Although I awoke at 7:00, I dozed back off until the 8:00 call. Breakfast was more substantial than at the other hotel and the coffee was very good.

We boarded the bus at 9:15 and headed east to the Rousalakos ruins near Palaikastro at the eastern end of the island. These ruins were excavated by the English. New evidence suggests that a large palace, rivaling Knossos , is buried beneath a landslide. We measured the ashlar walls but they trended NW and NE. At the base of the ruins is a suspicious flat area bordered by a low rise next to the sea. It could well be an ancient harbor and quay but has yet to be excavated. We walked through an olive grove to try to get to the landslide area. I was surprised at its location. I would have built my palace even higher on the slope! It dawned on me that this was as far east as I had ever been.

We returned to Sitea for another harborside meal at a different establishment: the Symposia. While walking into the harborside sidewalk café, I smasheed my toe into a 5 cm riser that appeared to serve no other purpose other than to trip people. I had kalamarákia. After lunch we drove to the ruins at Gournia, arriving just after 3:00. It was already closed. Drew found a hole in the fence so, after conferring, Anne, 10 or more students, and I went in, quickly made some measurements, and left. Again the ashlar blocks did not align with north. On the way out I did some calculations in my head and think that the reason that the Ayia Triada and Phaistos sites are aligned 2° off of true north must be because of a combination of the precession of the axis and change in the angle of axial tilt over the last 3500 years.

We drove into Ayio Nikolaos and checked in the Sgouras Hotel, right on the harbor. Anne and Bob were next to me on the third floor. We both had beautiful harbor views through the wires and could see sunken walls about 10 m offshore.

Anne and I walked along the harbor to find an ATM for food money. We continued along to a café by the inner harbor which looks like it might have once been a quarry. We had a coffee at the café and returned to the hotel, finding most people still on the beach. Anne and Bob dealt with some personality issues while I returned to my room. We conferred over wine later, and then Anne and I discussed the matter with a group of students.

Anne, Bob, Drew, Sara, and I walked over to the inner harbor and ate at the one restaurant that didn't try to talk us in. We discovered that Emily, Kyle, Ruth, and Aaron had done the same. I had spaghetti which was filling. After returning to the hotel, I walked to an internet café and was relieved to have a note from Joan. I then returned to the hotel to catch up on my journal, finishing at 12:30. I then took a shower and went to bed.