#2786 travel Tuesday: our last day in Chania, Crete

I didn't think I would write about the trip to Greece tonight, but it's Travel Tuesday, so why wouldn't I? MT picked a number between 20 and 30, the days I was in Greece or Germany, and he picked 28, so that's where I'll start, which was also the last day we spent in Crete. 

First things first: we spent a week in Chania, Crete. Chania is pronounced han-YA.  

October 28 was a Friday, and the last day of our creativity retreat. Our day started with art in Splantzia Square. 

most of our group, doing art in the square

The square is dominated by a huge old sycamore tree - you can see some of it's leaves in the top left corner in the photo. At one end of the square is a road; cafes and small apartment buildings line the square, and at the other end, is the church of St. Nicholas. I did not go in this orthodox church, though I was told it was very beautiful inside. Here's a photo of the outside:

You best believe we were all sketching the heck out of that bell tower and minaret!

Wait! A minaret on an orthodox church? Yes, because Chania has layers upon layers of history. The Christian church was taken over by the Turks, converted to a mosque and a barracks for Turkish soldiers, and the minaret was added. Much later, it became a Christian church again. I'm glad the minaret wasn't taken down. I love the Christian and Muslim symbols side by side.

(Side note: I'm wishing I had done a little photo editing so you didn't have to see that car! Oh well, that is exactly what I saw!)

One thing I learned on this trip is that time flies when you are doing art, whether it is sketching, painting, writing, or wandering around taking photos of the scenery. Before I knew it, the group was splitting up. Some women went back to the hotel to see the Ohi Day parade. Some, including Lizzie and I, went off to do our final bit of exploring.

Lizzie and I went behind the church and found a quiet courtyard, filled with pigeons and cats (no cats in this photo, though). I remember there was a man sitting on part of the wall, reading while he soaked up the sunshine. It was a little bit cooler that day, with some clouds in the sky and a chance of rain was predicted, but right there, where the guy was sitting, I'm sure everything was perfect.

From the courtyard, we followed an extremely narrow alley down past some houses with lovely windows, doors, and greenery.

Lizzie in the teeny, tiny alley

I have a thing for doors and windows. There might be a post solely of doors and windows of Chania in the future.

We passed an old monastery that has been converted into a boutique hotel near the harbor.

We passed by the excavation sites of ancient Minoan ruins.

These ruins date back to nearly 3000 BC. That means they are over 5,000 years old. It's hard to wrap my mind around that. There were sign boards explaining some of the things the archaeologists found. We're not talking about clumsy spears and rough pottery. The Minoans made beautiful pottery, sculptures, and mosaics.

Remember earlier in the post when I said that Chania has layers upon layers of history. The photo above is the first layers, the Minoan Kydonia. You can see ruins like this all over the place, if you look for it. Most of the ruins are behind black iron fence posts, and at first, you might think, as I did, that it's just old building parts. Of course it is that, but when you learn the time frame, it's just mind-boggling. What's more, there are other civilizations that were built on top of these ruins, from Minoan to Mycenaean, to ancient Greek, to Roman and Venetian, Ottoman and Byzantine. It's fascinating. 

We decided to have another look at the Old Harbor and the lighthouse. As I said, there were some clouds in the sky, and the water in the harbor was choppy with pretty good-sized whitecaps just outside the harbor wall behind the lighthouse. I think the clouds added texture and made the whole place look just that much more interesting. All of these photos are unfiltered and unedited.

Venetian Lighthouse

Chania Old Harbor

panorama shot!

We had lunch at a semi-Spanish restaurant that served tapas, then we walked back to the hotel for our final art session. It was intense and emotional and completely wonderful. A farewell dinner in the Koum Kapi beach neighborhood followed. 

I have so many memories of little things that happened on this day. Every day is filled with those little micro-memories that I will cherish. 

A note: I took 62 photos on 10/28. It was hard to narrow it down to the 13 you see on this post. All of these photos were taken by me with my iPhone, and no editing has been done to any of these pics.