Athens & Acropolis

We toured through Athens to reach the Acropolis Museum. This museum was built over the ruins of earlier civilizations. The ruins of these could be seen through glass floors of the museum. Significant number of artifacts were being preserved by being out of the weather. It was pointed out that many other artifacts had been taken to other museums around the world. Many were replaced by reconstructed pieces.

We walked from the museum up to the Acropolis and the Pantheon. The hike up was worth it. Each year more and more reconstruction takes place. People who had been there before commented on how much had been done since they had been there.

We were reminded that St Paul preached to the Athenians here at the Acropolis. Fr. Eric was asked to repeat St Paul’s spreech form a high stone perch above us that overlooked the ancient marketplace.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the cruise ship. However, the ruins we saw at the Acropolis were impressive. You really got the feel of the ancient pagan culture.  Once again, we were reminded that money made by vendors and business people selling pagan images was a major cause of trouble for St Paul. Seeing the extent of ancient statues and pagan belief system brought with it new insights into the conflicts and difficulties faced by early Christians in spreading the Faith.

We left on our Mediterranean Cruise on Monday Oct 6th. We took a train from tome to the port of Rome. We got on Board about 1 pm. We the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship departed at 5 pm. The ship is absolutely gorgeous. It holds 3,000 guests. It is only 3 years old. It isn’t noisy at all. The food has been very good. The entertainment has been outstanding. We have seen three shows already.

The Catholic ANswers hadds a daily Mass to our agenda. When we are at sea we all meet from 10-noonand 2-3 Pm for lcctures. We have had 4 lectures so far from 4 different speakers. Three of the 4 have been very good. The best being on Dante’d Divine Comedy. Fred downloaded a copy after hearing the lecture!

Santorini

We had take a tender from the ship to shore in rather rough waters. The islands in this group were created by a volcanic  explosion . The island of Santorini is about 20 miles long but sits on high cliffs overlooking the ocean. We did take a bus up a switch back road at the new port. We got back to the ship from the old port where cable car took us down. The other option was to take a donkey down.

The capital of the island is Fira, high above the old port. The village of Oia at the other end of the island is really very very quaint. The richest people on Greece live there. After going the a local winery for wine tasting, we walked around both Oia and Fira.

We stopped for greek coffee in a restaurant high above the ocean and the streets of Oia. It was wonderful.

We are now at sea and will dock in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday morning.