Northern Greece

We just returned from a 4 day trip to northern Greece. It was a little more relaxing trip, so it was nice to be able to enjoy seeing things without being out from sunrise to sunset every day. We left Monday, March 5th by bus & drove through the plain of Boeotia, through Thebes (remember King Oedipus??) & into Delphi. We toured the archiological ruins of Delphi, including the naval rock & the famous bronze Charioteer statue. The next day, we were in Kalambaka which has huge, mountainous boulders all around the city which rise straight up from the ground. On the top of many of these, there are monasteries built in the 14th century by monks who were seeking isolation. They found it!! Most of those places were accessible only by ropes thrown from above for many years. Thankfully, now there is a nice, albeit windy, road all the way up! We were only able to tour certain portions of 1 monastery, but it included a beautifully painted Byzantine chapel with paintings of christian martyrs all around it. We even spotted a couple of monks there!! One of these were used at the beginning of the latest James Bond movie - I think "Die Another Day". We also saw some caves in these huge boulders where Hermits live & they have a bucket that they lower everyday & the monks or other people put food in it for them. They say they will never know when the hermit dies, until they don't take the food any more!

Next, it was on for a short stop in Berea, where the apostle Paul visited in the synagogue & we visited the very small Jewish quarters of that city & saw their present day synagogue. On this night, we went to Thessaloniki where we stayed in a beautiful 5 star hotel, the Grand Hotel Palace.

We left out for a day trip on Wed, driving to Philippi, again where Paul visited & worked. There is quite a lot of ruins left here including some beautiful 4th century mosaics that were the floor of a church building. We saw the river where Lydia was baptized & the ruins of a prison that would be similar to the one Paul & Silas were kept. We stood on part of the Via Egnatia, which was the ancient Roman road that ran from Rome by Byzantium.

Thursday, we left early for Pella, the ancient capital of Macedona & birthplace of Alexander the Great. On to Vergina, which was the first capital of Macedonia & visited the one of the most important tombs ever discovered - that of Phillip II - the father of Alexander the Great. We had lunch at a small restaurant before heading on our 7 hour drive back to Athens. On the way, we stopped in Thermopylae which was where the battle of the 300 spartans against the persian army of Xerxes took place in 480 BC. This is portrayed in the older movie, 300 Spartans & a new movie just out "300".

The last couple of days have been spent on classes. This weekend, we are hosting a conference here for the directors of the International Programs sponsored by our sister colleges, ACU, OCU, Cascades University, & Harding.

The girls are getting a little homesick for their friends, but are also having a great time interacting with the college students here! They have been so good to include our kids in everything they do!! We're so grateful - We've just had a great group of students!!