Good and evil

Today was operation Kato Symi and surrounding villages. The objectives were the temple of Hermes and Aphrodite, Multiple WWII memorials, and a hike.

This was a beautiful drive retracing some previous roads and then heading further east and north than I had prior. Rain from the previous evening had cause some minor rockslides, including one large rock that could have taken out the front of my car.

I found the temple easily but as is so often the case the area is fenced and no one no longer manages the site. I could see how people had bent part of the fence to climb in, so I followed suit. I was quite pleased with my agility.

The temple was quite large and was one of the longest occupied on Crete as evidenced by the number of artifact recovered here that. Now live in museums. Hermes was the Greek messenger god and Aphrodite the goddess of love There is an old tree there that may have been there when the temple was active! On the way out, I found there was a much easier exit where someone had cut the fence

My next objective was a hike. The trail was somewhat obscure to find and I had to pass by a decaying goat and some empty shotgun casings. From there, it wasn’t always east to stay on the path. Painted markers and rock cairns were few and far between.

However, it was a beauty fall hike and quite challenging. My ass is still sore from taking a small tumble. I got to the top, took a quick photo and immediately started back down. Clouds were starting to cover the mountain tips and I was not going to get lost in fog.

I returned to my car sweaty and back under blue skies as I moved on to not one but three different WWII memorials. In Kato Symi, the Germans had post two soldiers, but in 1943, a band of resisters ambushed and killed then. In reprisal, the Germans round up and shot as many as 500 civilians from these various mountain villages. They also destroyed their homes and harvest and did not allow survivors to bury the dead.

A propaganda photographer capture photos of the event. Germany denies that many were killed and has issued some lukewarm apologies but no reparations. Prior to the massacre, there were 160 families in Kato Symi. As of today, only 30 remain.

The memorial here is a simple column where I sat on my yoga mat and pondered these crimes and prayed for peace on light of current events.

The memorial at Viannos is more elaborate and captures the agony of people being sent to their death. The clouds also made for a dramatic back drop. The last one was Amiras where I sat in a bench, looked over the beautiful mountains as I pondered the horrible events that occurred here.

All that hiking and memorials worked up an appetite and Inwas back to Kato Symi to the Aphrodite cafe houses in a lovely building overlooking what is supposed to be a stream. It has been very dry here and many streams are down to a trickle. The food was very good!

From here, it was back down the the mountain to Ierapetra where I like to hang out. I got an espresso to go and went down to the harbor to sit still and watch the sunset And to visit a garden. Enter to get a scented geraniums for the caretaker of the air BNB. They have many geraniums but not a scented one.

The sunset was successful until the rain i had been out running all day finally caught up with me. It seemed fitting that the day ending with a full rainbow, a symbol of hope.