Visiting Knossos (Greece - Isle of Crete) to see the Minoan Palace with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Knossos (Greece – Island of Crete):  Visiting the Minoan Palace and the Toplou Monastery with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

We set out for the Minoan Palace ruins, Heraklion Archaeological Museum, and the Toplou Monastery on the weekend.  Even my husband Laurent was getting tired of going to the beach all the time now.

You could walk around the Minoan Palace at Knossos unlike the Acropolis and Erectheon in Athens.  Knossos with its vermillion red painting was beautiful and maybe too well preserved.

Knossos was an ancient civilization that existed between 1700 BC and 1400 BC.  The society was said to be matriarchal.

The paintings of soaring blue dolphins and dancers jumping over charging bulls delighted me.  (These paintings are copies.  The real ones are in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion.)

Our next stop was the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, the most famous work of art in the museum in addition to the dolphin paintings and bull dancer paintings is a statuette of a goddess wielding coiling snakes in both of her hands.

The next day was beach filled and palm tree filled.  We went to the beach at Vai and admired the largest grove of palm trees in Europe. Was this a permanent coconut milk source for cocktails I wondered.

I read books under a beach parasol on a comfy chaise lounge until my husband Laurent got his chestnut-colored suntan.  He put on his Ray-Bans, and we walked back to the car to do some cultural tourism.

We stopped at the Toplou Monastery on the way home.  It was built of stone, had yellow doorframes, and planters full of what seemed to be lemon trees.

Very few tourists were there.  I felt privileged to see the interior courtyard of a monastery, view the dining area and kitchen, and visit the chapel and library.

Back in Heraklion, I went out shopping for books.  I just bought one, but it was a great geeky read called Modern Greece:  A Short History by C. M. Wodehouse.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Driving Around Crete: Exploring Greece's Largest Island with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Driving Around Crete:  Exploring Greece’s Largest Island with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

We set out for Pirgos in southern Crete through the Psiloritis Mountains.  We took the wrong road, which turned out to be a mule path for about three kilometers.  The mountains were covered with olive trees and white houses.

We drove all around the eastern side of the island to get back to Heraklion, so we could avoid the mule path back.  Southern Crete was not tourist territory at the time.

One man saw our rental car and shook his fist at rich tourists.  Back in Heraklion, we spent 45-minutes looking for a parking spot, because there are so many tourists there.

We ate the first of many meals at the Ionia Restaurant.  What I liked about the Ionia Restaurant was that you could look at the food in the kitchen before ordering it.

Laurent said he wanted to be on a beach vacation without too many museum visits - like none.  So, we began our tour of bathing spots in Crete outside the town of Rethymno.

Driving was tough, because we had to work out the Greek alphabet.  I busied myself with reading art books at the beach until we could go to town.

Rethymno has many restaurants and a nice pedestrian walkway along the port we discovered.  We ate lunch outside at a spot that had a great view of waves crashing against rocks.  The schnitzel and beer were good and reasonably priced.

On the way back to Heraklion, we discovered a beach called Lythagoia, which seemed to have only Greeks on it.  We drove down the steep road that led to the beach and decided to stay.  The water was clear, clean, and crystalline blue.

The next day, we drove to the pretty beach called Agios Nikolaeus.  I loved this spot, but wanted to get away from tourists despite being one myself.

From Agios Nikolaeus, we went to Elouda where we enjoyed more scenery.  We ate at another restaurant by the sea and thought the schnitzel and beer were delicious and reasonably priced.  The Greeks like those German dishes, too, when they go out.

I bought a book of Greek recipes in English.  As I looked over the recipes, I thought of how tourism had had a negative impact on the culture of the area.  I could not believe that no one sought out more cultural things to do in this ancient place.

As the French would say, I was augmenting “my cultural baggage.”  I wanted to know more about ancient, medieval, and modern Greece to share with my little daughter Florence one day.

My griping about tourists prompted me to ask Laurent to take us to the Lasthiti Plateau in the hope of eating a real Greek meal.

As we drove into Lasthiti, people approached us with lace and raki – homemade anise-flavored liqueur like ouzo – for sale.  The women here wore black outfits.

There were some windmills about, but these were being replaced with electric generators.

We ate lunch on the Lasthiti Plateau – delicious stuffed grape leaves made with rice and lemon sauce followed by thick, Greek yogurt with honey drizzled over it.

Wineries are supposed to be self-sustaining, because you can stir-fry grape leaves to eat along with wild boar sausage and a reasonable amount of wine. 

Wild boars seem to breed in vineyards. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Walking around Athens: Greece's Capital with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Walking around Athens: Greece’s Capital with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I took an afternoon flight to Athens from Paris and arrived at night in Athens.

We slept in and walked to the Acropolis through the Plaka quarter, which was full of restaurants serving Greek omelets with feta cheese and pan-baked potatoes.  I knew where I would be eating after climbing the Acropolis.

There were no crosswalks in Athens.  Walking can be hazardous downtown.  The air was polluted, too.  I knew why people were worried about the Parthenon being eaten down by pollution and being turned black like many of the monuments were in Rome (Italy).

Once we arrived at the foot of the Acropolis Hill, we climbed it to see the temples that governed life in ancient Greece.

At the top, we visited the Parthenon devoted to the Goddess Athena, who was worshiped for weaving and wisdom.  The Erectheon Temple with its caryiatids (columns in the form of women) was more beautiful than the Parthenon I thought.

I wanted to go inside these places and let the magic of their perfect proportions work on me.  However, most of the buildings were closed off to tourists.

After our visit to the Acropolis, we set out to purchase our plane ticket to Heraklion, the capital of the island of Crete where we were going to spend a two-week vacation.  With our tickets in hand, we went to the Plaka for breakfast. 

(I still want to build a shrine to the Agora Restaurant in Hyde Park, Chicago for keeping me healthy and strong on 3-egg, Greek omelets with feta cheese and pan-baked potatoes with a ton of café au lait and grapefruit juice when I was in college at the University of Chicago.)

At the airport the next day, we were the only non-German tourists in the terminal.

“Did we book a flight to Heraklion or Berlin?” I asked Laurent.

Laurent smiled at me as we got our affairs ready to board the plane.  It took about half an hour to fly from Athens to Crete.

Our travel agent was waiting for us at the airport.  She drove us to the rental car agency and helped us fill out our paperwork.

We checked in to our hotel and went to eat downtown.  I ate moussaka (a lamb casserole with béchamel and cheese sauce on top) and pastitio (macaroni with tomato sauce and béchamel sauce topping), I drank a Greek iced coffee with thick, real cream and no sugar.

We watched the sun go down and thought we had a pretty nice first day on the island of Crete.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Touring Pamplona and Bayonne, Spanish and French Basque Region Tourist Towns with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Pamplona and Bayonne, Spanish and French Basque Region Tourist Towns with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I continued driving through the Pyrénées Mountains to the City of Pamplona in Spain made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises.

Pamplona is the seat of the Navarra Government and has many government buildings as well.  We had trouble finding a place to park.

Once we found a parking spot, the siesta was well underway.  Everything was closed except for the bar-restaurants in town. 

We found one with air-conditioning and ate there.  I ordered in the Spanish I had learned all by myself using books, reading a bilingual French-Spanish newspaper, and watching the European news and feature television program called Continentales on television.

I ordered beer for us along with ham and cheese sandwiches.  The bar was air-conditioned.  I really did not want to go out and do any touring, but Laurent finally insisted we get moving.

The streets in Pamplona have collapsible metal barriers built into them that were beneath the pavement.  When the Running of the Bulls happens during the Feast of Saint Fermin in July, these metal barriers are hauled up to protect the spectators.

I pretended to be a bull and chased Laurent through the streets.  I hope we did not wake anyone up from their siesta from laughing.

We stayed in Bayonne the next day, because it was raining.  We covered Florence up and walked to a Basque bookstore in the Petit Bayonne.  The salesman in the bookstore was reading a Basque newspaper when we came in.

While we were looking around, he greeted another customer in Basque and had a long conversation.  Once the conversation was over, I asked the salesman for some recommendations on Basque music.

I bought two cassettes of Basque church music, a Basque cookbook, and a copiously illustrated book about the Basque Country in English.

We ate a Basque restaurant called the Bar du Marché.  Our simple lunch was delicious – grilled fish with potatoes and salad followed by chocolate cake.

Laurent and Florence conked out at the hotel.  I took a long walk outside and was happy with my vacation.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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