Christmas in Reno 2015

Judah,  Mari-Kristin, Phoenix & Finnley arrived on Christmas Day. They left snowy Reno & returned to sunny California. 

While in Reno Phoenix & Finnley enjoyed their first snow experience.

Our Last Days in Athens

 We spent our last two days in Athens seeing some more of the "D ticket" sites and visiting with two groups of friends who live and work here in Athens. For those of you too young to remember the Disneyland ticket scheme of the 1950s: "E" tickets are for the best rides, while "A" tickets let you ride the Main Street trolley. For our purposes, Athens has two "E" ticket sights: the Acropolis and the Archaeological Museum. But, when you buy the Acropolis "E" ticket, you get some "D", "C" and "B" tickets thrown in. The "A" ticket items seem to all be free.)

We started out on Tuesday morning taking the Rick Steve's Athens City Walk tour. As I've mentioned before, this is a free synchronized audio walking tour that you can listen to on your iPhone. We started off in the center of modern Athens, Syntagma (Constitution) Square, in front of the Parliament. This is one of the many "free range" dogs that you'll find around Athens (along with all of the cats, of course.)

The city tour is supposed to be a two hour tour, but that's if you don't stop anywhere. We stopped in a bookstore and did some shopping. Then we went on to the Cathedral, which is more of a working church than a museum-type sight. In front of the Cathedral is the statue of Archbishop Damaskinos, the church leader who stood up to the Nazis during the occupation of Greece. When a Nazi commander threatened to put Damaskinos before a firing squad for speaking out on behalf of the Jews being deported, the archbishop replied that he should be hanged instead, in good Orthodox tradition.

After the war, he served as the Prime Minister of Greece until the king returned from exile. This statue was erected by Athens Jewish community in thanks.

 Next door to the Cathedral is the much more interesting Church of Agios Eleftherios. This is sometimes called the "old cathedral" because it was used by the archbishops of Athens after the Ottomans evicted them from the church in the Parthenon. It was built in the 12th century and incorporated both BC and AD ornaments scavenged from other buildings. It's fascinating.

 Another "D" ticket sight we visited was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. These are the remains of the largest temple in mainland Greece. It was begun around 550 BC by the ruler Peisistratos, and finally completed, 700 years later, in 131 AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Although there is not much left, the scale of the columns is awe-inspiring.

All over Athens you can see "free" excavations like the Roman Baths shown here. They are usually uncovered when creating a new subway station. Instead of being closed off, railings are put up so that the public can enjoy the excavation.

 After our siesta, we took the Metro out to the suburbs where we had a great evening as well as a wonderful meal, visiting with friends from Calvary Chapel, as well as new friends ministering in Greece. You'll recognize me and Kathy in the upper left. Across from us are our hosts, Sahar and Arno Kamrani, a Persian/Dutch couple living in Greece and working with the refugees flooding into the country. Sahar told us about trying to feed 700 refugees, who showed up one night at one of the camps, by just calling a souvlaki stand and "ordering out". Five hours later the souvlaki arrived.

Frank and Suzie Gonzales, on the left, are working with Sahar in the refugee camps around town, trying to organize medical care for the refugees. Rounding our the dinner party were Mark and Celeste Yocom, who drove down from Kosovo for a few days. Mark is a Calvary Chapel pastor there, who also ministers to the NATO troops still stationed in Pristina.

It was a wonderful night, and we didn't get back to bed until after midnight. (I know; the Greeks are just getting started then!)

 On Wednesday morning, we picked up in the middle of the city tour that got cut short yesterday by our desire for an afternoon map. This is the Lysicrates monument, the only remaining "Oscar" awarded to those who appeared in the Theater of Dionysus. This was awarded to "Lysicrates of Kykyna", the winning choral team in the year 334 BC.

 Up from the monument, we climbed (and almost crawled) through the little village of Anafiotika on the east slope of the Acropolis. This entire neighborhood was created by people who moved from the tiny island of Anafi after Greek gained its independence from the Ottomans.

 On the other side, we came down into the Roman Agora. Because Wednesday was a Greek national holiday, Ohi Day, which commemorates the Greek refusal to bow to Mussolini's ultimatum in WWII, all of the archaeological sights and museums were open to everyone for free, so we didn't need to use our tickets at all. However, everything else, except for restaurants, was closed.

The Roman Forum was definitely a lesser sight; but only because of the multitude of other sights that are all so impressive. Anywhere else, this sarcophagus would be the star on display

 Another minor sight was the Library of Hadrian at the side of Monastiraki Square. Once we walked through this, we were at the end of our walking tour, so we celebrated by purchasing a variety of honey-nut pastries along with a cappuccino, and taking a short break.

 When we went back to the subway at the Monastiraki Square stop, guess what we found? More ruins. As they were digging the subway stop they found the Roman aqueduct which confined Athens' Eridansos river to a canal. Instead of just digging it up, the modern Athenians excavated the Roman brickwork (you can still see the water running through it), and replaced the floor with glass panels. As you're running to catch your train you can look down into 2000 years of history.

From Monastiraki we headed back to the Acropolis Metro stop to meet Travis and Kristin Spencer, and their three children, for lunch. Travis and Kristin are also working with Calvary Chapel here in Athens and we had a great time catching up.

Well, that's pretty much it. We have our boarding passes printed and we'll leave at 5:00 AM for the airport. It's been a wonderful 44-day adventure, but Kathy says "there's no place like home!"

Traces of Paul in Athens

On Sunday we woke up early to a windy morning in Santorini. We had some breakfast and then caught a cab to the airport on the back half of the island. As we drove to the airport we passed four buses coming up the hill from the three cruise ships in the harbor. On Saturday there were no cruise ships, and all of the streets and restaurants were almost deserted. Our cab driver told us that in the summer there are as many as eight cruise ships in port at the same time, and that Oia is absolutely crazy. Glad we missed that.

The Santorini airport was pretty informal, and the flight to Athens took less than an hour. I had started to feel a little queasy before we left, and the bumpy plane trip didn't help. Fortunately, Frank and Suzie Gonzales, friends of ours working for Calvary Chapel in Athens, picked us up at the airport, so we didn't have to navigate all of the ins and outs of finding our way to the hotel.

On the way to the hotel, we stopped for some lunch (which actually helped me to feel a little better and settled my stomach). It was so good to sit and talk with them and hear how the Lord is using them here in Athens, especially with the current migrant crisis. (Frank is really good at taking selfies; I need to take some lessons.)

By the time we got to our hotel, I was feeling poorly again, so I left the unpacking to Kathy and went straight to sleep. When I woke up a little after 6:30 PM both my nausea and headache were gone, so Kathy and I headed out to walk around the local neighborhood. This is what we found when we walked two blocks: the Acropolis!

The ticket office was still open so we bought tickets for tomorrow and started walking around the base. On the far side, we found a rock outcropping with a lot of tourists standing on top of it. (It sort of looked like the rocks at Pirates Cove in Corona del Mar.) There was a steel staircase and so we climbed up with them and got this great shot of the Parthenon under an almost full moon.

Later, we walked through the back lanes of the Plaka, and found a great place for dinner. I wasn't feeling 100% so we just ordered an appetizer assortment and a Greek salad. It just hit the spot. (It was such a lovely scene, with all of the tables spilling out into the lane, that I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture.) As we were eating dinner, I got out my guide book and looked for the hilltop place we had been standing. It was Mars Hill, where the Apostle Paul preached his famous sermon to the Athenian Philosophers in Acts 17!

Monday at the Acropolis

On Monday morning we walked up to the Acropolis and took the "Rick Steves Walking Tour" with my iPhone and a single set of earbuds shared between us. I bet we looked kind of funny walking around in sync so that the earbuds wouldn't pull out. The restoration work that has been going on for more than 20 years is a little disconcerting but impressive. Those white patches on the columns are not merely stucco or Bondo, but are actually marble patches cut from the same type of marble as the original columns. Eventually, the columns will weather to the same ivory color.

The audio guided tour took about two hours, and was very informative. We learned a lot about the history and the design of the temples on the Acropolis, but also did a lot of walking. Every time we sat down, getting up again became an open question.

Because of the damage done by the Venetians and the Ottomans during the war in the 1600s, the temples weren't in as good shape as those elsewhere in the city. This is the west side of the Erechtheion, the only other main temple on the top of the Acropolis, shared between Poseidon and Athena.

Of course most of you are probably more familiar with the east side, which features the famous Porch of the Caryatids. We had arrived early at the Acropolis (around 8:30 AM), but by now (10:30) the tour groups were arriving and so we left to see the Ancient Agora which was the center of commercial Athens during its heyday.

This is where, in Acts 17:17, it says of the Apostle Paul that:

...he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

It was while he was here in the marketplace (the Agora) that he encountered a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who

...took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean."

 The Areopagus was the group of local leaders who ruled Athens, and met on this hill (which we know by its English name of Mars Hill). It was really quite an honor to be called to address them. In the picture above, Kathy is standing in front of the Agora where Paul would have preached. The lower left shows Mars Hill as it appears from the Acropolis. On the side is a plaque containing (so we've been told) the Greek version of Paul's speech to the Athenians.

There are few other sites in the Agora, but the temple of Hephastos certainly stands out. It's not as large as the Parthenon, but it's much better preserved. During the middle ages this was converted to the Church of Agios Georgios and was allowed to remain a church during the Ottoman occupation. Looking at the temple you can imagine what the Parthenon would look like today if it hadn't been blown up.

There was also one Christian church on the site-the Church of the Holy Apostles-built in 1000 AD to commemorate the Apostle Paul's ministry in Athens. This Church became the prototype for later Athenian churches with it's Greek Cross shape (as opposed to the typical Roman Cross pattern used throughout much of Europe). This picture is looking up at the dome.

After our walk, I wanted lunch and Kathy wanted to look at the flea market in the Monastiraki area. We compromised by walking through the flea market and getting some lunch on the far side. This is Greek salad with lamb and beef kebabs and grilled tomatoes (at Thanasis which is famous for its traditional recipe.)

After lunch we headed over to the Central Market, where Kathy was grossed out by the meat carcasses and the fish market that is a little more raw than the one in Pikes Place. After that, back to the hotel for a nap.

Santorini Sunset & Sunrise

Well, perhaps not surprisingly, the Weather app on our iPhones was right for once. On Friday morning we got up at 7:00 AM to go explore the Church of 100 Doors in Paros and by the time we got there it was pouring rain. Don't feel bad for us though; we ducked into the Cafe Distrato where we had lunch yesterday, and had a long, relaxing breakfast, reading our books, while outside the lanes filled with water. We were the only customers; it's going to be one of my favorite memories from the trip.

Our ferry left at 11:55 AM, and just on schedule, it stopped raining at 11:00. We paid our bill, went back to the Pension Sofia, and got a ride down to the dock. We took a couple of Dramamine again and boarded the Blue Star just on time. It started raining again just as we got on board. Three hours later we joined the hundreds of other tourists and stepped of the ferry into clearing skies.

Santorini is actually an archipelago of five different islands; the main island is named Thira, but most people refer to it as Santorini. Originally, at the time of the Minoans, the island was an entirely circular volcano named Stronglii (the round one). Around 1630 BC it exploded in the largest recorded eruption in human history. About 24 cubic miles of material was ejected; four times the size of the Krakatoa eruption. The explosion sent a huge tsunami headed towards Crete, only 70 miles away, where archaeologists speculate that it was responsible for the eventual downfall of the Knossos kingdom. Today, the villages on Santorini are perched on the cliffs, 1000 feet above the crater, which is filled with the sea. This is the sunrise on Saturday morning from our balcony.

We are staying in the village of Oia on the northern tip of the island. You've probably seen it in postcards. We're staying in a "cave house", carved out of the side of the volcanic rock. Originally these were once the poorest dwellings in town, but today, they are the most sought after. This was my one splurge on the trip; we spent more than twice as much as we had on any other place. Somehow, though, I expected a little more luxury. As Kathy and I went walking, we couldn't help noticing the places that had individual infinity spas in front of each dwelling. Just for kicks we went on the Web and checked the prices. The one place we looked at went for a little more than $1,000 a night (and this is the off season!) I'm willing to splurge, but I'm not crazy.

The ferry docked around 3:00 PM and we hopped a bus to Fira (the main town), and then another bus to Oia, so we got in about 5:00 PM. We tried using Google Maps to find our place, but it really didn't work, so we called and the owner sent someone to get us. The owner, Zak Zagarelos, owns six "traditional cave houses" and rents them out to tourists. He gave us a choice of two different houses, since the season is essentially finished at the end of this week. Several of the other houses were occupied last night, but when we leave tomorrow, we'll be his last guests.

After we dropped off our luggage, we headed out to the Oia "point" to see the sunset. That is the most important time here and when there is a cruise ship in port, there are thousands of people. Friday was no exception; the streets were packed, mostly with Asian tourists off of the one cruise ship in port. It was still beautiful. This is the view from our balcony looking back towards the main part of the island.

This is the view from the end of the island, with Kathy and another tourist snapping pictures.

Here is the view back towards our house from the end of the island. We are in the dark colored reddish house almost right in the middle.

Here's one more picture of the town without any tourists in the foreground. I had to hold my phone up high over my head to get it; after all, I'm pretty tall.

Finally, here is the sunset over the Caldera that everyone was there for.

Saturday morning it was windy and cloudy, but not raining. It actually made for perfect hiking weather. Before breakfast, Kathy and I set out to see how far we could walk along the cliffs. Unlike the night before, we met almost no one else on our walk.

When we got back, we had a nice breakfast in our room. Then, we spent the rest of the day relaxing on our balcony, enjoying some of the nicest views in Europe. Tomorrow morning we're taking off for Athens, and then, back to California.

Nachos on Naxos

 We planned to visit the island of Paros between staying on Mykonos and going to Santorini, so that we could see one of the less touristic islands. I also chose it because the ferry trip between Mykonos and Paros was only an hour. For the last two weeks of our trip, visiting the Greek Cyclades islands, I planned our itinerary so that on travel days we could get to the next stop in four hours or less. That way, with a two-night stay, we got a full day and a half at our destination.

The one thing I couldn't do before leaving though, was buy the ferry tickets. When I went to buy them, the lady told me "No tickets. The season is over. You can go to Naxos and catch the 6:00 PM ferry from there." So, Wednesday morning we said goodbye to Mykonos and got in line for the 10:30 AM Sea Jet 2 ferry to Naxos, an island we hadn't intended to visit.

It all turned out perfectly, though. The trip to Naxos took only 45 minutes on the high-speed ferry. It almost flies over the water. When we got there, we checked our bags at the port and went out to explore the old part of the city. It was different than Mykonos, but just as charming in its own way. There were certainly a lot fewer tourists.

Speaking of tourists, on our last day in Mykonos, there was only one cruise ship in port, so many of the businesses closed. When we went to dinner at a popular and recommended restaurant, we were the only customers. It was really kind of strange. The day we left, there were two cruise ships in port, and the shops again were open.

Naxos is a lest touristic city, and the architecture is a little more varied, but it still looks like a Greek island with all of the narrow twisty lanes. The lanes, however, are not generally filled with designer boutiques.

After a few hours climbing up and down, we were pretty tired out, so we found a cafe open down by the waterfront and spent most of the afternoon reading and enjoying coffee and Greek nachos.

Just before sunset, the clouds rolled in and it got pretty stormy looking. We kept thinking it was going to rain, but it didn't. It was pretty humid, though. At the end of town, there was a causeway to a small island containing the original Delian Sanctuary of Apollos on Naxos. Kathy and I walked out there, with Kathy looking for potsherds.

As we walked out on the causeway, we passed this little old lady, who looked to be about 90, with a cane and a bag. When we looked back, we saw that she had walked down the steps on the causeway, taken off her dress covering her bathing suit, and was now swimming in the bay, which was so clear you could see the bottom

After walking around what is left of the Delian sanctuary, we headed back to join the trucks and hordes of ferry commuters getting on the regular, slower, Blue Star ferry. On the Blue Star, the ride from Naxos to Paros took 45 minutes. If the Sea Jet had been running, it would have taken 15 minutes. However, the Blue Star ferries are so big (about the same size as a cruise ship), that we really didn't feel any sea-sickness at all. On the Sea Jets, you roll a bit, so we both took Dramamine.

We got into Paros at about 7:00 PM, and the owner of Sofia's Pension, where we are staying for two nights, met us at the dock. Because we were coming in later than planned, I had called ahead to let them know, and Sofia volunteered to send her husband down to pick us up. We really appreciated it.

Thursday and our 43^rd Anniversary in Paros

Today, October 22nd is Kathy and my 43rd wedding anniversary. If I had planned better, we'd be overlooking the caldera in Santorini, but Paros is wonderful too. Because Paros is not really an international cruise-ship destination, the atmosphere of the town is different. Definitely more laid-back. The accommodations are much less expensive as well. Our room was a little smaller than what we had in Mykonos, but not by much. It was very nice.

In the morning, we went walking as usual, and found this beautiful secluded cove just outside of town. We would have continued walking around the point, but a landslide had closed the seaside path.

On the way back, we found some windmills. Unlike the windmills in Mykonos, these all have sails that can be furled and unfurled. It looks like they are actual working windmills, although I can't think about what they would be used for. They are all in tip-top shape, though. We had a leisurely two hour lunch and reading break at a beautiful little restaurant under a huge spreading laurel tree. The cats kept jumping up on the seats trying to share them with us.

 Afterwards, we climbed up to the Frankish castle built by a Venetian Duke around 1260 AD. What is really interesting about the castle is that the building materials they used were all scavenged from the ancient Greek temples at the site.

 Instead of a siesta, I talked Kathy into walking back to the cove we saw that morning and taking a swim. The water was so refreshing.

I should mention that the Weather app on our iPhone forecast thunderstorms and rain today. It was quite windy, but, as you can see, it was beautiful. Tomorrow we head out for two nights on Santorini, where they are still predicting rain. We'll see; so far the Weather app has been wrong almost every day.