We are in Thessaloniki, Greece, for a GoAhead tour called “In the footsteps of St. Paul,” described as:

In the first century A.D., Paul the Apostle journeyed through modern-day Greece on a mission to bring Christianity to the country’s people. On this sweeping tour through the Mediterranean country, you’ll retrace his historic route. Highlights include Thessaloniki’s Vlatadon Monastery, where he preached the divine word, and the Areopagus in Athens, where he delivered one of his most famous sermons.

The big difference, as our Tour Director Christina told us, is that St. Paul walked this way — we are going by bus!

We actually arrived yesterday afternoon, one day before our tour was to begin, and barely survived a 50-minute, very crowded bus ride trying to hold onto our luggage and not bump into other people, all the way to the town center. No wonder the ride only cost 1.80 euros! We didn’t know where the bus stop was in relation to our hotel and it was an absolute miracle that when we decided to disembark, It was the closest stop but unfortunately the hotel was located several blocks UPHILL from the bus stop.

Just up the street from our hotel was the Church of Saint Dimitrios, patron saint of Thessaloniki. There was a special exhibit of a relic which had previously been prohibited to be viewed by women, and there was a long line of pilgrims waiting to venerate it. In the slideshow below, you can tell that I was impressed by the length of the candles which you could purchase!

This morning we moved to the tour hotel, and after meeting up with my cousin Amy, we set out to explore our surroundings. Our first stop was at the Jewish Museum, for which photos were prohibited, but what made a big impression on me was a memorial with the names of 46,000 Jews from Thessaloniki who were killed in the concentration camps.

Next stop was a large market of all kinds of flowers, including tropicals like anthuriums and torch ginger!

After lunch, we visited the monastery of St. Theodora, one of the most important religious shrines in Thessaloniki. We found the building and all its furnishings, in pristine condition. “The Monastery of St. Theodora in Thessaloniki preserves valuable power sacred, attracting the believers. The myrrh-flowing relic of Agia Theodora is the most significant one. The relic started to work miracles right after Agia Theodora’s death. One could see the relic to heal people having severe disabilities. After the invasion of Thessaloniki, the Turks broke the sarcophagus with the relic and cut it in pieces. The pilgrims put all the pieces of the relic together. Then, they put it back in its place.“

The next church was the Hagia Sophia, dating from the 7th century, one of the oldest churches in Thessaloniki.

It was only a very short distance to The Rotonda, one of the most important Roman monuments in Thessaloniki. It stands just next to the Arch of Galerius in the city center and it is also known as the Church of Agios Georgios. This cylindrical structure was built in 306 AD by the Roman tetrarch Galerius, who intended it to be his grave. At first, it worked as a temple but it remains unknown to which god this temple was dedicated.

Last church of the day was the Church of Agios Panteleimon, a 14th-century Byzantine building recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Just imagine, this is our 5th church visit in 24 hours! In most of them, there is 1) Lots of gold; 2) Lots of candles; 3) Lots of wood carvings.

Christina reminded us that no toilet paper is to be flushed down throughout all of Greece. It’s what I remember from my previous trip to Greece in 2019. It’s because the sewage pipes are much narrower than anywhere else in the world — 2 inches vs. 4 inches in the US, and toilet paper can cause them to clog.

Our welcome dinner was at a nearby Greek restaurant with a lot of Greek music throughout provided by a man playing a mandolin and a woman playing a digital keyboard. Both were excellent on their instruments and sang duets as well — setting us up for a wonderful tour of Greece.