Traveling Classroom Foundation
Thursday June 8th 2023

‘History’ Archives

Akrotiri – A Detective Story

Akrotiri – A Detective Story

While visiting Thera, I really should tell you about Akrotiri – a city buried in ash during the Bronze Age volcanic eruption that destroyed the island (see Volcano and Legend). It is a sort of detective story, which begins with the finding of small clues. The detective is a Greek archaeologist named Spyridon Marinatos. Many [Read More]

Volcano and Legend

Volcano and Legend

Saturday morning finally arrives and it is time for us to say goodbye to Pavlos and Eva, and begin our voyage northward into the Cycladic islands. Pavlos drives us to the port of Iraklion to catch the ferry, talking all the while about political cronyism and the ecological damage caused by uncontrolled tourism — which [Read More]

Dark and Mysterious Places

Dark and Mysterious Places

There are over 3,000 caves in Crete (a tribute to nature’s flair for interior decoration), and many are of great archaeological and historical interest. We don’t have time to explore even a small portion of these. However, any inquiry into ancient Crete must include caves – so we decide to visited a few during our [Read More]

The High Plateau

The High Plateau

Along the dry north coast of Crete, farming seems to consist mostly of olive groves and vineyards, which survive with little irrigation. The major agricultural production of the island is in the highlands, where rain and winter snow saturates the soil. We planned to spend a day on the Lasi­thi plateau, the most productive farming [Read More]

The Last Fortress

The Last Fortress

The longest surviving Venetian fortress on Crete is on a rocky island not far from the Lisithi provincial capital of Ayios Nikolaos. We departed in the morning, traveling east on the new national road, which parallels the northern coast of the island from one end to the other. Although the road is very good, it [Read More]

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Warrior Monks of Crete

Warrior Monks of Crete

A road trip with friends took us to the south coast of Crete and a monastery famous for much more than religious [Read More]

Creativity and the Stone House

Creativity and the Stone House

What is creativity? It is the act of turning a unique idea into something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. We [Read More]

Windy Island — Day 1: Tradition

Windy Island — Day 1: Tradition

Traveling with Cretan friends, we boarded a ferry at the port of Iraklion bound for Karpathos — an island at the [Read More]

Windy Island — Day 2: History

Windy Island — Day 2: History

On our second day, we looked forward to exploring towns in the southern part of Karpathos.  All of these are very old, [Read More]

Windy Island — Day 3: Here and Now

Windy Island — Day 3: Here and Now

Shortly after breakfast, we walked up the street to an old stone well to meet our bus.  Pigadia is known for its wells [Read More]

El Greco: Old Becomes New

El Greco: Old Becomes New

Driving west of Iraklion on the E75 highway, we turned southward toward Fodele (pronounced Foe-deh-lay). The road runs [Read More]

Shadow Theater

Shadow Theater

Brightly colored posters went up last week announcing the “shadow theater” was coming to our village. Long before [Read More]

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