Last Two Days in Rethymno, including the Fortezza and Archeological Museum

After our trip to Heraklion and the Palace of Knossos, we Had another off day, walking around Rethymno in between meals.  Sam and Nafisa went down toward the beach and ended up at Mouragio, a restaurant along the waterfront.   The big attraction to them was that the restaurant had a free playroom that entertained the children while we ate.  We paid higher prices for this amenity, but the food was surprisingly not so bad considering both the location and the playroom.  I had a nice plate of grilled dorado, while Nancy had the grilled vegetables.  We stayed for dessert and had baklava with ice cream – it was a huge piece, with U.S style sweetness unlike what we had had at Taverna Knossos; and the ice cream was second rate.  even though we had dessert, we still got the customary “treat” from the house: a small cup with sour orange marmalade topped with yogurt.

While the children napped, we walked around town

along the waterfront further than we had before – I was foraging for a particular restaurant possibility.  We walked up toward the walls of the fortezza

It was windy day, and the surf was pounding the seawall, splashing high into the air

and onto cars parked behind it

We had dinner at En Plo, the last in a series of eateries whose kitchens were on the hill side of the waterfront road,

but whose tables and chairs were perched over the seawall,

using plastic sheeting to protect diners from the wind and the pounding surf we could see below

The name of the restaurant means, toward taste, and the usual π does not begin the name as seen on the sign above, rather it is a calligraphed π

It was another best meal so far.   Openers included feta with caramelized figs and sesame seeds in phyllo portion

mushroom risotto (which Nancy pronounced the best risotto that she had ever had);

 mixed seafood grill,

 grilled octopus;

and grilled sea bream

We stayed for dessert and had Sfakian pie (cheese in phyllo with honey and sesame seeds) as well as a double souffle.


Our last day in Rethymno was organized around the rough travel schedule for the following day — we would have to get up before 5 AM and start driving to Heraklion by 5:30, ensuring arrival in time to drop our rental cars and make it onto an 8 AM ferry to Naxos.  So the children would have to have an especially early dinner, in our apartment, and gety to bed early to maximize their sleep.

We agreed that we would have a morning expedition to the Fortezza, followed by a nice lunch.
On the way, we passed this old building with Arabic inscription on the lintel

and this 16th century loggia, then a meeting place Venetian-era nobility, now a shop sellong architectural copies

We approached the fortezza

and entered through this gate

The fortezza was built in 1573 after a raid on Retyhmno by an Ottoman pirate, and although the original idea was for the entire population to live there, many lived beyond its walls; and it was there that rthe entire population huddled during the siege by the Ottomans in 1646.                                           
After we paid for our tickets and entered the eastern gate

the Agios Elias bastion, immediately to our left; from there we had a fine view to the west

Here is the Erofili Theatre at which the performance was held when we saw people entering after we dined at Melina a few nights before

As we left the theatre, we could see the dome of the Sultan Ibrahim Khan Mosque, next to which sat the Latin Bishop’s residence (now a ruined building) and the small St, Catherine’s Church, built out of a cistern. Eventually, we would get into each; but first, we headed to the ramp

up to the Agios Loukas bastion, whence there was stunning views of  the sea, the coastline, and the rest of the fortezza

We walked on toward some of the buildings within the fortezza

pausing at the ruins of the warehouse complex near the northern gate

buried in one of the rooms were several blocks with visible inscriptions in Arabic, lying in a jumble; apparently, the victorious Greeks have less interest in cataloguing and making space in their archeological museums for the evidence of the latest losers in the struggle for territory in this area of the world

Under the domed Northern Gate Complex were some rooms with a group show of local artists

Now we headed over to the mosque, which was built just after the Ottoman’s victorious siege of the fortezza, replacing the St. Nicholas Cathedral

Then we walked over to St. Catherine’s Church

and stepped inside

Before leaving, I looked at St. Theodore Trinichas’s Temple

and inside

After leaving the fortezza, we walked through lanes lined with flowers

to get lunch at Alana’s Restaurant

where we had our final excellent Cretan meal
With the breads came the usual olive oil and shriveled olives, but also an interesting small bowl of beans – we ended up getting a few bowls, they were so tasty (and they were a big hit with grandson Abe);

finally, I found a Porter in Greece (Septem porter)

My starter was smoked pork Apati, which came in small slices and was delivious.  For me main dish it was tsigariasto, a traditional preparation of lamb cooked slowly in own juices; it was tasty and exceptionally tender.  Grilled sea bream; grilled squid; tagliatelle were our other mains.  The treats from the house were a sweet white wine (moscato) and fruit salad

Sam and Nafisa took the children home for their afternoon naps but  Nancy and I headed to  Rethymno’s small Archeological Museum, located in the former church of St Francis

It had a nice collection, all of it recovered from sites in and near Rethymno, including these miniature figures from the early 2d millennium BC

pots from the middle of the 2d millennium

These goddess figures and pots were from around 1200 BC

and statuary from the 6th Century B\C to the end of the Roman period in the 200's AD

we liked these glass bowls from the late Roman period

this bronze lamp from the 1st century BC showed Dionysus riding a panther

The exhibition closed with some Byzantine mosaics from the 4th and 5th centuries AD

this Byzantine wall painting dates from the 14th Century

Thus archway separated the entryway to rhe museum from Mikrasiaton Square, which we had seen on out first day in town

On our way back to the apartment, we passed through the Guora Gate, which was once an entrance to the Venetian walled city

We had dinner that night at home, getting shwarma, souvlaki, and grilled chicken, combined with lunch leftovers, plus some bakery treats chosen from this impressive spread found around the corner and down the street from our apartmenr

to make sure that the children, and even the adults, got to sleep early, given that we needed to be on the road at 5:30 the following morning.

 But that tale is told in the next blog post.