Sousa Bay, Crete

 Today we had a morning walking tour. I was hoping it was like Rhodes where we just got off the ship and walked into old town. Unfortunately it was a “load on the tour bus” for a 15 minute drive to the old part of town before the walking tour even started. They also had shuttle buses at a designated stop in town if you wanted longer to wander around after your walking tour. You could leave your tour group when the guided part was done and explore more on your own and then pick up the shuttle by a park just outside of the old town area.

The sun coming up over Crete

This is the old indoor market place. It is being renovated now. When they started the renovation, 

they found even older ruins under the floors, so it will take longer to get back to a working market

A map of the city of  Chania

Near the  gateway to the older part of the city

Up away from the start of the old town

Both in Rhodes and here I love how they grow things in pots. I gathered ideas for home

One of the remaining mosques in the old city. The Turks took over the city in around 1600, before that the Venetians held the city since about 1200,

Many of the streets were just wide enough for walking, donkey or small carts in the old town part

This is another example of the area the Turks added to the existing building to give their women a space to get fresh air as they were not allowed to be on the streets or to be seen

Someone has built a garden in a bombed out ruin

You see a very Venetian style in the building that have been resorted. This is what they would have looked like in the 13th century also

Here is a home yet to be restored 

Since it is limestone it easily chips if not maintained, it will be a lot of work to restore this section.

Some walkways are covered by plants 

This is a fortress wall built prior to the Venetian time

It surrounds a small port of the inner most city

In WWII Crete was heavily bombs as they have cleared out areas they have found ruins dating back to 3000BC

Some of the land was bought up in the 1980 by archaeological societies and are working digs

This signs shows that this site they are working on has at least 10 different layers of different civilizations who lived on this spot

Here are some of this excavations

As we walked toward the oldest harbor area we came to a square just outside of the harbor rim

Usually cars are not supposed to drive here, but early morning they are allowed to make deliveries to the restaurants and businesses 

The harbor of the old town

This is a man made harbor and our guide said it is on the windy side. She has seen when the storms come in waves are created the spray up to the roof of the domed building

The harbor has a narrow entrance so in ancient times they could draw a large chain across it to stop ships from sailing in, if they were under attack

This is a new lighthouse just a few hundred years old. It sat on the spot of the original light house for the port

The water was teaming with small fish, I would guess about the size of sardines 

One of the side alleys off the square

Our guide giving us instructions on where to meet her in an hour if we were going back to the ship with the tour. She also told those choosing to stay longer how to get to the shuttle stop.

Here is a good picture of the Venetian influence of the town in the old house on the water front

The building with the dome roof was Turkish bath house

An old Greek Orthodox Church still in use

Statue to a Crete ruler in traditional dress for the men

I did a little shopping in my free time

I choose to go back with the tour group while Dale chose to wander a bit more.

This was one of the streets we wandered back down to meet our bus.

The color of the sea around our ship was so pretty, I decided to take a picture from my veranda 

Last night they had their farewell show. A bit strange to me to do your farewell show two nights before the end of the cruise, but they did their welcome aboard on the second night of the cruise.

This is their bring a bunch of the crew and all the officer on stage so we could applaud them.

I guess them need that too.

Well one more blog from tomorrow’s port, then the next day we leave to catch a plain to Vienna