Arriving in Crete
As we started our overnight trip to Crete, I went to the reception to find out what time we would be arriving in Heraklion. I wanted to visit the ancient city of Knossos, which was about 10 miles south of the city. This way, I could figure out which buses we'd need to take. For some reason, we were only on the entire island of Crete for all of 4 hours. I am not sure who planned that, but they should be shot. That left us no time to see anything else, but at least I could see Knossos and Heraklion, right?
To my dismay, we were not docking at Heraklion, as it said in all of the ship brochures and information. We were instead docking at a small city called Agios Nikolaos (Saint Nicolaus). I had to add it to the travbuddy site, so that should tell you a little about it right there. This port is a good 1.5 hours away from Knossos, and buses do not run regularly even to Heraklion. This meant that there was no way we could see Heraklion or Knossos on our own, and if we did not do the ship's tour, we would be stuck in port with nothing to do.
With a sick feeling in my stomach, I looked over the brochure for the ship's tour one more time. A ride to Knossos, a guided tour, and then some time to walk around Heraklion for 60 euros a person. I wasn't happy about it, but I didn't come all the way to Crete to not see anything. So, we coughed up the money and got ready for the tour.
