Royal Voyage 2015 Day 6: #NotMyCrete
After two unbelievably relaxing days at sea (not sure I’ve ever slept that much in my life) we were primed and ready for our first stop on this cruise, Crete. We’ve been to almost every major island in Greece (Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, and of course Athens) but the one that we hadn’t been to yet was Crete. We woke up at 6:30AM, got ready and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Café in the middle of the ship.
We then made our way to the theater to get grouped up with everyone going on the same tour as us. We were group #4 and basically meant we were one of the first off the boat. We made our way off the boat and onto a bus for our full day excursion. The journey began at 8AM and we didn’t make it to our first official stop until close to 11AM. We did make a pit stop along the way at a coffee shop. There were some sheep grazing next to the coffee shop so Jenn and I spent the break checking the sheep out before jumping back on the bus.
Our first stop on the tour was Knossos, supposedly one of the oldest European cities and one of the most famous archeological sites in the world. The place was hyped up big time on our two-hour bus ride to Knossos. In fact, our tour guide who seems like a really nice lady would not stop talking the entire ride. She would often say that she would let us relax and then a minute or two later would pop on the microphone and tell us some more “interesting facts about Crete”. We got to the site, got our tickets and began our tour of Knossos. Having done no research before on what we were looking at and tuning out our tour guide for most of the trip it wasn’t the most impressive place we’ve been. A lot of half standing buildings that definitely look old but otherwise didn’t seem super impressive.
However just as we were wrapping up our tour one of the ladies on the tour with us (who was sitting directly in front of us on the bus) passed out and an ambulance was called. By the way the average age on the tour had to be mid-70’s. I’m not sure anyone was (besides Jenn and I) were younger then 60. The lady was OK, although I think she stayed on the bus the rest of the trip. We made our way back to the bus picked up a can of Pringles and began driving to Heraklion the biggest town in Crete.
One of the reasons we picked this tour was because it gave us free-time in Heraklion. We were supposed to have two hours but the medical emergency delayed us nearly an hour so we were only given a little over an hour to explore. That meant Jenn and I made a beeline to a nearby café. Jenn got her normal (sort of tired of typing it) spaghetti and I had their beef skewers. Both were pretty good but not our best Greek meal.
We had some time left after lunch so we walked around the shopping area of Heraklion and somehow found Jenn’s favorite new store Zara. We were pressed for time but that didn’t stop Jenn taking her time picking out a couple items and trying them on. Jenn ended up buying two dresses and we ended up being ten minutes late back to our bus. If you ask Jenn it was far worth the time delay. She does look incredible in both of her new dresses.
After we left Heraklion it was back to the ship. We had a two-hour drive back where the tour guide continued to spout out more and more facts. You know its bad when 95% of the old people on the bus tuned her out. Like I said she was a really really nice lady but just would not stop talking. We made our way back on the boat 30 minutes later then the “last call” to board was supposed to be. We actually had a really nice day in Crete. The weather could not have been better around 70 degrees and we got to see some really neat areas. However, with that being said if I was going back to Greece again I would absolutely put Santorini and Mykonos before it, and Rhodes and Athens behind it. It’s a nice island but doesn’t have the same wow factor of both Santorini and Mykonos.
We went back to our room and got ready for dinner. This evening we had reservations at Izumi the Japanese restaurant on-board. We started off with edamame beans which I’ve never had but fell in love with. Can I just go back and eat those again? Jenn got some Miso soup, and then we got their DX Sushi Combo. The combo had six rolls and then six sashimi. We were both a little worried about getting sushi on a cruise but it was fantastic. We then split a hot rock (which you cook your food on) with steak and chicken. We did this back on our Europe 2012 trip and loved it and continued to feel the same again today. We finished off the meal with a dessert sampler which had a bunch of different Asian desserts that I couldn’t even begin to describe or name. Needless to say we weren’t fans of most of them.
We left dinner and walked around the ship. We went and played another round of ping pong, I avenged my loss from a few nights ago, and then played another round of mini-golf, which I won in as well. We then shot some more hoops and walked a couple laps on the track on the top of the ship. We then went back to our room to figure out our plan for the rest of the evening. Terminator Genysis was playing on the big screen out by the pool so we picked up some blankets and found some loungers to watch the movie. Around 20 minutes in we both fell asleep so made our way back to our room and called it a night.
Although Crete might not have been the most exciting stop of the trip it was nice to get off the boat and experience yet another new place. We had a great time in Crete and back on board and I for one can’t wait for another day at-sea to get ready for our big day in Israel.
For those wondering about the title for todays post. Its more of an inside joke. But if you Google #NotMyChristian and look at the John Oliver videos you will have a little better idea. Basically we just started laughing a lot talking about it, and thought it would be hilarious to name today #NotMyChristian so we improvised a bit and called it #NotMyCrete. So there you go. We can’t be that clever all the time.
