“You can handle just about anything that comes at you out on the road with a believable grin, common sense and whiskey.”
― Bill Murray, Common Sense and Whiskey
Go-Date: Day 42 thru 44, Tuesday. March 5 – 7.
Lesson Learned: Made in America. The hamburger may appear on menus in other countries. That doesn’t mean it bears any resemblance to what you find on almost any corner in the U.S. I can say from experience, that a good burger is almost impossible to find outside of the US.
C’mon, how difficult can it be? All it takes is a little ground beef (minced meat in Greece), well finding beef may prove difficult, so you have to specify lamb or pork, or chicken. A slice of cheese (forget American cheese, and cheddar is kind of iffy as well); now some sliced tomatoes (easy to do), lettuce (maybe), sliced pickles (what’s a pickle?), mayo (how about thousand island dressing), and mustard (what is mustard?). Toss it on a grill or skillet, burn it (tenderly), salt, pepper and serve while hot. Never order one in Crete. Stick to what they know how to make. Have a Gyro.
Holy Trinity Monastery
The Monastery of Agia Triada (Holy Trinity), or Tzagarolon Monastery as it is also known, is one of the most impressive monasteries you will see in Crete. This is saying a lot, since there are more monasteries in Greece (in general) and Crete (in particular) than Starbucks in the USA.
The monastery is located on the Akrotiri Peninsula, in the north of Chania Prefecture. It is 15 kilometers from Chania, and about 10 klicks from our apartment, very close to Chania Airport. The Monastery of Agia Triada Tzagarolon was built in 1634, on the site of a small church dedicated to the Holy Apostles. The monks Lavrentios and Ieremias who built the monastery came from the great Venetocretan Tzagarolos family, which is reported to have exercised great influence (leverage)on the local Orthodox and Catholic communities, and convinced the local farmers to donate the land to the church free of any attachments. The farmers promptly moved to the south of Crete before they were also taken with the urge to donate all their goats, sheep, chickens and pre-pubescent sons to the clergy.
The two brother monks were highly educated, learned in history, Greek and Latin, and also architecture. In fact in 1611 it was Ieremias who designed and built the church, influenced by the great 16th-century Veronese architect Sebastiano Serlio. The compound is heavily influenced by Venetian architectural style and use of bulding materials.
In 1645, when the Turks invaded Crete, work on Tzagarolon Monastery was interrupted. The Turks called the monastery Selvili Manastir, which means “Monastery of the Cypresses” – presumably because of the cypress drive leading to the monastery. The monks also departed, taking with them all the religious writings and icons before ISIS arrived on the scene. In spite of these efforts, during
the Greek Revolution in 1821, the last monks living in the monastery managed to escape, but were forced to leave behind all the remaining historical relics and manuscripts they had collected, which were burnt by the Turks/ISIS as was commanded by no one.
Today, it is again occupied and they have extensive agriculture efforts in place. In recent years the monastery has developed the systematic cultivation of organic vines and olives, and produces excellent wine, tsikoudia (raki), olive oil, honey, vinegar and olive oil soap. The monastery produces 20 tons of organic virgin olive oil per year. It has won international prizes and is mainly sold abroad and in the monastery store.
To start the day, we also traveled about 5 kilometers up the road to the Monastery of the Hermit. The Cave of St. John the Hermit or Xenos in Avlaki Gorge, in Akrotiri, is located just a few hundred meters away from Arkoudospilios. Similarly to Arkoudospilios the soft limestone rock was permeated by water and caverns were formed. The cave went back about 135 meters, forming a horizontal room with a ceiling in some parts as tall as 10 or 15 meters. Its rich decoration is characterized by large stalactites and stalagmites. Exploring the cave along with the walk to get down to it was a great way to begin the day.
At the beginning and the end of the cave there are icons and candles. There is also a carved underground tank with coating, created to collect water (used as a baptismal?). To the right of the gallery, after 15 meters from the entrance, there is a small room with an artificial entrance, where some human bones have been found, probably belonging to a hermit. At the end of the cave, there is a big stone basin, which is told to have been the tomb of St. John the Hermit. Even today, hermitages exist in the nearby vertical walls of the gorge. We were happy to have brought flashlights so we could spend time poking around the cave. After all these years, the cave still smells of campfires.
Rethymno Fortress
The Fortezza Fortress is the citadel of the city of Rethymno (about 45 kilometers from Chiana). Like most of the other harbor fortresses we’ve encountered in Greece it was built by the Venetians some time in the 16th century, and like all the other forts was captured by the Ottomans in 1646. Venetian walls were incredibly sturdy, so by the 20th century, many houses were built within the citadel (solid foundations, great views, cheap rent, and you close the gate when tax collectors are in town). Most of these structures were demolished by German war planes during the siege on Crete in 1941, and the remainder after World War II, leaving only a few historic buildings within the Fortezza. Today, the citadel is in good condition and is open to the public. It’s a shame the old buildings from the 16th century are gone, since I’m sure it was impressive to see. I’m kind of amazed that one of the few buildings to survive to this date is the old Ottoman Mosque. After all, the Greeks really, really dislike the Turks. I’m surprised its still standing, though the acoustics inside are fabulous.
The fortress stands on a hill called Paleokastro (which means “Old Castle”, of course, everything in this country is old), which was the site of ancient Rhithymna’s acropolis (which is a fortified settlement). Every town in Greece settled by the Minoans, Myceneans, Spartans, Athenians, and Romans had an acropolis. We’ve just grown accustomed that the only Acropolis is in Athens (not true).
Between the 10th and 13th centuries, the Byzantines (Eastern Empire Romans) established a fortified settlement to the east of the hill. It was called Castrum Rethemi (which was a taunt to the Turks which means “Kiss my scrotum!”). The fortifications were repaired in the beginning of the 13th century but didn’t do much good when the Venetians came house hunting. After Crete fell to the Republic of Venice, the settlement became known as the Castel Vecchio or Antico Castello, which both mean “old castle.” Every structure in this country has a name. A dog house by our apartment is called “Flavo canis in domo Domini cum pulicibus” in Latin. I don’t know what that means, but Ellen tells me all my translation attempts are crude and don’t put them on this blog.
Under Venetian rule, a small harbor was built in Rethymno (which has proven totally short-sighted as it can’t dock cruise ships), and it became the third most important city on Crete after Heraklion and Chania. In 1540, a line of fortifications was started to protect the city. The walls took about 30 years to build, increased everyone’s taxes, and were completed in around 1570. The Turks, watching these developments waited for the Venetians to do all the heavy construction work, since they knew how well Venetians build beach-front property. These fortifications were not strong enough however to withstand a large assault, and the Ottomans captured and sacked the city in 1571.
Suba Bay War Memorial Cemetery
The Souda Bay Allied War Cemetery is located at Souda Bay, Crete, Greece near the site of heavy fighting during the German invasion of Crete. It contains burials from both World War I and World War II (Battle of Crete) allied combatants.
The battle began on 20 May 1941, when the Nazis began an airborne invasion of Crete. Greek and other Allied forces (about 32,000 troops in all), along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. Early on, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. Feeling overconfident, they declared a day of celebration and everyone retreated to a bar for drinks and Gyros. While the party continued, Maleme Airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. More than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered (12,000 drunk combatants) or joined the Cretan resistance, and moved into the hills taking up residence in abandoned monasteries.
Hitler authorized Unternehmen Merkur paratroops (named after the swift Roman god Mercury, which really pissed off the Greeks since they insist the god’s name was properly Hermes) with Directive 28; the forces used were to come from airborne and air units already in the area and units intended for Unternehmen Barbarossa troops (named after an Italian restaurant on Paros island Greece) were to conclude operations before the end of May.
On 26 May, the German advance stalled, senior Wehrmacht officers requested Mussolini to send Italian Army units to Crete in order to help the German forces fighting there. On the afternoon of 27 May, an Italian convoy departed from Rhodes with the intention of landing a brigade from the 50th Infantry Division Regina, to check out the Barbarossa cuisine (they thought they were going to Paros). The escort was made up of the destroyers Crispi, and Crunchi, the torpedo-boats Lira, Liberace, and Lumbago, and the amphibious force comprised four fishing vessels, two party barges, one river boat (with 12 gamblers), two stoned reefer ships, three tugs, and three gondolas. The Italian commander, Luigi Moscone volunteered the services of his men for the rights to build pizza parlors in Chania, Heraklion, and Rethymno, but the request had to pass through German channels, and was disapproved which cost the Italians all pizza franchise rights in Crete.
With the addition of the Italians, Crete soon fell. The Battle of Crete was the first occasion during the war where German troops encountered widespread resistance from a civilian population, which was strictly verboten and really pissed them off. As most Cretan partisans wore no uniforms or insignia such as armbands or headbands (but they did have starched poofy pants), the Germans felt free of all of the constraints of the Hague Conventions and killed armed and unarmed civilians scriminately and indiscriminately. This didn’t seem to matter to the Italians as they steadily improved their tans on the fabulous Cretan beaches while enjoying the local wines. Oppression of the local population never works, and Cretans strongly resisted the Germans until the Nazis were repulsed from the island in 1943. Approximately 2,000 Allied troops died in the battle and as many as 6,000 German and Italians. Cretans still exact their revenge on Germany by serving absolutely awful strudel in Cretan Cafés. The Suda Bay Memorial is in honor of these brave fighters.
Minoan Cemetery of Armeni
The Late Minoan III cemetery of Armeni is located 8 kilometers south of Rethymno (so it made for a quick trip to visit after the fortress) on the road to Spili and Ayia Galini. The site has been excavated since 1969 and over 200 chamber tombs and one tholos tomb have so far been discovered, all oriented towards the northeast and the Vryssinas mountain. The chamber tombs are cut into what is quite a soft rock, known locally as kouskouras, but the rock was hard enough for the tombs to remain well preserved. Of course “soft” is a relative term. I know I wouldn’t want to chisel them out with bronze tools. Also, I can attest to how square, plumb, and precise these tombs are dug.
A network of paths ran through the cemetery, which now ramble like bunny trails laid out by a drunken Aggie filled with angst for A&M leaving the Big 12 so they can be an also-ran in the SEC. Smaller and larger tombs definitely show the pecking order in the grave yard given the higher status and lower status of the dead.
There are two types of tombs indicating zip code of the resident, besides the designation of size (who said size isn’t important). In the first type, there is a large tomb with a long dromos (An avenue or passage leading into a temple or tomb, especially one between rows of columns or statues). Steps lead down from ground level to the beginning of the dromos. The second type is a small tomb with a short dromos in the form of a ramp, with no steps or in some cases, no ramp but just a few steps leading directly to the entrance of the tomb. In many tombs, cavities have been carved out of the walls of the dromos either near the entrance to the dromos or near the chamber itself. Objects such as beads, a vase or a small statue would be placed in the cavity. Among the finds in the tombs were pottery, bronze vessels, tools, jewelery, stone vases and four cylindrical seals from the Middle East. We looked, but found no beads, statues, or gold coins laying around (damn).
There were a lot of tombs here, 250 or so I believe. The estimated dates of the graves varied, but most were between 3,300 to 2,400 years old.
Over 500 skeletons were found in the graves (co-habitation was the norm) which gave a wealth of information about the physical appearance of these people, together with their state of health. The average height of the men was 1.67 meters (5’6”) and of women 1.54 meters (a little over 5’ even). Life expectancy was short. For men it was 31 years and for women 28 years (probably because maternal mortality was high). Other causes of death included diseases like bone cancer, tuberculosis, and brucellosis (bacterial infection passed on to humans from infected animals) and of course accidents and wounds from fighting. A leading cause of a shorter life was loss of their teeth (tooth brushes had yet to be invented). It was an interesting day.