Greetings from Athens

We began today with a long bus trip to Delphi, the site of the Temple of Apollo and all the ruins surrounding it. Lunch was the first thing on the agenda, so we ate at a great restaurant overlooking a beautiful mountain landscape.

We shopped our way back to the bus for a short ride to the site and museum for a delightful experience beginning in the museum.A piece of pottery 5000 years old and perfectly preserved.

A statue similar to the Sphinx, the result of the Egyptians on the Greek culture in Alexandria, the largest Hellenistic settlement in the world at that time.A statue of a philosopher, important during that period, both politically and philosophically.

We then left the museum and climbed out onto the ruins and were seriously impressed with the overwhelming magnitude of the site and how they have been perserved and restored.Sitting on the back porch of the Temple of Apollo

We all have lots more pictures of this incredible site and will inundate you with them when we get home, along with all the new knowledge we have.

This site has no signifigant spiritual meaning except that this is testimony to the very thing God through Paul was fighting against; false gods and all the futility that goes with it.

These ruins include buildings and development from as early as several hundred years before the birth of Christ until the 14th to the 16th century after Christ birth. Much of what we saw is from the Byzantine (Roman) era 14th through the 16th centuries.

This area (Delphi, pronounced Delphee) supports a great ski industry in the winter and the village is full of shops like Columbia Sports and the like.

We left Delphi for Athens, stopped along the way at a McDonalds and then into the city where there are major demonstrations going on about the failing economy. The police were everywhere and we thought we would have to schlepp our baggage from several blocks away from our hotel however; at the last minute, our super driver was able to get us all the way to the front door of our hotel, so we were all very appreciative.

These Greek hotels have been really super along with the exquisite meals. We just finished a great meal and are off to bed.

Night

Doug