Thessaloniki - and to Delphi

This morning, we took a closer look at Thessaloniki, which was founded in the 5^th C  BC – the monuments, a museum and the largest and oldest basilica ( the Basilica of St. Dimitries) at the acropolis – which, we have learned, means to highest point in the city, thus the number of “acropolises” around this country. A huge fire in 1917 destroyed 2/3 of the city, with just the old city remaining; 73,000 citizens were homeless. Great pains have been taken to maintain the flavor of that area with a historical society giving guidance to renovations and any new constructions.                                              

We exited the bus and walked around the old town – what a great idea and a must to really get a flavor of the area. Climbing narrow streets between two story private homes, colorful with the hues of the Mediterranean, balconies with potted plants and clothes hanging outside windows, aged women in black with lace collars sitting in doorways here and there, cats meowing in Greek, wonderful wrought iron balconies, narrow stairways – all leading up to marvelous views downward to the Agean and tantalizing smells wafting out lace-covered windows. 

At the top of the hill, was a very small church that was originally public bath! The daughter of a muslim mayor was a Christian and duped her father, spending his money to build a bath which was simply a front for a church!

Thessalaniki was named

 for the wife of the founder. She and Alexander the Great had different mothers but the same father. Niki means victory – Her father had just had victory against the enemy, the Thessali.

The flag of Greece is blue and white striped with a white cross in the upper left corner. The blue and white colors call to mind the sky and the sea – in a country of 3,ooo islands, that makes sense. The country is Christian, thus, the cross. The 9 stripes mirror that 9 syllables in the Greek phrase from the Greek-Turkish war, “liberty or death”.

Sights in old town Thessaloniki:

Our group overlooking Thessaloniki and the Agean Sea

  The White Tower, symbol of

 Thessaloniki - formerly a dungeon ->

<-  Statue of Alexander the Great at seafront

Paul always went to the temple first when he visited a town.  The story is that a Greek Orthodox monastery is now located at the place where the temple was in Thessaloniki.

<-  Cathedral of St. Dimitris, Thessaloniki ->

As we headed toward Delphi, we had a Bible study from Philippians and from 1 Thessalonians given by John Currid and Dennis Ireland. What a rich trip this is already - and we've just begun! Just don't have the time to do justice to a journal/blog - hope to get some pictures downloaded soon! It's midnight after a long day - and we start early in the morning!!! So much of Greece - so little time!