Last night, we pre-ordered breakfast to be delivered to the room. We have learned that that is the most efficient way to have breakfast on days with early morning shore excursions. We had full, hot breakfasts that were delivered right on time, and we were ready to disembark and meet our tour guide and bus by 7:30. Although we had a big bus for the tour, there were only fifteen in the group. There was plenty of room to spread out and get comfortable.

The first port of the trip today was Agios Nikolaos on the island of Crete. We have been to Knossos, the main attraction on Crete, on a previous trip, so we chose a shorter trip to the Lassithi Plateau to see the windmills and the Monastery of the Panayia Kera. The monastery, high on a hill with beautiful views, was around since at least the 14th century. It is small and in the traditional Orthodox style with the walls and ceiling covered with paintings and icons. One of the icons was stolen in the 15th century but later returned and chained to a pillar outside. It has since been replaced on the wall outside the altar of the church.

We arrived on Sunday morning when the service was still in session. While we were waiting outside on the patio, we saw the church members leave the church building and go into a small room nearby. They emerged sharing and eating communion bread. They also had wine while they were still in the small room. One of the nuns offered the leftover wine and bread to the tourists after every one of the church members had left. We tried the bread which was dense and sweet, but passed on the wine. It was served on a tray in paper cups where the partly drunk cups seemed to be right by the fresh ones. Not appealing. That tiny nun (much shorter than five feet) was pretty feisty as she chewed out a couple of people in our group who were taking photos of the church. There was a sign that said "no fotographs" in the church, and I saw no one take photos inside, but it did not say anything banning taking them outside.

After seeing the monastery, we rode through more of the countryside. We were both disappointed not to see any of the windmills looking like we had seem them described and pictured before. None of them had their sails in place, and there weren't very many of the frames visible either. We stopped for lunch of typical Cretan food before returning to the ship. Not a particularly thrilling trip. The most memorable part was listening to the nun chastise the unauthorized photographers.

This was the first of two formal nights for the trip. We had a nice dinner with two other couples, but did not stay up for the magic show.