It's all Greek to me

We spent a few days in Athens, Greece over Easter holiday - our Easter that is. When we asked our taxi driver if things would be closed for Easter, he replied, "sure, next week." We had forgotten that the Greek Orthodox calendar is different so they celebrated Easter a week later this year.

Mars Hill.

One neat thing was that DA went up to Mars Hill early on Easter morning to enjoy the scenery and take some photos. Neat to be in the birthplace of Christianity for the Gentiles on Easter morning. It was the site of Paul's speech about the "unknown god' to the Athenians recorded in Acts 17.

Seeing all the temples to various gods in and around Athens allowed me greater understanding of all those references in the Bible.

the kids goofing off at the Parthenon

Athens is a big city surrounded by mountains. The mountains are pretty, but they cause smog to settle over the city much like Salt Lake City or Denver. There are lots of people, traffic, tourists, etc. We had heard mixed reviews about Athens, but I'm happy to report that it is good for about 2 to 3 day trip. Just enough to do. In my opinion, they need to fix 2 things in order for the city to be greatly improved - 1) get rid of spray paint. There is graffiti all over town. Just ruins the look of the city and makes it feel dirty and unsafe. 2) ban the men selling purses and sunglasses on blankets laid out all over the side walks. You can hardly walk down the street without tripping over their wares. Seriously, those guys need to be banned!

We stayed in the old part of town (in the Plaka), in the shadows of the Acropolis. We have thousands of pictures of the Parthenon/Acropolis. (FYI - the Acropolis is the mountain and the Parthenon is one of the temples on top of the mountain.) We never got tired of looking at it though. The mountain is lit up at night - very pretty.

When L first arrived in England, his social studies class studied the "Elgin Marbles" which are housed in the British Museum in London. They are the marbles that went around the top of the Parthenon, as shown here. He had to write a paper about whether the marbles should be returned to Greece now that Greece has a museum to adequately house them. England will not return them and Greece considers them "stolen" as we heard from our guide several times. It was cool to see the reality of something he studied in school. We've also been to the British Museum to see the Marbles.

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We walked and walked and walked all over the old town while we were there. Saw more historic things than I can even remember. The Grecian history is SO OLD. They say they are the oldest civilization in the world - history going back 6,000 years. We got a kick out of all the tour guides saying "6oo years before Christ" over and over and over and over and over again. I swear every statue, building, temple we saw was made "600 years before Christ"!

The temple at Delphi in the background

We also made road trips out to the Temple of Delphi where the Oracle was located and Cape Sounion. Delphi was an important ancient city built on the side of a mountain close to the sea. Very interesting museum and archaeological site there at Delphi. My kids really wanted to see where the Oracle stayed. Our tour guide said the Oracle sat over a hole in the ground where volcanic gases escaped. I've heard other theories as well, but all theories conclude that the Oracle was basically "high" all the time, yet she was considered the one voice of reason and wisdom that all the politicians/leaders consulted. The hole has been filled in with dirt over the centuries due to earthquakes and corrosion, so it was not obvious. The kids were bummed. They really wanted to see it.

walking the ruin streets down the forum in Delphi archaeological site. a "treasure house" on the right.

In 'honor' of their cousins who took jumping pictures all over England. A theater in Delphi

Cape Sounion is the site of a temple to Poseidon right by the sea where all the sailors would stop as they started their journeys from Athens. It was a pretty site, but in my opinion - not worth the drive to get there.

another shot of Poseidon's temple. Thought the clouds looked pretty in this shot.

During our stay we made a point to attend church at a congregation supported by our home congregation in Dallas. I'm very glad we made the effort to get there. We met several people with whom we had common ties. Some college kids were there from Harding Univ. in Searcy and we've since hosted a few of them at our house as they traveled through London. Small world.

We enjoyed the food in Athens. B made sure to have spaghetti bolognese at every meal. I think she can safely say she's eaten that dish in every European country we've visited. We ordered Greek salad several times. I personally prefer it with lettuce, but their version had cucumbers, olives, tomatoes. L has developed quite a varied palette and will try almost anything. He ordered some very interesting dishes, but always made sure to end each meal with a chocolate milkshake. Food was very expensive in Athens. The Euro to Pound exchange rate is almost 1 to 1, so there were no deals to be had!

Here are some highlights:

Acropolis at night. This is the view from our dinner restaurant. cool, huh?

old flea market street. It was packed with stores and people buying and selling junk.

another temple on top of the Acropolis. These statues are really pretty.

Athens

Temple of Zeus

The all-marble stadium of the modern Olympics built in 1894. The Olympic rings are hard to pick out, but they are in the distance around the top edge.

This is the reason we didn't rent a car. We couldn't read any of the street signs even though they are "translated". HA.

Truth be told, this is how the kids spent a lot of their time in Greece - waiting for Dad as he took pictures. Don't they looked thrilled?

DA is doing one of our favorite things - offering to take a photo of another family. I promise, anyone he sees with a camera, he offers to take a picture with their camera. Nice gesture, but takes up lots of time!