On January 14th, we once again piled into our Fiat Punto and drove east. Our first stop was the Byzantine chuch of Panagia Kera in the village of Kritsa in the hills above Agios Nikolaos. The church was built in the 12th century and has the most famous frescos in Crete. Technically, we weren't supposed to take photos inside, but, hey, this is Greece; at least we didn't use the flash.
Admiring the Byzantine frescos and trying to identify saints.
More frescos, including Saint George (bottom center) and the presentation of Jesus at the Temple (above).
Our next stop was the Dorian city of Lato, perched on a saddle between two hills above Kritsa. Lato was a competing city to Dreros, which we had visited just a few weeks before. The ruins date from the fourth and fifth centuries BCE, and the city was destroyed circa 200 BCE. As you can see from the pictures below, it has been much more extensively excavated than Dreros and had incredible views of the Gulf of Mirabello to the east and the snow-capped Diktean mountains to the west.
First, before exploring, we had a picnic:
The picnic featured duck pate, apaki (smoke-cured pork loin), and the two cheeses are paleokefalotyri (left) and anthotyri.
Properly fortified, we hiked up to the ruins:
Note the tree which is starting to bloom; not bad for January.
A view of the Gulf of Mirabello and Agios Nikolaos.
The snow level came down under four thousand feet, as you can see from the mountain in the background.
Another view of the Gulf of Mirabello. That's Agios Nikolaos just to the left of Graham's head.
Recent Comments