kastro site behind Kavousi village.  We didn't find it, but we did cross the Thrypti mountain range and end up on the south of the island!  Oh well, another site we will have to find another day.