On our last night in Athens, our EF GoAhead tour group took one final group picture before walking across the street for our farewell dinner. I must say that this was really a nice bunch of people and we seemed to get along well. Someone asked how we liked the food, and I responded that… Read More 28 hours to Honolulu
Today we visited the Acropolis of Athens, which includes the famous landmark, the Parthenon. The first thing we have learned on this trip is that many cities have acropolises — this one in Athens is probably the most famous, but “acropolis” means “high city.” I did visit the Acropolis in Athens five years ago, but… Read More Last day in Athens
What is a Greek evening? Unlimited FOOD, unlimited WINE, unlimited DANCING, unlimited PLATE BREAKING, and unlimited FUN! All this we enjoyed at the family-owned Zafiro Experience last night. OPA! OPA is a Greek Word that may be used as an ‘Exclamation’, or ‘Utterance’, or ‘Declaration’, or ‘Affirmation’ or a lovingly gentle way of telling you to… Read More A Greek evening … OPA!
St. Paul spent about eighteen months in Corinth during his second missionary journey and the new believers became the Corinthian Church to which the letters of First and Second Corinthians were written by Paul. Today we visited Corinth on our way to Athens, a city of great importance in the ancient Roman world; its strategic… Read More St. Paul in Corinth
Today we visited an open air theatre with incredible acoustics in Epidaurus. Constructed in the late 4th century BC, it is considered to be the most perfect ancient Greek theatre with regard to acoustics and aesthetics. We heard examples of this today, when a person on the stage would whisper, and we could hear them clearly from… Read More Ancient ruins
Last night we had an excursion to Arachova Village, a picturesque town on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Before dinner, we had a few minutes to explore the town, and we made a beeline for a Byzantine church dedicated to the Virgin Mary where a service was in progress. This certainly was not the first… Read More Greek Orthodox traditions… Read More Greek Orthodox traditions
Today we saw some of the most spectacular scenery of our entire trip—the steep, rocky and dramatic pinnacles of the Meteora region. Yesterday we saw the imposing mountains from down below. Today, though, we drove up to two of the monasteries on the top of the mountains. At one time there were 44 monasteries but… Read More Monasteries in Meteora
Just as it was unusual to visit a pipe organ factory in Barcelona, I think what was out of the ordinary today was a visit to an icon workshop in the Meteora region. The owner, a Greek Orthodox priest, was occupied with church duties today, so his son gave us the tour (yes, Greek Orthodox… Read More An icon workshop
Today’s activities brought us to three ancient cities: Amphipolis, Philippi and Kavala but what impressed me the most was the church devoted to Lydia in Philippi. This is where the Apostle Paul established a congregation, to which he famously addressed in a letter known as the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Philippians.… Read More Baptistery of Lydia
Our tour officially began today with a tour of Thessaloniki, where the Apostle Paul preached in a Jewish synagogue, established a Christian church and wrote two letters to the Christian community of the city, known as the Epistles to the Thessalonians. Our bus took us up the mountain where we had a spectacular view of… Read More “Paul was here”