Greece Pictures

* Pictures from Greece portion of the trip- Rhodes to Thessaloniki.

Monday, June 20 (Greece, here we come!)

Ferry from Marmaris (Turkey) to Rhodes (Greece). We immediately met our new guide Maria, who made us miss Cenk a lot, for a tour of the Rhodes Old Town.

Eating a gyro for my first meal in Greece.

Sparkling waters of beach in front of Rhodes Old Town.

Studying in the Rhodes Holel lobby (like good students!)

Tuesday, June 21

Main Stairwell up Grand Master's Palace, Old Town Rhodes. It has the definite feel of a medieval castle!

Room inside Grand Master's Palace, Rhodes. Notice the colored marble tiles on the floor with a mosaic interrupting the pattern. Also, on the wall there are stones of different shades decorating the walls.

Grand Master's Palace, Rhodes. Here there is a picture and bust of Grand Master de Villeneure who built the palace in the 14th century. In addition, there is a black cloak with an eight-pointed Maltese cross, typical dress of the Grand Master.

Sulyman Mosque at Rhodes Old Town, one of two mosques on the island.

Wednesday, June 22

Flight from Rhodes to Athens. Look there's a sign for "Olympic". Well we discovered that the Special Olympic games of 2011 will be held in Athens during our visit! There will be over 7000 athletes from 180 countries competing in 22 sports over the next week.

Panorama of Acropolis Hill and surrounding Athens area from Mars Hill.

View of Athens from Mars Hill

Ancient Agora of Athens (City Center). People met up here, bought goods, learned the news, had philosophical discussions and much more in this area.

Temple of Hephaistos dedicated to Athena around ancient agora site.

Thursday June 23

View of Athens from Litavikos Hill, highest hill in Athens.

Parthenon on Athenian Acropolis

Theatre of the Herodian on Athenian Acropolis.

Excavation site underneath New Acropolis Museum. The whole museum is covered in clear glass floors, so that visiters can view the archaeologists working below.

Dinner show with music and dancing. Look at the interesting traditional Greek clothing!

 Friday, June 24

Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens.

Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Denis in Athens.

Bookstore in Athens, one of the largest.

Panorama of Poseidon Temple on Cape Sounion, Greece. The Temple to the god of the seas is on a hill surrounded on three sides by water. How appropriate! And how beautiful the temple was against the sparkling blue water and bright late-afternoon sunshine.

Cape Sounion, Greece.

 Saturday, June 25

Acrocorinth, walls of ancient Corinth on highest point of city.

Dr. Rhodes, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame and archaeologist of ancient Corinth explaining something to and Ben.

Entrance to Chamber Tomb of Agamemnon (Agamemnon's Treasure). Notice the triangular space above the door, which is traditional of these burial vaults built into the hillside. Mycenaean individuals and families would be buried in these large spaces along with valuable items and offerings.

Hiking down Cistern at Mycenae.

Athlete Procession into ancient stadium for Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics 2011 in Athens.

Athlete Procession into ancient stadium for Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics 2011 in Athens.There were over 7000 athletes from 185 countries ready to compete in 22 different olympic sports. Some countries wore their native dress like Indonesia. Other teams, like the Americans donned plaid white and red shorts!

 Sunday, June 26

One-Day Cruise to Greek Islands of Hydra, Aegina and Poros

View of Greek Island Poros from bow of one-day cruise.

Panorama of Ocean from Greek Island of Poros. This is taken from a hill that I hiked to with a beautiful blue and white clock tower.

Clock Tower at Greek Island of Poros. I hiked up the narrow cobblestone backstreets of the hilly island to get to this tower which was visible from the harbor.

Small Orthodox Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the Greek Island of Hydra.

Tribute to Gustav Mahler Concert at the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre featuring world famous violinist Joshua Bell and the Filarmonica della Scala. They performed the Max Bruch's "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G minor, Opus 26" and without Bell, Mahler's "Symphony No.6 in A minor". It was a great concert in the ancient theatre within view of the lit-up Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis next door. Additionally, Joshua Bell came out for an impromptu curtain call before intermission and performed his own arrangement and variations on the familiar American folk tune "Yankee Doodle", to the pleasure of the crowd!

Panoramic Picture of Concert at Herodian Theatre. As you can see it was a packed crowd at the ancient theatre. In the upper left corner, you can see the Temple of Athena Nike on the Athenian acropolis.

 Monday, June 27

Panorama of View on the way to Delphi.

  Tuesday, June 28

Roadside monument to Leonidas and the Spartans commemorating their efforts at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persians under the command of Xerxes. This is the famous battle that the movie 300 was based off of.

Greek Orthodox monastery on Rocks of Meteora.

Wednesday, June 29

Monument to Paul at Beria (Verea) at the supposed location where he spoke.

Statue of Alexander the Great at the museum at Pella, Alex's birthplace.

Thursday, June 30

White Tower of Thessaloniki, which used to be a prison. Now, Greek protesters camp outside the tower with a sign that reads "We're not selling our dreams!"

View of Thessaloniki from Trigonion Tower which is located on the citedel or acropolis of the city.

Interior of the Cathedral of St. Dimitrios, patron saint of Thessaloniki. It had many beautiful mosaics and frescoes.

Mosaic of Jesus in St. Dimitrios Cathedral.

 Friday, July 1

Niha and I eating nutela and banana crepes after a lunch of our comfort food, gyros. The gyros in the Aristotles Square, the main square in Thessaloniki, were by far the largest gyros that we've had all trip! And the crepes certainly hit the spot afterwards!