Our hotel in Athens was lovely.
After settling into the hotel, we went for a walk to the old town area "Plaka."
Old and new side-by-side.
I loved seeing the menus, billboards, and street signs in Greek, with its different alphabet!
The rooftop restaurant of our hotel had views of the Acropolis and Parthenon, with the Temple of Zeus in the foreground.
Beautiful views of the Parthenon at night too!
Temple of Zeus all lit up.
Sunday (Day 2) was a tour of Athens.
The Panathenian Stadium seats 70,000 people!
Here I am with Margaret and Chuck.
Then a driving tour past Hadrian's Arch and the ruins of the Temple of Zeus.
Temple of Zeus
Then Zappeion Congress Hall Mansion,
and Parliament
After that we toured the Acropolis.
The grand entrance was crowded!
The Temple of Erechtheus with the south porch of the Caryatids.
Doric Columns (no base)
Ionic Columns (scroll work)
Blocks and broken pieces waiting for restoration
The Theater of Dionysius
Tholos
And the whole panorama.
Views of the city from up high. I love the Byzantine domes!
Church on a hilltop in the distance
Outside was a musician playing a very interesting drum that sounded like beautiful bells!
The new Acropolis Museum was amazing!
Under our feet were renovations taking place!
Preserved works of art were safe inside.
We learned to distinguish Greek figures as smiling. Later Roman ones were serious.
Hercules slaughtering a lion.
Replicas of the east and west pediments of the Parthenon
The backs of the statues were as detailed as the front, even in situations where they weren't going to show.
Carved weights for spindles for spinning yarn
After we finished at the museum, we walked back to Parliament to see the guards.
Street vendors
A grocery store
Narrow streets
The next morning (Monday Day 3) we boarded our cruise ship.
My cute little stateroom
One of several restaurants with a gorgeous view!
The approach to our first stop, Mykonos.
A postcard view of Chora, Mykonos
Statue of Manto Mavrogenous, an important young woman who spent her entire fortune defending Mykonos (and the mainland) from the Turks in the Greek Revolution (early 1800's).
Narrow streets
A little museum
More narrow walkways
Famous windmills originally used for grinding flour
Little Venice, where we ate dinner.
Gorgeous sunset
We went on to the ancient religious site, Ephesus. It is said that Saint John brought Mary here for her safety after Jesus's crucifixion, so this is still a destination for Christian pilgrimages. These ruins are a mixture of Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian relics, as each group built onto the previous buildings. 250,000 people lived here 2000 years B.C.E. The citadel was moved and rebuilt several times because of the river delta filling in with sediment.
The third type of column: Corinthian (floral)
The original beginnings of the symbol we still use in medicine
The Turkish baths were related to the religious belief in hospitality. This continues today in the treatment of refugees. The Turkish land bridge was essential to east-west trade routes. It has been speculated that perhaps the baths helped in reducing the transfer of germs to and from the travelers.
Toilets! The water from the baths was recycled to wash away the waste in the trenches.
Pieces waiting to be added to the restoration in their proper places
Here's our group picture at Ephesus.
When we were done touring the ancient site, we went into Kusadasi and had a demonstration of rug-making. This method dates back to tribal times, when rugs were utilitarian and essential to the tents.
That afternoon we were on our way to Patmos, a UNESCO World Heritage site.That's our ship in the harbor.
I love these towns built into the hillsides.
The town was quaint,
and full of the typical whitewashed homes and narrow streets.
This was our glimpse of the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist.
That evening on the ship our entertainment was traditional Greek dancing.
The next day, (Day 5, Wednesday), we landed in Rhodes and spent the whole day.
Lots more churches on the way.
We toured the Acropolis of Lindos and the Temple of Athena.
The views from the top were amazing!
The stairway down, and the lovely mosaic sidewalks and doorsteps
Then on to the City of Rhodes, to the Citadel of the Knights (medieval times).
And through the D'Amboise Gate to walk the Street of the Knights of St. John the Baptist.
There was time for shopping,
and more sight-seeing in town.
That evening aboard ship was our formal dinner with the Captain.
The next day (Thursday, Day 6), we spent the morning in Crete touring the ruins of the great Palace of Knossos, ceremonial and political center of the ancient Minoan civilization. People have lived here continuously since 9000 years ago! This palace was built around 2000 B.C. and covers 4 acres. It has 1400 rooms. An earthquake and volcano eruption later led to the decline of this civilization.
Later in the day we sailed and landed at Santorini. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It's a giant caldera, the second largest in the world! The volcano is still active. Here in 1613 B.C. was the world's largest eruption in 10,000 years (all of human history).
We had dinner in this lovely restaurant.
The curved roofs here withstand small tremors.
Lots more churches!
And the beautiful sunset!
Friday (Day 7) we disembarked from the cruise ship and started our land tour.
We traveled via the scenic coastal road to the Corinth Canal dividing the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. This was built in the 1880's.
We continued on to Mycenae where we visited the Acropolis and the Tomb of Atreus, built around 1250 B.C. After the collapse of their civilization, the Minoans moved here and started Mycenae.
The blocks were HUGE!
Bourtzi, in the Nauplion harbor.
In Nauplion we had lunch at a beautiful ocean-view restaurant, followed by ice cream at a quaint shop.
There at the top of the hill you can see an example of the modern built on top of the ancient!
The castle on top of the hill was from Venetian times.
This little museum housed the Treasure of Atreus.
This shows how huge this urn is!
Our lovely hotel near Ancient Olympia
In the morning (Saturday, Day 8), we were off to Ancient Olympia, inhabited since 2000 B.C., but very popular in 800 B.C. because of the birth of the Olympic Games here, dedicated to Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. In 500 B.C. the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus were built here.
This arch led the way to the stadium, which had sloping sides able to seat 45,000 people to watch the games. It was used every 4 years until 394 A.D. when Christianity stopped this "pagan" practice and built churches. The modern Olympic Games started again in 1896 A.D.
The stadium
The museum there was wonderful!
This is where they explained that artifacts with clothes are generally Roman, (where Greek statues were mostly naked.)
Originally these statues were embellished with gold and ivory. These were molds for the gold leafing.
Hermes with the infant. The missing arm probably held an olive branch.
Next we left Olympia and headed for an olive oil and wine-tasting at a gift shop.
From there we went for a Greek cooking lesson and lunch, followed by dance lessons! I made Tzatziki dip.
Chuck cooked too.
Margaret and Chuck were brave enough to do the traditional Greek dances!
After lunch we went on our way. The scenery was so pretty.
We crossed the Corinth Strait on the beautiful Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge.
We went through the town of Nafpaktos, and on to Delphi. The fishing villages along the Gulf of Corinth were so picturesque.
On Sunday (Day 9) we toured the excavated site of Delphi, on Mount Parnassos, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the Earth. They created the story of the Oracle, which brought many visitors here, making this a very wealthy area.
The museum at Delphi was great too.
These are examples of the hammered gold technique, first invented here.
This white painted plate represents a turning point in this civilization. Painted utensils are evidence of luxuries versus necessities.
This inscribed stone is the first written music in the world! ANYWHERE! EVER!
This statue, found in a cave, looks Greek (no clothes), but they know it is Roman, because of the serious facial expression.
This is a statue of a charioteer.
This diagram shows how it would have been.
After we were done in the Museum, we traveled over the Pourmaraki Pass toward the small town of Kalambaka. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Itea.
On our route we saw the (modern) Farmer's Union aqueduct which irrigates the olive trees.
We also stopped at Thermopylae to see a small monument to the important Battle of 300 Spartans there, which stopped the Persian invasion.
We stayed overnight in Kalambaka. Here's the fabulous restaurant.
Nearby are caves which were inhabited continuously from 50,000 years ago to 5,000 years ago. They contain the oldest known man-made structure, built 23,000 years ago.
On Monday (Day 10) we started with a workshop to help us understand the religious iconography, and its associated art techniques.
Then we visited Meteora where Eastern Orthodox monasteries had been built (in the 1300's and 1400's) at the top of very tall rock formations in the Byzantine style. This is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Looking up at our destination.
The first one, Santa Barbara Rusanu for women, was 120 steps up.
This unique bell is still used to call the nuns to worship.
We were not allowed to take photographs inside the traditional two-room sanctuary. Every inch was adorned with symbolic art work. They hired professional artists (including El Greco) to do the frescoes and later, the seccos. These are all original and unretouched.
On the way down we could glimpse the lovely terraced gardens.
This is the view of our second monastery, Varlaam (taken from the top of the first one).
This niche was in the wall about halfway up the 150 steps to the second (male) monastery.
On our way up, we could see several other monasteries in the distance.
On the plaza at the top
This gazebo shows the Byzantine style.
There was a little museum which gave the flavor of the art inside that we were not allowed to take pictures of.
These next photos on the way down, to show the walkway.
I took screenshots of my health app to show the equivalent of all those flights of stairs!
(Other days had many more MILES, but not as many stairs!)
Here's a postcard view of another monastery at Meteora.
That night we returned to Athens and had our last dinner together with some of our new friends.
From the first moment we got off the plane, the thing that I noticed first was the Greek writing on all the signs and printed material. Its different alphabet made it seem so exotic! Here are my receipts to show the idea.
The next day (Tuesday, Day 11) we flew out of Athens on our direct flight to O'Hare.
