Iraklio, Crete, Friday 21st March

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Our experiences in the countryside had left us pretty keyed up for a visit to the Natural History Museum where we hoped to find out more about the animals, plants and ecosystems of Crete. It has recently moved to a new building and, disappointingly, has not completed setting out its exhibits. Instead of learning about Crete, we went to a visiting exhibition about the biodiversity of Connecticut in America. It was set up in a two storey room with a life size model of an oak which had been hit by lightning. All the creatures that would have lived within the area of the tree were included in a taxidermist’s paradise of a display. The labels had pictures for easy identification. Just as I was about to make some comments (positive) to Keith, the lady beside me commented to her companion that they should check if all the items she had prepared had been included. It turned out that she is a Greek American, working at the Yale-Peabody Museum, who worked with the University of Crete to develop the exhibition. She was concerned about the temperature control since it is possible to smell the exhibits if it is wrong. She is a herpetologist specialising in amphibians and reptiles. She was interested to know about drought conditions in Australia and said that there have been many instances, particularly in reptiles, with the sea snake being an example, of evolution taking a backward step when conditions warranted it. Other land animals may be capable of adaptations that allow them to return to the water if the environment changes over a long period. She commented on the high priority given to environmental science in primary education, with the result that the large areas of wilderness purchased in the Roosevelt years to provide resources are subject to mass protest when the government wants to cash in the resources.

We dropped in for a look at the children’s ‘Discovery Centre’, an excellent interactive area, which allowed children to learn about many aspects of Crete’s environment. A school was visiting and the children were enjoying the activities. Being aimed at children, the labels were in Greek, so we could only look and speculate.

Next stop was the Koules, the Venetian Fortress, which held off the Turks for 22 years in the siege of Iraklio. It was in excellent condition, with intact walls and an upper floor that would have allowed for quick movement of men and arms. A slope led down to chambers that housed large round stones, too big for the cannons on display. They turned out to be the ammunition for the catapaults. The soldiers must have been giant musclemen to have been able to move the balls, which they would have had to roll up a ramp and lift into the catapault. There would be no question about the damage they would have done, with the balls averaging 30 cm in diameter.

It was a short walk to San Marco’s church, which has been transformed into a free art gallery right next to the main square. We could not read the names of the painter and photographers whose work was featured, but we were particularly impressed with some of the photography, which showed people and scenes, mostly from around Crete. There were quite a few people looking at and discussing the pieces.

After a quick spin around the Loggia which, in Venetian times, was a gentlemen’s club and is now the town hall, we continued on towards the city walls. The final free museum was the Battle of Crete Museum which contained a plaque dedicated to the Australian and Greek forces and the local people who gave their lives for Greece, Crete and their city of Iraklion. It contained memorabilia, photos and information about the battle. New things for me were details of the role of the clergy and the involvement of women and children. Without exception the clergy supported the resistance, often at great personal cost. One priest trained as a paratrooper and pilot and assisted the army in spreading intelligence. A monastery hid a radio for nearly the whole course of the war and all the monks were executed when it was finally found. Many monasteries hid people and assisted with evacuations. Women and children played important roles in hiding and feeding people, in taking messages and in producing misleading and false intelligence. Their lives were endangered by their own and other villagers’ actions. Many times whole villages were razed to the ground in retaliation for real or suspected acts. A sole attendant gloomily guarded the display, creating a cloud of smoke which filled the room.

A half hour bus trip and a ten minute walk took us to the Cretaqurium. We seemed to be walking through a deserted industrial estate, where the former inhabitants had had a keen interest in sport and had installed many fine courts and fields, but no interest in their own housing. It was, in fact, a former American Air Force base, which explained why there was an empty guard checkpoint at the start of the road.

We went down to the filthy, rubbish strewn beach to have lunch in the shade of a rusty and dilapidated pavilion – a beach where I hoped to have a swim after viewing the aquarium. Two shepherds drove their flock across the sand in front of us, greeting us in a very friendly way.

What a contrast the aquarium was. It is new and focuses on the marine environments of Crete and the Mediterranean. The creatures live in gigantic tanks at the right light and temperature conditions. We hired an audio guide which was incredibly informative, in a very accessible style. One of us would listen to it and give the other a précis of the information. Every tank was interesting, but there were some particular highlights: the octopus, the moon jelly fish, the apparently empty tank which had almost completely hidden sole fish with just their eyes and tiny holes above the gills giving them away, the rescued turtle with an accompanying film of the rescue and surgery, and some eels that hunt at night and wrap their bodies around their prey. Finally we watched part of a film about life in the oceans, and only realised when the cleaner appeared, that it was past closing time. The two and a half hours had flashed by. We would recommend this aquarium to visitors to Iraklio, for the standard of the care of the creatures, the set up and the focus on the sea life of the Mediterranean.

The attendant advised me against swimming at the beach – it is polluted – and so we set off for the bus stop and our return trip to Iraklio. On the way we saw a mother and daughter picking introduced flowers from an abandoned garden, and later they carried their bouquets proudly past us as we waited for the bus on the roadside.

The evening passed with tea, blogging, checking emails and planning for an early exit in the morning.

A balloon seller in the main square of Iraklio

This motor scooter is half covered in rubbish. Scooters are more common than motor cycles in Crete.

A view of Iraklio from the Venetian fortress. A few very old buildings and sections of buildings can be seen, but the German bombing in WWII destroyed nearly all of this city, robbing it of the sort of medieval beauty and charm that can be found in the old parts of Chania and Rethmyno.