Stu had a full day of work so Tom, Izzy and I wanted him to have the villa to himself for work calls etc so planned a full day at Heraklion. Heraklion was over a two hour drive away so we left really early as wanted to arrive before all of the coach tours and beat the crowds. We had the most spectacular sunrise as we left our villa.

Knossos Palace

Our first stop of the day was Knossos Palace – an archaeological site dating back to 1900BC. Tom wanted to visit as he had just finished his Latin GCSE and was quite interested in Greek Mythology and Knossos was associated with the Minotaur – which Tom knew all about.

We arrived just after opening so it wasn’t too busy and we explored the ruins – although it was already really hot despite only being 9.30am!

^{Arriving at Knossos}

^{Exploring the buildings at Knossos}

Heraklion

We stayed at Knossos for about an hour and a half before driving 15 minutes into Heraklion – the largest city and capital of Crete. There was an archaeological museum and entry was included with our Knossos Palace tickets. The roads were very busy but I made it and parked up in a huge carpark by the port.

We made our way to the museum and it was lovely inside as it was fully air conditioned. Tom and Izzy were not that interested but there were lots of rooms full of pots and other artifacts that had been discovered when Knossos Palace was excavated. There was also a model showing what Knossos palace would have looked like in its day.

^{Inside the Heraklion Archaeological Museum}

After the museum we went for a wander around Heraklion and found a restaurant for lunch. Izzy ordered boa buns, Tom chose mini beef sliders with feta cheese on them and I selected moussaka.

^{Our lunch at Heraklion – the food was all really good}

We then found an ice cream shop where you could design your own ice cream – the chocolate it was dipped in and the topping. Obviously Tom & Izzy both had ice creams!

^{Ice creams designed by the kids!}

We were starting to get a bit tired by this point so we returned to the car as I was aware I had a two hour drive home. Although I quickly stopped at the port to take some photos.

We returned home and Stu had finished work for the weekend so we had a lovely BBQ and spent another evening in the pool and playing table tennis.

^BBQ!