Greece Day 4 - Meteora

Today was spent primarily at two monasteries in Meteora. We were blessed with beautiful weather, as you can see from the much better pictures below. We spent most of the time discussing how the icons came out of a time when most people were illiterate and this was a way to provide a Bible that they could read. The icons are not to be worshiped, but rather read.

All the women were required to wear skirts in the monasteries, so we had to get a skirt picture.

Entrance used to be by rope pulley. They still use the pulley system to raise and lower goods, but some has been updated to more modern machinery.

The old entrance.

This was a view of 4 monasteries from a lookout on the roadside.

This is the Monastery of Varlaam, which we visited first.

This is the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, which James Bond visited a few years back. We didn't visit this one.

A view of the town below.

This is the Monastery of St. Stephen which we visited second.

Access to St. Stephen is by way of a bridge.

This is the back side of St. Stephen.

We couldn't take pictures inside the monasteries, but afterwards we visited the workshop of a monk that makes the icons in the traditional manner. I took some pictures of these. This workshop actually provides icons for the Vatican.

Every last one is hand painted.

The carvings are also done by hand.

For those of the group that purchased icons, the monk signed them.

 

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Greece Day 3 - Berea, Vergina, and Meteora

Today we checked out of our hotel in Thessaloniki and visited Berea where Paul found a group of devout Jews, Vergina where the tomb of Phillip II is located, and stopped at a monastery in Meteora. It was an early morning. We had to be on the bus by 7:25 with our bags packed underneath. The alarm at 5:45 wasn't fun, but everyone made it.

Our first stop was at Berea. Acts 17:10-15 recounts the story of Paul visiting Berea and visiting the Jewish synagogue. The Jews there were more open minded and searched the scripture daily to verify Paul's message. Another interesting aspect of the Jewish section of Berea is that it was outside the main walls of the city. For this reason, the Jews built there houses in such a way to form a compound with 2 gates. Since then, the Jews have almost all left Berea to return to Isreal, and there is little if anything remaining of the original buildings.

But we were able to visit the area, and the Greek government has attempted to build a few buildings in the old style to preserve the area. The building with the covered steps up to the entrance is on the site of the original Jewish synagogue. And the 2 buildings on either side of the walkway in the second picture are government buildings built in the original style that would have been in use when Paul visited some 2000 years ago.

Our next stop was the tomb of Phillip II in Vergina. Phillip II was the father of Alexander the Great. The mound in the background is a reconstruction of what the site looked like before excavations began. Underneath is a good size museum with artifacts from multiple royal tombs that were part of the mound. The tomb was raided at some point, so not everything was still present, but a few of the more magnificent items were inside the sarcophagus, so the raiders did not take them. Among the items left were some incredibly detailed wreaths fragments of armor and utensils to be used in the afterlife. They also have on display the facade of the tombs which would have been built, quickly painted and then buried while the paint was still wet. Pictures were not allowed inside the museum, so I just have the one from the entrance.

I took the next set of pictures mostly from the bus as we drove up to Meteora. This first picture is of one of the older monasteries built in a cave on the side of one of the cliffs with the village below. Traditionally men would climb up and hang a scarf from their fiancé at the monastery to prove their ability to provide for her as a husband. Today men climb the cliff and hang a scarf before joining the army.

This area is the second most important collection of monasteries for the Orthodox Church. There are about 6 active monasteries built on the top of the cliffs. We arrived at the largest monastery at 4pm, only to find that it had just closed, so I just have pictures of the outside. We will go back to one of the other monasteries tomorrow. As of a few decades ago, the only way to visit one of the monasteries was to be raised in a net. Thankfully, they have now built roads to most of them.

Another practice that was common in these hills was to become a hermit by finding a cave and living there the rest of your life. Food would be sent up to you by the monks in a net. When the monks went to the base of the hill and did not find the net lowered, they knew that the hermit had been glorified (died). This cave was visible from the monastery that we drove to today complete with drawings on the walls and the remains of a platform, probably used as a portion of the living space.

This is a view of the village from the top of the hill. Unfortunately the weather was misty, so the pictures didn't come out all that great.

And finally our hotel for tonight, Meteoritis Hotel. It is a very nice hotel. We should be quite comfortable for our one night here. Tomorrow is back on the road again after make a second track up the cliffs to visit one or two of the monasteries.

 

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Greece Day 2 - Phillipi, Neapolis, and Thessaloniki

We had a long day today and we had to pack tonight, so the update will be short. If I have more time I will write some more on the bus tomorrow.

We started the day at the river outside Phillipi. This was were Paul first met with the Jews of Phillipi, the first time the Gospel was shared in Europe and where he met Lydia as recorded in Acts 16.

Our next stop was inside Phillipi. This is the Agora or forum of Phillipi, at least part of it. On the right is the office of the general for the city. This is where Paul would have been brought and accused of causing trouble after he cast the demon out of the girl in Acts 16. He was beaten here publicly and then put in jail overnight. The location of the jail is yet unknown, but probably wasn't far from here.

We had a brief discussion of some of the themes of Phillipians in the Theater of Phillipi.

Then it was on to Neapolis for lunch. We didn't get to do much site seeing in Neapolis, but we talked some about how this was the first place Paul stepped on to Europe.

 

Back to downtown Thessaloniki. This is the Great Gate in the ancient wall surrounding Thessaloniki. It is traditionally called the Great Gate, probably because this is where the Via Egnatia enters the city. Paul walked for 5 days to get from Phillipi to Thessaloniki on the Via Egnatia and would have probably entered through this gate.

This is a portion of the agora in Thessaloniki. This is roughly were the government offices would have been and where they brought Jason in Acts 17.

We ended our tour at a basilica dedicated to Saint Dimetrius.

 

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Greece Day 1 - Arriving in Thessaloniki

Just a few pictures today, since it is late and we haven't had good rest in a few days. We did sleep off and on in the plane, so we are not complete zombies.

Our layovers were fairly nice. The only one that felt short was in Athens and that only because we had to get our bags, go through customs (they forgot to put agents there, so we just walked through), then check-in for our flight to Thessaloniki, re-check bags, and go back through security. And the flight to Athens got a late start. We did have probably 15 minutes to spare.

This was at the food court in Chicago airport. We had some lunch there before our long flight to Frankfurt.

This was us waiting around for directions in Athens.

And finally a shot of the Thessaloniki airport from the bus as we drove off.

 

We took the main road through Thessaloniki to get to our hotel. The layout of the city hasn't changed since it was founded around 325BC, so this would have been the same road that people would have walked some 2000+ years ago.

One of the interesting projects currently underway is building a subway system. Since the layout of the city has never changed all that much, they have to be very careful where they dig. The whole city could be an archeological dig. They are also renovating an old mosque to be used to house all the artifacts they dig up while building the subway.

Here's a section of the ancient West wall of the city.

A victory arch in downtown.

The other thing we noticed was a lot of old churches throughout downtown. These stood in marked contrast to the more modern apartment buildings that lined nearly every street downtown. Thessaloniki is a town of about 1 million people, not sure if that includes the outlying areas, and they pack them in to downtown in the typical European way.

And finally our hotel where we checked in, had dinner and were told of the numerous places on the agenda for tomorrow. Better get to sleep. Kali ni hta (goodnight).

 

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