Our last day in Greece!

We were on our own for breakfast and got to sleep in a little, leaving around 8:30. There were storm clouds in Napflion the night before so we thought of some contingency plans in case we were rained off the site today. But we woke up and lo: not a cloud in the sky! There had been some sprinkling the night before so the air was cooler. A perfect day.

When we arrived at the Mycenae archaeological site and drove up to the “Treasury” of Atreus we saw even better news. We pretty much had the entire site to ourselves! Usually we walk through the ruins with 500 of our best friends but this time we had room to take pictures and sit and recall the history of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and the rest of the bloody Mycenaeans.

After touring our last museum of the trip we drove back to lovely Nafplion to enjoy a long afternoon of shopping and relaxing. We feasted for our last meal on meridas, swordfish souvlaki, rabbit, cabbage salad, grilled shrimp and of course bread and olives.

Sunday morning holds woeful goodbyes before the long flight back to the States and, thankfully, our own beds. It has been a long trip, but we have gotten to see so much! Thank you, everyone, for your good attitudes and timely behavior. What a wonderful time we have had!

Day 9: Mycenae from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

This morning we left Olympia and drove to Corinth after only a slight detour while we figured out directions. What a lovely day for walking around! We have really been blessed with beautiful, though warm, weather.

The Corinth site requires some imagination because it is mostly foundations of buildings that used to be, but with the audio guides we are able to build the structures in our minds. This way, we are able to see all that is there, and there is a lot! It’s hard to comprehend that only 4% of the site has been excavated. The rest is either buried under the modern buildings or left for future generations with better technology and techniques.

We stopped halfway through for lunch and afterward a group of us stayed behind to wander the shops while the rest of us made the grueling hike up to Acrocorinth. Dad encouraged us all the way up, and this was my first time to see this amazingly fortified high city. What views! We could see the isthmus and the Corinthian gulf spanning the two bodies of water.

After the short trip to Nafplion we settled in for a few hours and then went to dinner and enjoyed our own company for a while before walking through this cute little town and going to bed. We will have some sore knees and feet tomorrow for our time in Mycenae and are a bit wary about rain tomorrow but as it is our last day as a group we will make the best out of it!

Day 8: Corinth And Napflion from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

This morning the site was open and we were among the first ones in to Delphi. It was beautiful being able to see the ruins in the first light of the day before the heat of the sun beat down upon us. What an incredible view; and how fun to hear about the oracle who said so many ambiguous things to so many! Unfortunately, because of time we had to skip the museum, but we did get to enjoy our time on the site.

Afterwards we drove down the mountain and into Olympia. There we walked around the site and got to see the temple of Zeus and Hera and got to marvel at Roman engineering. Then we escaped the heat of the day and meandered the museum which housed yet more pottery, but also some amazing metal work and statues of yet more Giants behaving badly and being beaten by Greeks.

We had a few hours of free time that some of us took for shopping and some for napping. Dinner at the Ambrosia was a little different from the nights before – we had spaghetti and hamburger along with our Greek favorites.

Now off to bed before our trip to Corinth tomorrow.

Day 7: Delphi And Olympia from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

This morning we woefully left the quaint town of Vergina and made the 5 hour mountainous drive to Delphi. Along the way we stopped at a rest stop whose almond cookies were voted best in the country (by dad and I).

Much to our disappointment, when we arrived we realized the general strike in Greece left the site and museum closed! From the amount of tour busses in town, there must have been a good deal of other disappointed people as well. We asked the owner of our hotel about it and he told us the Greeks were playing today.

We did get a chance to wander the lower part of the Delphi site and see the round tholos to Athena and take photos of the rest of the site above.

We made the decision to take the day off to rest and wander the shops while enjoying the heartbreakingly beautiful vistas. Tomorrow we will wake up early to see the site and museum then rush over to Olympia. It will be a full but amazing day!

Today is always my favorite day at my favorite museum, when we get to stay with my favorite Grecian family. A lot of superlatives for one town of a thousand residents, I know; however, this place is truly something special.

We awoke, breakfasted and were loaded into the cars by 8am for the short drive down the road to the Vergina museum, where Alexander the Great buried his father, Philip II. In what is (in my opinion) one of the richest museums in all of Greece of artifacts found in one spot, we got to see Philip’s tomb as well others, along with all the pomp with which Alexander buried his father. My favorite part is a three-piece mural that depicts Hades snatching Persephone to take her to the underworld with Hermes lighting the way; her mother, Demeter mourning on the mirthless rock, and the three Fates spinning the thread of life. A wonderful, moving museum.

Afterwards we made the two hour drive to Philippi to see the ruins and museum. Tim had not gotten the chance to see the museum as it was recently opened. I got to sneak away and wander through it last April, and as I was the only one in the museum at that time I got a personal tour from one of the technicians who had worked on the site, Alexandros. As I hoped, Alexandros was the this time as well, and although he was not able to take us through the whole museum since he is not a licensed guide, he was able to check in on us from time to time and tell us the stories about the findings.

Down the road a little ways, we stopped for a time at the traditional site of where Lydia was converted by the Apostle Paul, a peaceful place by the river where we could meditate.

It had been a hot day wandering ruins in the sun, and we were quite ready to go to dinner and sit in the cool of the evening overlooking the valley, enjoying the wonderful Greek view. Our hosts, Roula and Costas, joined us for dinner. Over conversation we discovered that Costas had worked on the tombs at Vergina with Manolis Andronikos (the archaeologist), back in the late 1970’s, something we had not known. They were there when the tumulus was unearthed!

After dinner, Costas was kind enough to take us down the road to where he and a few friends distilled their own tsipourro (a Greek drink related to ouzo) from grapes he grows on his land. We saw the process of taking the fermented grapes and boiling them through the pipes and got to try some as fresh as can be. Dad and I had never seen this before and it was quite a treat to see.

We are quite honored tonight to hear and see what we did, to be this close to history and witness this slice of life that is so unique.

Video of the day:

Day 5: Vergina, Philippi and Tsipourro from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

Once again, a beautiful day in paradise. 70’s. Partly cloudy. Couldn’t ask for better touring weather. Sarah and I left the hotel at 8:00 to collect the rental cars. A few problems: difficulty locating the office … I forgot my US drivers’ license … they didn’t have an automatic reserved (Sarah doesn’t do manual transmissions!). But finally got on the road about 10:00.

A quick two hours to Thermopylae and a tour of the battlefield there. Ham sandwiches on the run. Two hours to Meteora and the hanging monasteries.

If you haven’t been to Meteora, you’ve missed one of the most spectacular sights in the world. Monasteries built on massive granite pillars formed by glacial activity. Religious enclaves perched atop impregnable rock—every brick and tile and pane of glass hauled to the top by winch and rope. Hundreds of years of monkish history preserved in artifacts and paintings and books. Libraries filled with volumes of illustrated manuscripts from the 9th century! The desiccated skulls of brothers-long-dead shelved in rows. A chapel illustrated with paintings of martyrs in their death-throes.

And the panoramas! Of a glacial valley and the village below … of other monasteries huddled atop nearby columns of marble and granite … of caves where ancient hermits huddled in holy solitude.

Another two hours to Vergina where the tomb of Philip II is enshrined. A museum beneath a mound of earth. Hidden Macedonian treasures uncovered after 2300 years for us to ooohh and aaahh over.

That’s what we’ll be doing tomorrow. For tonight though, moussaka and souvlaki. Cabbage salad and tirimisou dessert. Wines red and white. Long conversations on a cool veranda. Bonding in the dark of a Macedonian evening. Not a care in the world. Not a regret in sight. God is in heaven, we are in Vergina, and all is right with the world.

Video of the day:

Day 4: Thermopylae and Meteora from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

What a day we had in front of us today! Two of the best museums in the world, holding stories of Athens and all of Greece.

We woke up this morning greatly refreshed by getting to sleep prostrate in a bed rather than upright in an airplane seat. The Athens Cypria offers a bountiful breakfast of scrambled eggs, sautéed anchovies, toast, cereal and more, but most importantly: coffee! At 8am (7 hours ahead of EST) we met to begin our long day of walking and museum-ing.

We took the metro to Victoria station and walked from there to the National Archaeological Museum. What a pleasure it is to use the metro here! Clean, reliable, and as long as you have your wits about you – which this group clearly does – moderately safe.

For three hours we meandered our way through the massive holdings at this incredible museum. Farther along in the week we will travel to Mycenae, but today we got to see many of the treasures discovered there by the visionary, though questionable, Heinrich Schliemann. We saw the Mask of Agamemnon and the varied signet rings and jewelry buried at Mycenae. We gaped at metal, stone and clay statuary and poured over the massive amounts of pottery. This museum is truly amazing; a place where weeks could be spent, although we did very well for three hours.

Out front of the museum we lunched in the shade of olive trees and enjoyed the cool breeze that lightened the 80 degree weather. Then it was off to be overwhelmed by the next museum holding the findings from what we will climb tomorrow: the Acropolis museum.

This new museum, for all the controversy it has sparked, is a truly mind-blowing collection from the buildings on the Acropolis and fillings in the walls. It is a museum thorough and through; even the foundations of the building itself are glass-covered in places to show the findings discovered while breaking ground. We saw the evolution of ancient Greek art that started with the Egyptian-like poses and famous Attic smile and ended with the graceful Sandalbinder, reminding us that even the gods had an idea of decorum in this holy place.

After a few hours of free time, we ended the day after sunset, walking around the under-lit Acropolis and taking as many pictures as we could. Dinner at Scholarios which, although with a less impressive view than the night before, offered incredible food. We voted that it was the best calamari any of us had eaten.

We experienced so much today that we can only hope the visions which pass before our eyes as we lay to rest tonight will give us a few hours rest before we see the real thing tomorrow morning. Even better, our long-delayed final member of our trip, Leland, will be joining us tomorrow and we will be a whole group at last! Til then…

Today’s video:

Day 2: Nat’l Archaeological And New Acropolis Museums from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

We left the states at 4:30 Thursday afternoon and, after sitting on the plane in JFK for an hour waiting for the lightning to cease, we were on our way! Ten half-conscious, back-straining hours later, we touched down in Athens. It was 80 degrees and gloriously sunny upon our arrival – we could not ask for a better welcome into the city of Athena.

After checking into our hotel we were able to shower and freshen up (but not nap!) before hitting the streets. We ate our first Greek meal, appropriately at Tim’s favorite gyros pita joint, Sabbas. Next came the “FAM”, or “familiarization” walk, which took us all over Athens so we could get our bearings and a preview of everything we will later see in detail.

We started with the Capnikarea Greek Orthodox church – the amazing site where at one spot you can spy modern buildings, the 11th century church and, in the distance, the ancient Acropolis. We saw the Syntagma (constitution) building and square where we were just in time to see the changing of the guard, a first for any group we have taken. We walked around the National Gardens and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, complete with the Hadrian Arch. Around the Acropolis, we meandered past the New Acropolis Museum, which is on the docket for tomorrow, and through the Pnyx and Monistiraki, finishing with the Library of Hadrian and the Tower of the Winds.

After some free time for espresso and rest, we set out for dinner at the un-Greekly hour of 7:30. The plan was to eat at Psara’s, but lo and behold their sister restaurant, Elaia, had a rooftop view of the Acropolis and, as we were just in time to see the sodium lights turn their glow on the Acropolis, we decided we could do no better than to fill our eyes as well as our stomachs.

Besides the amazing artifacts, ruins and history, truly the best part of these trips are the meals! We feasted on bread and olives (of course!), moussaka, calamari, stuffed mushrooms, souvlaki, salmon, fried cheese, stuffed grape leaf rolls, and Greek salad until we were too tired to eat any more. Under the glow of the graceful High City we talked until we faded.

Finally, we are hoping tonight for some real sleep, for tomorrow brings two of the most incredible collections of ancient Greek artifacts: the National Archaeological Museum and the New Acropolis Museum. Til tomorrow…

Be sure to check out the video of our adventures:

Day 1: Athens from Sarah Rossey on Vimeo.

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