Mighty Knossos

No trip to Crete would be complete without the all too obligatory visit to Knossos. As tempting as it is to stay away from all those painful bus loads of package tourists, who in their right mind can say no to a visit to King Midas's palace? Birthplace of such myths as: Jason and the Minotaur, King Midas and his golden touch, Icarus and Daedalus. My childhood fantasies refused to hold me back. Schliemann's restoration is, well: imaginative. It certainly doesn't leave much to the imagination of the rest of the world, which given the hordes of tourists who literally tromp through this place, and given the general lack of the average person's imagination - perhaps this is better? In a Disney kind of way? Maybe?



Regardless, it is always interesting to visit the setting of historically significant places. They almost never are the way you imagine. For example, I never imagined Knossos to be packed with wealthy young Russian people. For that matter, I never imagined Greece to be packed with wealthy young Russian people, but they kept showing up everywhere. “Money laundering”, “Russian Mob” are the words that most commonly fly off the tongues of locals whenever a crowd of expensive looking Russians saunter by.


I have to say that the most delightful part of Knossos is the whimsical artwork that has been liberated from her rubble. Frescoes and pottery focus on nature, animals, and people's relationship with them. Flowing lines echo beauty, motion, and joy. There is an uplifting quality to what filled the imaginations of these ancient Minoans. The best window into this imagination is in the museum in Iraklio.

King Kouros

In green, green Samos between 538 and 522 BC there reigned a man named Polycrates. Now good ol' Polycrates was a bit of a megalomaniac. On the sight of Hera's rumoured birthplace he built a temple 4 times the size of the parthenon and adorned it's road with at least 6 of the largest kouros statues known in Archaic Greece. These were no regular statues, they stood 5.5m high.

The kouros that stands in the archaeological museum of Samos is a massive sight to behold, but most remarkable for me was how beautifully the veins of the marble cooperated to highlight the contours of the hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and elbow of the statue. If this guy was ever painted, it must have been a sad day when that beautiful veining was covered up, not to mention the sadness of the day these colossal fellas were knocked down, broken up, and carried away to incorporate into the walls and steps of people's homes and public works. imagine that! this guy's parts were found all over the hellenic ruins of Pythagorio. Back then, people were a little better with the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing.

Seeing Samothraki

Home to the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, it is easy to see why such an impressive cult would found itself in Samothraki. The religion was brought to Samothraki by the Thracians in 1000BC and died out in the 4th century AD.

Appearing on the horizon, Samothraki is mostly mountain. The dramatic peak that dominates the island is Mt Fegari and holds the position of highest peak in the Aegean at 1611m. There are no big resorts in Samothraki. People go mainly to hike, soak in thermal springs, visit her many beautiful waterfalls, and relax in an extremely low key environment. We had the good fortune of visiting the Sanctuary of the Great Gods during a full moon. Watching the moon rise over Mt Fegari and spill out over the ruins was pure magic. Only the presence of the island's legendary "Winged Victory of Samothrace" could have made the event more beautiful.

Komboloi

The Komboloi is a Greek fidget toy. They occupy the hands and pockets of many Greeks. The idea is to absorb worries by rattling these pretty beads through your fingers. Judging by the number of komboloi I see for sale and occupying idle hands, the Greek people are a particularly nervous lot.

Silk Contents

Silk is made of mulberry leaves. It is the only thing that silkworms eat and once upon a time the border town of Soufli was covered in Mulberry orchards to feed their huge silk enterprise. Soufli was a major player on the ancient silk road. Today they still produce high quality silk in slightly lower quantities. I spent the afternoon feeling up the silk in the town's many shops. I may have even bought a scarf or two.

Profitis Elias

As we ride along the road we often see beautiful little churches standing defiantly at the top of the highest peaks. These churches always belong to the ancient Prophet Elijah. Likened to Moses, he seems to hold a pretty high status in the hierarchy of Orthodox saints. In Thrace, we found our way to one of his little churches tucked away in a thick grove of trees. We slept well contemplating Elijah's spectacular ascent to heaven from a very distant mountain top.

Mosques, Tobacco, and Sunflowers

Sauntering out of the Rodophi mountains we took a lengthy break in alien Xanthi. After such underpopulated and densely green cycling, it was quite surprising to find such bustling and alien chaos. Turkish, Bulgarian, Pomac, Greek and who knows what other languages whirled around us in Xanthi's late morning downtown shopping frenzy.

Our first hour was spent stealing glances at the scarved muslim ladies in their dowdy overcoats while they stared back at me in my loud lycra cycling gear. Wheeling past the market, the brightly dressed, gold toothed Bulgarian ladies made me crave a jaunt to the north to explore what seems to be an unexpectedly colourful country. In the streets, we noticed many unusually fair people and later learned that these were Pomacs a very distinct group of non-Turkish muslims with an entirely unique culture and history. The real topper to our anthropological review was to hear the call to prayer as we cycled past Xanthi's mosque and into the heart of Xanthi's wealth, the tobacco fields.

And tobacco there is a plenty. Seeing broad-hipped ladies in long, full skirts and head scarves standing shoulder deep in vast fields of tobacco plants was a very bothersome sight. I hated to think of the harsh chemicals used on these plants and I couldn't help but feel a little sick to see these (mostly female and muslim) people hand-picking these toxic leaves. I also couldn't help but wonder how the growing and harvesting of tobacco factors in to the muslim stance on tobacco given that smoking is haram. Thankfully, my tobacco contemplations were interspersed with vast fields of sprightly and cheerful sunflowers.

Greek Hikers

Greek Hikers have some VERY distinguishing features. They are a little more jaunty and a lot more pert than Greek walkers.

Via Egnatia

The road I have been the most thrilled to see was the original Via Egnatia which was built in the second century BC to connect ancient Rome to less ancient Byzantium. This portion shown here was excavated in ancient Phillipi. If you look closely you can see the grooves worn into the stone slabs by chariot wheels.

Standing in the middle of this road one can easily imagine Mark Anthony and Octavian, after the assassination of Julius Caesar, pursuing Cassius and Brutus along the Via Egnatia to their fateful battle at Phillipi in 44 BC.

It is also remarkable to see the mixing of Roman and early Christian motifs. With the arrival of St Paul the apostle on the shores of Macedonia in 49 AD, Phillipi was the first European city to convert to Christianity. To wander the present day site is a historical feast.

Christianity Meets Europe

Europe first embraced Christianity when Paul touched Greece's shores just outside Ancient Phillipi. Here are some remnants from those early days...

I would have been a maenad

As we ride along the foot of Dionysus' sacred Mt Panageum, I watch the olives get plumper and anticipate the wine we will sample from this ancient wine producing soil. I also wonder if we are in maenad territory yet. These mad women, who were attendants in the cult of Dionysus, were rumoured to wander somewhere in this region. As I studied my ancient myths, I always enjoyed the image of these ancient Greek women who managed to escape the yoke of their mundane existence (chained to their looms and other household duties) to run about the hills in troops of wild, wine drinking, scantily dressed pleasure seekers. I'm sure that I would have been a maenad if I were a woman born to ancient Greece.

glass, smalti, and pebbles

How Christian mosaics began and where they're at today...Here is a sample of glass mosaic from a village at the foot of Mt Olympus, a modern smalti mosaic mural found outside a church in Kavala, and some lovely early Christian pebble mosaics from Philippi. Lucky dog that gets to wander through the fence and lay on that gorgeous ancient floor.

Unanticipated Amphipolis

Ever heard of Amphipolis?

The Strimonas river valler threw our map into a tizzy. There were no roads where webs of roads were indicated on our map. For forty extra kilometers we cycled south towards the coast when really we wanted to cross the damn unbridgeable river and get our asses to Kavala. Asking for help we kept being directed to keep straight and turn left at the lion. The lion was where we could cross the river.

Well, some lion it was! Just sitting there being all unexpectedly HUGE! Our guide book made no mention of a gargantuan lion. It stopped mentioning anything at all back in Pella and, in fact, had little to say about the rest of our mainland trip. So, I buried the guide at the bottom of my pannier and we cycled on. Looking for directions we found ourself at the site museum for ancient Amphipolis.

Amphipolis got it's start as a satellite Athenian city. It served as a fortification to block invading Persian troops and, most importantly, to supply Athens with a steady supply of silver and gold from the neighbouring Mt Panageum. Amphipolis later supplied Alexander with many of his commanders (the lion is rumoured to be the tomb of one such commander) and it was also the launching point for Alexander's ships. With the rise of the Romans, the Via Egnatia transportation route passed through here on its way between Rome and Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire also outfitted her with some lovely pebble mosaics which remain buried on-site.

The things you find when you put the guide book away and let fate take you where it may....