Monthly Archives: April 2026

Posts from the road

Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum

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(Heraklion, Crete, Greece)

After many days outside, we were ready to spend some time indoors on March 10. And with Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum (pictured above) being ranked as the second-best in Greece, we decided to pay it a lengthy visit.

One of the very first rooms at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum

The museum is arranged chronologically. We began with the oldest part (a couple of thousand years B.C.) and slowly worked our way forward in time. With the museum’s significant focus on Crete, it really helped us put our local sightseeing into perspective.

The gold “Bee Pendant” – made in 1700-1800 B.C. and discovered in Malia, Crete

The gold “Bee Pendant” was remarkable. It is now nearly 4000 years old, but it still looks sophisticated…indeed, it looks like it could have been made today (with great effort) by a very highly skilled artist. And yet it would have been crafted with only the simplest of tools. It came from the Malia area, which we passed through a few days before on our day trip to Agios Nikolaos.

Wooden model of the Palace of Knossos

After seeing the remains of the Palace of Knossos the day before, it was very cool to see a model of what it would have looked like in its prime. It reminded me a little bit of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. And indeed, as we had already learned, the Venetians were in Crete for a long time. But that was more than 3000 years after the Palace of Knossos was built.

The bull-leaping fresco from the Palace of Knossos

I wasn’t expecting to see depictions of sports at the museum. But there it was, the remains of the famous bull-leaping fresco from the Palace of Knossos. It seems that bull-leaping was a really big deal in Minoan times, but it also was depicted in ancient Egypt and Syria. And a form of bull-leaping continues even today in southwest France. Yes, you do leap over charging bulls!

Here a larnax, there a larnax…

On a more sobering note, we also saw an extensive display of ancient coffins (technically, each one of these is called a “larnax”). Rather than accommodating a corpse lying flat, each unusually shaped larnax required some corpse “folding” into a fetal position.

Looking east from the Heraklion Archaeological Museum

That seemed like a good time to get some fresh air. Fortunately, the museum’s cafe area has access to a balcony overlooking Heraklion…and yet more ruins from centuries ago! History is everywhere in Crete.

Minoan “Dolphin Fresco” recovered from the Palace of Knossos

The “Dolphin Fresco” is also from the Palace of Knossos. When we finally saw the surviving remnants of it at the Archaeological Museum, we had already seen a replica of it at the Palace itself…and on a thousand souvenirs and postcards! It is a pretty big deal around here.

Home of the big amphoras

I think these huge two-handled vases are called amphoras. While they were impressive just from a decorative perspective, I think they are also impressive to show how these ancient artifacts can be restored. If you look closely, you can see that these vases are full of cracks, and have actually been reassembled after untold years of being “broken up”.

Mosaic floor at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum

Given how skilled the ancient Romans were at making mosaics, it is not surprising that this mosaic floor was found at the Roman city of Chersonesus. It’s actually in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which had a Greek connection even in Roman times. Who knew?

Isis-Persephone, Sarapis-Hades, and their loyal dog

And what would an archaeological museum be without some statues? There were many in Heraklion‘s museum, but I especially liked this one because the family pet has three heads (it’s actually Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld).

Coming up next – another road trip!

Posts from the road

Our gourmet experience at Peskesi

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(Heraklion, Crete, Greece)

Finding good local food is always a part of our travels. Fine dining – less so. But our dinner at Peskesi in Heraklion managed to tick both of those boxes without breaking the bank.

The outdoor seating at Peskesi. We chose to eat inside.

I had never heard of Peskesi before arriving in Heraklion. But when I was researching good local restaurants, its name came up again and again. And so did the recommendation to make a reservation well in advance. It turns out that Peskesi won the award for Best Organic Restaurant in Europe in 2025…so it is very much on the radar for “foodies.”

Awaiting the next course at Peskesi

Although we arrived on a Friday afternoon, the next available table was early on the following Monday evening. As people tend to eat very late in Greece, and this being nowhere near the high season, that told me that the restaurant was not just popular with tourists. I grabbed the first available table for Monday evening,

Grilled Katsohiri cheese still sizzling in the pan

While Peskesi won an organic food award, the restaurant is really all about eating local. Hyper-local, even. Their strict commitment to this approach was obvious: each item on the menu listed how many kilometres the ingredients travelled! Needless to say, everything was from Crete. And a substantial part was from their own farm just outside Heraklion.

Local mushrooms with antholago cheese and oxymelo

Sensing that this going to be our only chance to eat at Peskesi, we did something we don’t normally do: we each ordered an appetizer and a main course (for sharing, of course). This may have been overkill, knowing that we were likely going to get a free dessert and raki afterwards, but we didn’t want to have any regrets.

Souhli (pastry stuffed with beef, tomato, and Katsohiri cheese) on a very large plate

Much of the food was unfamiliar. I had never heard of oxymelo (an aged balsamic vinegar with Cretan thyme honey), but there it was with local mushrooms and a sheep’s-milk cheese called antholago. That appetizer was probably our favourite dish. However, the other appetizer was also excellent: grilled Katsohiri cheese. It’s basically what we see in Greek restaurants as saganaki, but using the local Cretan cheese (similar to Gruyere) instead of a more common variety.

Kreokakavos (pork roasted with honey and thyme, with carrot and legume puree)

My favourite main course was the souhli. It was a large pastry stuffed with beef, tomato, and cheese. There wasn’t anything wrong with the kreokakavos (roast pork with honey and thyme), but I’m just not that much of a meat eater. I must say, however, that it was served on a dazzling plate!

A neighbouring table awaits the next seating at Peskesi

As expected, a free dessert (and digestif) appeared here too. My wife asked for a non-alcoholic digestif, and had a very nice lemonade. I was pleased to see that the raki was much more refined here, with the addition of local rosewater. As with everything else, it had that elusive feeling of freshness.

Our free dessert – complimentary decanter of rosewater-infused raki not shown!

As you can see from the photos, the setting was very nice indeed. But we were most impressed by the very helpful servers. They clearly loved what they were doing, and took the time to tell us all about the various unfamiliar foods. This made our meal especially memorable, and we wouldn’t hesitate to come back if we ever get back to Heraklion.

There’s still much more to come from Crete!

Posts from the road

Palace of Knossos – Part Two

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(Knossos, Crete, Greece)

My previous post set out some of the logistics and background of the Palace of Knossos.

Lots of concrete visible in this part of the palace…

I’m still struggling with the approach Arthur Evans took to “restoring” the Palace of Knossos. After all, he made extensive use of concrete, and I’m pretty sure concrete wasn’t really a thing in 1700 BC. As he started in 1900 and finished in 1930 (taking nine years off between 1913 and 1922), there was nothing like UNESCO to weigh in on what might be the best way to preserve the site.

…but there is still a lot of the original stonework here

Be that as it may, the Palace of Knossos remains impressive. It likely merits a visit just based on the fact that it is Europe’s oldest city. But just be aware that the complex was *destroyed* about 3400 years ago, and much of what you see has (rightly or wrongly) been shored up or even reconstructed based on what Arthur Evans thought was right at the time.

A lot of Knossos postcards feature this structure, at the northern entrance to the palace

We ended up staying at Knossos for a few hours. By the end, we were practically the only people there. The joys of visiting during the off-season! Overall, it doesn’t have quite the same “wow” factor (or the same crowds) as the Acropolis. But it is still well worth a visit if you are in Crete, and it is definitely the most impressive sight in the Heraklion area.

Taking a break in the shade near the southern edge of the Palace of Knossos

For me, the essence of Knossos is standing on the edge of the large central square and appreciating the size and complexity of what was built there so many years ago. It isn’t quite as old as the pyramids of Egypt. But it is also not all that different from structures built thousands of years after Knossos was destroyed. It would have been a giant leap forward at the time.

This shows some of what you would have seen when approaching the palace from the north entrance

I found some of the surrounding areas just as evocative. The road leading to the north entrance of the palace has also been restored, but it somehow seems more authentic. No multicoloured mileposts here! It looks to me like a “Roman” road, but of course it is far older than any Roman road.

The ancient road facing west from near the north entrance

While people haven’t lived at Knossos for a very long time, it is incorrect to say that it is completely uninhabited. Just like Lokrum Island, off the coast of Dubrovnik, Knossos is home to a number of…peacocks! After the relatively heavy task of historical interpretation, I tried to take the perfect peacock photo.

Looking in the other direction from the ancient road…this time, towards the palace

But these peacocks weren’t born yesterday. They remained elusive, and I ended up with a bunch of blurry, off-centre photos. And then finally, as we were leaving the complex, we walked right up to a peacock and peahen. I was able to take a much better photo, albeit one without the historic palace.

Peacock and peahen, outside the front entrance to the Knossos site

We headed back to town on a city bus, and found the journey a little jarring. The bustle of the city was so different from the quiet historical contemplation we enjoyed at Knossos. But we had a very interesting evening lined up: we were going to visit an award-winning restaurant!

One final view of the Palace of Knossos

Stay tuned for all the details on our culinary adventure!

Posts from the road

Palace of Knossos – Part One

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(Knossos, Crete, Greece)

We dedicated March 9 to visiting the Palace of Knossos. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located just outside Heraklion.

A house just outside the main palace structure at Knossos

We took a city bus to get here. You can save a little bit of money by buying your bus ticket in advance. But the major cost component of a visit to Knossos will be your admission ticket…and, if you decide to go for it, a guide.

The other side of that house

At the time of writing, “standard” admission to the Palace of Knossos was 20 Euros. If you are a student, or a senior, you can pay quite a bit less. But your biggest decision will be whether to hire a guide. While the site is very famous, the signage and information is very scarce. If you decide to go it alone, as we did, you will definitely want to have Internet access (e.g. for an audio tour) so that you can get some context for what you are seeing. And if you want to hire a guide, there is no shortage of them waiting at the entrance gates!

Looking toward the main palace structure from the south

Knossos has been described as the oldest city in Europe. It seems to have been the centre of the Minoan civilization. We don’t actually know what the Minoans called themselves: it did not last, and the Minoan name only appeared in the more recent past. It comes from the mythical King Minos, who may have ruled over Knossos at some point.

We have now entered the palace proper, from the south

One thing is for sure: the Palace of Knossos is OLD. The first version was built in 1900 B.C., but was likely destroyed by an earthquake. What remains today was built around 1700 B.C. and was itself destroyed around 1350 B.C. There was a massive fire – possibly caused by an earthquake, or perhaps set intentionally.

Looking towards the north end of the palace

The Palace of Knossos was not a residence for the Minoan royalty. Instead, it had a combination of religious and administrative activities. When we were exploring, we came across a number of structures that were used for “storage.”

A “restored” room in the palace complex

The age and size of the Palace of Knossos makes it interesting in itself. But we found ourselves just as interested in the story of how it was excavated and restored. For this reason, the name Arthur Evans became part of our vocabulary while we were in Crete. One of the main streets in Heraklion was even called “Evans”!

Multistory structure on the east side of the palace complex

Evans worked at the site for more than 20 years. He clearly did an incredible amount of work in trying to understand what the palace represented. But his approach, like that at many other archaeological sites in the early 20th century, was quite different from what would be done today. Evans went beyond excavation and in some cases even beyond restoration. Hence, the shockingly colourful and intact pillars in some parts of the palace.

Here you can see some of the structure as well as the large square at the middle of the palace complex

Evans wanted to show what things really looked like during the heyday of Knossos…and so, in some places, he went ahead and did just that. I cannot see this approach being accepted today. But one could argue that this was a better approach than, for example, what happened at the Acropolis: archaeologists simply took things and brought them back to their home country for display in museums. Much of the decorative work on the Parthenon was stripped in this way.

View from just outside the palace (southeast corner)

As Evans seemed so confident in what he concluded about the Minoans and their palace, we started linking his name to confident declarations about…just about anything.

Stay tuned for more about Knossos!