Monday night and Tuesday

Monday night – A late night supper (with part of our group) of traditional tomatoes and cucumber salad (Marty) and mousaka (Larry) and shared baklava (everyone at our table) in the village after checking into our chalet-type accommodations – then a walk back up the mountain road under brilliantly shining stars and a full moon! Beautiful! A surprise SKIPE call from friend Roger Polkinghorne from Australia was a bonus to the evening! Finally – to bed.

Tuesday – Delphi and on to Athens

The day started with a bang – literally! First there was much barking of dogs – on and on – and then it seemed that Larry began having a restless leg and the bed began to respond with shaking and rattling of the headboard – or was it someone knocking on the door – or the closet door banging? I didn’t know – but soon everything seemed to quiet down and I drifted off to sleep. Next thing I knew, the alarm was going off and I had forgotten about the incident. .. that is until we went down to breakfast and Dale Linvill asked us if we had realized we had had an earthquake over night!! My first! He said when he heard the dogs barking, he realized something had either spooked them or they were anticipating something to come. Then, when the “whole lot of shaking going on” began, he put two and two together and nailed it! Turns out, this is an area where tremors are not uncommon. In fact, it is speculated that the tremors and the vapors yielded as a result, were the source of the frenzy the oracles experienced at Delphi.

Then, John Currid greeted us with the news that the Dow was up to 936 at the close of the day yesterday! All the ladies got excited and decided perhaps they could do some shopping after all on this trip J

Add to all this, then, an email from brother Jack saying that the Bowden era was over at Clemson!

Whew! What a way to start this day!

Ann and Aubrey, Jane enjoying breakfast at Delphi.

After a wonderful breakfast from a bountifully laid table of fruit, granola, yogurt, eggs, meat and cheese, juices, tomatoes, coffee, tea, etc., we checked out of this lovely hotel and made our way through zig zaggy mountain roads, switch back after switch back, to the marvelous excavation site and museum at Delfi.

My, oh my – this was just amazing! Another very able guide led us through the museum where we were in awe at the pieces of statuary and other excavated stone pieces from pre-Christian eras. We learned of the myths of the era and gained a real mental understanding of the difficulty Paul had in presenting Christianity and fighting the belief system of the day and how Paul's message so contrasted the thought of the common people of Greece.

And walked up the paths behind the museum to the vast excavated areas at Delphi. Nancy and Dale were part of the crew who walked all the way to the top of the site to the stadium – a real accomplishment - we all cheered for Nancy as she made her way back into the bus!

As far as we can know from scripture, Paul did not go to Delphi – but because he was well-read in Greek literature and was well-versed in Greek history and culture, there was every reason to believe he knew of it. It is representative of what Paul was up against in bringing Christianity to Macedonia - and he addresses this situation of many gods here in both Acts and the letters to the Thessalonians. It was a great way to gain understanding of the impregnation of the culture with false gods and deities. How rich are these experiences and how much depth is added to our understanding of our New Testament scriptures.

Among other things at Delphi, we learned that the Greeks considered this area the center of the world – thus, the sculptures signifying the “navel of the world” are unique here! A large domed piece depicted just that! (This internet connection at the Oscar Hotel is so very sketchy, I cannot get pictures - the ones that say 1,000 words! - downloaded - will try later.)

One example of The "navel of the earth"!!

From Delphi, we headed to Athens – another long bus trip tempered with Bible teaching and great discussion. From exposition of Acts 17 and the Q&A following, to a sharing of Dr. Currid’s experiences in the excavations in the middle east, to a discussion about child sacrifice – the time was filled with learning opportunities and good fellowship. During this afternoon, we attempted to get the various civilizations down pat – which came when, what happened because of what, who was instrumental thru each – whew! Good stuff – and so good to get it straight!! Why didn’t I pay more attention to my world and ancient history classes? Before we knew it, we found ourselves at the last rest stop before Athens – into which the arrival reminded many of us of driving into Atlanta at rush hour!

Athens is a big city, full of graffiti and lots of cars and people – the latter two things attempting to move very fast in the slow lane – quite like big cities all over the world, from that perspective! We all continued to be very impressed and thankful for our bus driver John – and hated to say good-bye to him when we unloaded at The Oscar Hotel.

Larry has a fresh cold tonight which drove him to bed with the covers over his head soon after we got settled in. I went to get a light supper with Dale and Nancy and fellow traveler Wayne Creel. We found an outdoor café a couple blocks over (many of the rest of the crew headed via subway to a large shopping area – I really didn’t want to get too far away with Larry under the weather) Fortunately, D & N were looking for lighter and closer fare, too – and we found Wayne wandering around the lobby as we left, so he joined us). We had traditional Greek gyro pitas – lamb cut off the spit (Marty), chicken (Nancy and Wayne) and beef (Dale) – man, it was delish! A spirited conversation about the work of the Spirit added as much joy as the good food and fellowship – but we didn’t linger as I broke the dining off. I was eager to get back to the hotel and the ailing husband! Hated for Larry to miss such a good conversation and good company.

No luck with the sketchy internet connection L so gave up and called it a night. Only to get up about an hour later to get these thoughts together before they left me!

So, it was another great day – with the exception of Larry feeling so rugged. Hopefully, Lord willing, he will be much improved tomorrow! We will be on to a ½ day excursion to Corinth tomorrow and then have the rest of the afternoon free to explore the shops in Athens. A tour of Athens and environs on Thursday and then to our ship and head to the islands. Hope to get online tomorrow – and will add more then! …..