Heraklion; Sunday, 11 June, 2017

I had another disrupted night’s sleep, but at least it meant I was up early to have breakfast and then head out to go for a walk before the worst of the days heat hit.

My aim for the morning was to have a wander along the old city walls, that form almost a complete circuit around the city centre. They are impressive structures with the walls being incredibly thick and several large bastions located along them adding to the impression in invincibility.

From the centre of town and the St George gate I followed the outside of the walls round to the Jesus Gate where there was then access to climb up onto the top of the walls and follow them along for the rest of the way back down to the sea at St Andreas Bastion. I spent about 90 minutes walking along the walls, including stopping off at the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis the Greek Author of, amongst other works, Zorba the Greek.

Down at the end of the walls where they met the sea I headed along the coast back towards the city centre for a little while in search of somewhere to stop for some refreshment as it was a bit too early for lunch, but the bottle of water I’d taken with me had long since been exhausted and the heat was really starting to climb. Thankfully there were several cafes along the way so I could stop at one that overlooked the sea front and had a couple of very refreshing bottles of sparkling water before continuing towards the fortress.

I decided that rather than going straight into the fortress I would stop for lunch and ended up eating in a very nice restaurant overlooking the fortress and harbour. After lunch, I crossed the road and headed into the Venetian fortress for a look around.

The fortress is very interesting with lots of explanatory boards about the history of the fortress, the harbour and the Venetians in Crete. After taking in the exhibitions I climbed the stairs to the terrace and battlements on the top of the fortress from where there were excellent views both of the harbour, city and the neighbouring island of Dia. However, the most impressive views were of the planes taking off virtually over the fortress (the end of the runway being little more than a mile from the fortress) and then turning dramatically in the sky as they all headed North towards mainland Europe.

Having looked round the castle I headed up into town to visit the Archaeological Museum. This is a sunning museum with lots of exhibits of the Minoan finds both from Knossos and other parts of the island. The museum houses some of the key finds including some incredible frescos and a stunning model of what it’s thought the palace looked like.

I spent a very long time looking round the museum, so long in fact that by the time I left I was feeling hungry again so I headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then out for an early dinner.