The M/S Cristal arrived early in the morning at the island of Crete. Located southeast of the Greek mainland, it is the 5th largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Just the day before, Crete had suffered a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that shook the island. Luckily, damage was very minor and if we hadn't read about it, we never would have known it had happened.
After breakfast, we disembarked the ship and walked to Lake Voulismeni, located right in the center of Aghios Nikolaos. According to Greek legend, it is said that the goddess Athena often bathed or swam here.
We strolled around the lake while the kids stopped to feed the fish.
One of the locals recounted stories where the German army disposed of their cannons, vehicles and other weaponry by driving them all into the lake during their retreat from the area. Another story tells of how legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau dived here, but could not find the bottom! Although today we know the lake to be 64m deep, many stories still abound of Crete's "bottomless lake".
David and Ray were again kind enough to volunteer and take the kids back to the ship while Karen and I stayed in town to shop. Along with a few souvenirs I bought for the girls, I picked myself up a Dolce and Gabbana belt for 10 euro's!! (so uh, what did I get, besides the bill?... - Ray)
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When we re-boarded the ship, we joined the rest of "our gang" enjoying banana smoothies while playing a game of scrabble.
After lunch, the kids went to a party at the Kids' Club while Ray and I finalized getting all our stuff out of the cabin in time for disembarkation.
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Although we were sad that our holiday on board with the Ng's was coming to an end, we were also looking forward to commencing our long-anticipated stay in Santorini...
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