Horses and Churches
Trip Start
Apr 18, 2012
1
7
55
Trip End
Sep 12, 2012
Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Two things worth noting today:
After passing the church of St. Minos on our walk home last night, I was determined to explore it during the day. Therefore, we returned this morning. Upon entering the sanctuary, I was struck by the splendor and magnificence of this church. It was bigger than St. Titos, but not by all that much. Every inch of wall and curved ceilings were covered with beautiful icons. The iconostasis, unlike St. Titos', was made of marble. The doors, pews and candle stand at the narthex were all made of wood and adorned with the most intricate and lovely carvings. Like St. Titos, St. Minos also housed a relic of its namesake, although not in a separate room. The relic was placed directly inside the doors of the sanctuary. The epitaphio was also still on display inside the church sanctuary on the left. It was golden and had the heads of birds sprouting from each top corner. More I cannot say, the pictures will speak for themselves.
Later in the afternoon, Stephanie, Natasha and I met up with Liz, who had organized a horseback riding trip through the mountains surrounding the city. We were picked up in the center of the city and taken to a stable outside the city. While waiting for the horses we were to ride, we viewed in one of the stables a newborn foal. The stable hand said she had been born just that morning. The foal was beautiful; she sat wide eyed on the straw, gazing up at us. She then got up and began to trot around the stall in search of approval from both us and her mother. Her joyful winnie at this movement brought a smile to all our faces.
Once we had been introduced to our horses and were securely perched atop their backs, we set off on our journey. Our path up the mountain cut through groves of olive trees. They are shorter trees (the most they grow is 8 meters), but the are pretty to look at. Wherever there was a break in the olive trees, the valley was visible, spread out for miles. As the afternoon grew later, smoke trails were visible from some of the houses below. Above the valley, across from our path, rose other mountains, peaking amongst the clouds. Like many things so far in Crete, it was a bit surreal. The rest of our journey defies words, therefore I have attached many picture, none of which match the beauty as it was in person, but sufficient enough.
Comments
AMAZING!!! =D