After three days of adventures on Crete, including two bewildering drives through the back alleys and weird one-way streets of historic Chania, we flew out of Greece today (Thursday), going from Chania to Athens to Munich, where we are spending the night at an airport hotel. Crete was unexpected, in many ways.

We were surprised by the snow-covered peaks that towered over the coast road as we wound from Heraklion to Chania, about a two-hour drive. We spent this morning at Golden Beach, which would have been beautiful, but for the trash that marred the area back from the ocean. The Cretan sea, though, was clear-blue and perfect for swimming. Will had a great time at the beach. 

The day before, we visited the ruins of the Palace of Knossos, the enormous and palatial headquarters of the Minoan civilization. It is also the place of myth where Athenian hero Theseus went to slay the man-eating minotaur that King Minos kept in a labyrinth beneath the palace. Will, who now proclaims that he wants to be an archaeologist and travel the world, especially Greece, when he grows up, looked long and hard for signs of the labyrinth. Will and Courtenay are both somewhat sad that our vacation has come to an end. In fact, Will sobbed yesterday, saying he wanted to live in Greece. We suspect he just wants to stay on vacation, where it’s all fun, all the time. We’re glad he’s turned into the most amazing travel kid. He even tolerated the museums, tugging on your arm the second you started to actually read a label, saying “Mommy, look at this!” So much for reading about the art… Dad is somewhat more eager to head for home, or Palo Alto, at least. But all of us have had a wonderful time, and return with many stories to tell, and images and memories to last a lifetime, remembering both ancient and modern Greece. (P.S. Rick says it’s great to be in the homeland… his ancestors lived a few hours away in south-central Germany.) Besides, we’ve run out of both clean clothes and woolite….