A Memory Journey through Rethymno, Crete

One of my favorite memory journeys is a walk through the city of Rethymno, Crete. It has 65 stages, though would have been longer if there had been time for one more visit. It took me three trips to the city just to get this far.

Here are a few highlights from the journey:

My journey starts at the Rethymno bus station. Around the corner is a Greek church:

Church in Rethymno

The author of Ad Herennium recommends marking the fifth locus of a journey with a golden hand and the 10th with an acquaintance named Decimus:

And that we may by no chance err in the number of backgrounds, each fifth background should be marked. For example, if in the fifth we should set a golden hand, and in the tenth some acquaintance whose first name is Decimus, it will then be easy to station like marks in each successive fifth background.

Just for fun, I imagine this statue at the fifth locus as having a golden hand:

Soldier Statue

A woman named Cara passes, riding a moose:

Kara Musa Pasa

Another interesting location, though it was closed at the time:

Veli Pasa

The 14th locus:

A stage in the park

Rethymno has an old Venetian harbor with a wall and a lighthouse. There are three loci here:

Rethymno Lighthouse

The pirate ship was memorable:

Pirate ship

I like the small wooden tables and chairs that are found at Greek cafes and restaurants:

Greek grill house

There wasn’t time to go inside the fortress. I was only able to walk around it and place one locus on the wall and another at the gate:

Rethymno Fortress

On my next trip to Rethymno, I’m going to create another journey inside the fortress.

Fortress gate

The places listed above aren’t in order. If anyone is headed to Rethymno and wants the complete walking route, I’ll sketch it out on Google Maps.