April 2, 2006
This morning we left the hotel to visit the Acropolis. Acropolis means high point of the city. Atop the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which is the Temple of Athena, goddess of virgins. The Acropolis has only one entrance because the walls were built to be inaccessible. It was rebuilt in the middle of the 5th Century B.C. after it was burned and destroyed. We walked up the Acropolis to the Parthenon. It was so incredible and it doesn't really have straight lines anywhere on it. Next to the temple was another smaller temple dedicated to Poseidon, the god of the sea. We walked around the back part of the Parthenon to view the Temple of Zeus (again, it was pointed out to us). It appears as though the temple of Zeus is in the middle of town.
Nina our tour guide gave us about 30 minutes to see the area on our own. We quickly left the Parthenon and walked down to visit Mars Hill. Mars Hill can be seen from the Acropolis and is above the ruins of the ancient marketplace. The marketplace and Acropolis is where Apostle Paul walked around and views all the statues to the various gods and then preached from Mars Hill about the "unknown god" in Romans. It was kind of cool to be up there. It was mostly marble so it was very slick but there were steps carved into the side of it from ancient times and we chose that set of stairs to climb the hill over the modern, nice safe stairs with handrails that had recently been set up.
We left the Acropolis and our guide took us to see the Olympic stadium that has been in use in Athens since the first modern Olympic games. It was small by current standards but this is the stadium the marathon runners enter when finishing their race. We had passed in on our way to the hotel the first day but it was nice to be able to actually walk up to it and see it. This stadium had been rebuilt in the 1800's and had been built on the same site as the original. After leaving the stadium we headed towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at least this way Ang and Dana can see it again! Along the way we drove past the Presidential Palace and saw the guards (soldiers of honor) out front in official dress. Their uniform appears to be a jacket, skirt of sorts and tights with elaborate shoes.
At the Tomb, we were there in time to see the changing of the guards. After leaving the Tomb, we drove past the Athens Academy as well as the oldest Christian church. It was named for Paul's first convert- Saint Denis.
Several times on our tour today, our guide would point out the Temple of Zeus as we passed it. So we started referring to it as the line in European Vacation when they get stuck on the round-about in London and Chevy Chase keeps pointing out Big Ben and parliament to his kids. So we would say "look kids, Temple of Zeus, Acropolis" and laugh.
After the tours we shopped again and of course I had to buy some more stuff. We came back to the hotel and got ready for our dinner out of Greek cuisine and dancing. The food was alright, I did like the potatoes in Greece and the dancing was entertaining. After dinner we walked back to the bus and I walked with Kay as Dana walked with her husband Rudy. From the moment I saw them in orientation, I just knew Rudy was a farmer. I was disappointed though because they weren't but after several other conversations with him over the trip he may not be a farmer in reality but he has a heart for the same values and issues as my farmers in AZ do. Rudy reminds me of one of my members from Yuma county. By the end of the trip Rudy and Kay were some of my favorite people.
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