IT WAS ALL GREEK TO ME

PART I: Discovering Ancient Greece

I hope to give you a taste of our trip to Greece with Gate1 Travel by sharing some photos I took. This is the first of a three-part series.

 Getting to Greece was an adventure in itself.  We had to fly from Columbus to Washington, DC  to Brussel and then to Athens.   I was pretty giddy when I boarded our last flight. When the airline stewardess greeted me, I announced in an overenthusiastic  voice, “I’m going to Greece!”

She smiled, raised her eyebrows and said, “Yes, I know.”

Travel buddies: Kathy, Sheryl & me

It was actually surreal visiting the cradle of Western civilization.

A picture of the Acropolis from our hotel’s rooftop restaurant

I didn’t realize that the Acropolis was an ancient city — a complex of temples dedicated to gods & goddesses — on top of a massive rock overlooking Athens. What a climb!

The Propylaea, the grand entrance, was built to protect the city.

The Parthenon, temple of the goddess Athena, is the design inspiration for our Jefferson Memorial, The National Gallery of Art & the US Supreme Court.

The Erechtheion was built for Poseidon and Athena. The Porch of Caryatids features six statues of beautiful maidens, functioning as columns.

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I got goosebumps standing on the starting line of the first Olympics, walking the Sacred Way to the Temple of Apollo, sitting in an ancient amphitheater and praying in a monastery atop a bizarre rock formation. It really made me appreciate the ingenuity and strength of those early Greeks.

The first Olympics in Olympia were religious festivals honoring Zeus from 776 BC to 393 AD. The first International games in modern history were held in 1891 in Athens — 1503 years later.

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I was really inspired when we visited Delphi on the slopes of Mt. Parnassos.

Tholos of Delphi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site a few miles from the Delphi ruins.

Omphala, a stone representing the navel or center of the Earth. According to mythology, Zeus sent out two eagles from opposites ends of the Earth; and this is where they met.

Temple of Apollo home of the oracle Pythia and Socrates’ quote, “Know Thyself.”

Ancient amphitheater on the hillside

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Meteora is an unbelievable rock formation in central Greece that is the home to six mystical Eastern Orthodox monasteries nestled close to the edge of the bizarre rocks.

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Of course, we visited many museums along with other archeological sites. They house thousands of interesting artifacts. Many statues are missing parts from weathering and aging.

Christians, however, defaced many others during Late Antiquity.

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Next week in Part II — I will share pictures from the beautiful islands of Mykonos and Santorini.

I wish could share more now, but Substack has a limit. You are welcome to check out additional photos on Facebook.

It’ll Be OK.

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“Antiques. Grandma had it; Mom threw it out, I bought it back.” ~ QuoteGram

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