After a good breakfast, we walked several blocks to the Iráklion Museum where pottery, frescos, and other artifacts from the sites we visited around Crete, with a heavy emphasis on nearby Knossos, are on display. It is a very impressive collection, the display of which could be dramatically improved with the addition of some decent lighting. I shot a lot of video of the pottery. I was particularly intrigued with the fine detail of the painting on the various cups and vessels.

After finishing my walk through the museum by myself, I found Bob and Drew in the garden. We talked for awhile and then I went off to try to change some money. The Euro bank said they didn't change money and I would have to go to the post office. I went back to the museum instead. Anne had still not emerged so Bob went in to drag her out.

We went to the post office but they told us to go to a bank. This time we went to a Greek bank and made the exchange of $1200. We were able to overcome an initial reluctance to give us denominations of less that E 100 notes.

We bought sandwiches at the same place as the day before and ate them in the same sidewalk café. In the hotel lobby the students had hit it off with a Radford University Sorority group who were taking the same ferry that we were. We got in cabs at 1:30 and were soon at the port. We ran into an Appalachian State group. One of their women was a high school classmate of Zack's!

The ferry “Daedallus” got underway at 3:30 and we sailed under sunny skies across the deep blue Aegean . Our guitarists entertained the Radford girls and we drank beer during our festive 3½ hour crossing. We also met a couple from Brevard who live on East Main St .

When we reached the Santorini Bay , all attention turned to the imposing variegated walls of the Thera Caldera. It was magnificent in the late afternoon light. I had wanted to visit this place since I first read about it as a Master's student in 1976. Pumice from the great Minoan eruption capped the walls but several other pumice layers from earlier eruptions are also evident. The walls would make a great volcanic stratigraphy exercise. The pumice eruptions completely buried some very red cinder cones.

We quickly disembarked at the port and the ferry left for the next island. We were chagrined to not find our bus waiting and had to call the King Thiras Hotel to arrange for one. We drank beer at a café by the water until it came half and hour later.

The hotel is very nice with views of the caldera and the Aegean. The manager remembered Bob and Anne from their previous visit 8 years earlier. They apparently had a stroller for Drew that got a lot of attention. Anne, Bob, Drew and I walked down the narrow walkway to the commercial area and ate aMay 10, 2007man from Durham. We were very hungry. I had an excellent grilled octopus meal.