Back to Spinalonga...
Sep. 2nd, 2010 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesWell, after a refreshing respite in the office, it looks like I'm going to be punted back out onto site AGAIN next week! There is no peace for the wicked, I tell you!!
I've had a lovely time this week. I did a fifteen mile bike/train combo on Tuesday, I had horse-riding yesterday, then followed it up with a ten mile bike/train combo today. Tomorrow, I think I'll nicely taper my training (sounds good, doesn't it?) by finishing off the week with a five mile trundle in the morning.
Then I'll be back to Undead status for next week. Bleaugh!!
Okay, back to Spinalonga. I highlighted the fortifications last time, so this time I thought I'd post a few pictures of the houses. It became a refuge for the Ottoman occupants of Crete in the nineteenth century, when the rest of the islands was reclaimed from the Turks, before it became a self-contained settlement for lepers in the twentieth century. It's quite a forlorn place, and very atmospheric:-
Not that I had much time to take part in such frivolities....
And lastly, the inevitable church. Now, this must be very recent, post-dating the Ottoman occupation of the island...
And lastly, some of the more recent structures...
Behind the lovely Venetian ramparts are a series of concrete boxes which represent the latest phase of building on the site, probably dating to the mid-twentieth century. I think it may have been the site of the hospital...
A thought-provoking site, where the echoes of the recent past were all too apparent. I could have done with a couple of hours there, but was granted instead a mere whistlestop tour. Even then, I couldn't leave without sniffing out an artefact, but I'll talk about that tomorrow!
I've had a lovely time this week. I did a fifteen mile bike/train combo on Tuesday, I had horse-riding yesterday, then followed it up with a ten mile bike/train combo today. Tomorrow, I think I'll nicely taper my training (sounds good, doesn't it?) by finishing off the week with a five mile trundle in the morning.
Then I'll be back to Undead status for next week. Bleaugh!!
Okay, back to Spinalonga. I highlighted the fortifications last time, so this time I thought I'd post a few pictures of the houses. It became a refuge for the Ottoman occupants of Crete in the nineteenth century, when the rest of the islands was reclaimed from the Turks, before it became a self-contained settlement for lepers in the twentieth century. It's quite a forlorn place, and very atmospheric:-
Here's a view of a bakery, complete with oven:-
Some of the buildings were really well preserved, like the one pictured below. This particular one offered a nice opportunity for building detective work, with a modified window to the right of the doorway:-
Not that I had much time to take part in such frivolities....
And lastly, the inevitable church. Now, this must be very recent, post-dating the Ottoman occupation of the island...
And lastly, some of the more recent structures...
Behind the lovely Venetian ramparts are a series of concrete boxes which represent the latest phase of building on the site, probably dating to the mid-twentieth century. I think it may have been the site of the hospital...
A thought-provoking site, where the echoes of the recent past were all too apparent. I could have done with a couple of hours there, but was granted instead a mere whistlestop tour. Even then, I couldn't leave without sniffing out an artefact, but I'll talk about that tomorrow!
