Lindos on the Isle of Rhodes

The Lindos Acropolis towering above the small village of Lindos.

At the base of the Acropolis is a carving said to be done by the same artist who did "Winged Victory" we saw in the Louvre museum in Paris.

The bay behind Josie is where St. Paul crashed his boat and brought Christianity to the island.

Rhodes

After leaving beautiful Santorini we went to the island of Rhodes which is known for having had one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Colossus of Rhodes.

It was the Knights Hospitaller, who were involved in the crusades, that built the great walled city as it stands today.

This is the entrance to the harbor, where the Colossus of Rhodes is said to have stood. I was telling the kids about this in our taxi when the driver corrected me and told us that the water levels have been found to be much higher in those days. It is now believed that the Colossus of Rhodes was on much higher ground and not straddling the port.

Rhodes blue water was amazing.

 You can see the Muslim Turkish minaret towering above the old city in the background.

Last day on Santorini

A cruise ship ferried passengers over to the island for 3 hours and they got to ride up on donkeys. Now we know why the path down was a little "slick".

The donkey men splitting their earnings.

This is how the vineyards look on Santorini. The center was filled with snail shells which must eat the vineleaves and I guess the farmers kill the snails and put the shell in the center.

Voyage to the Center of the Santorini Volcano

We opted not to use the donkeys or the cable car to get down the cliff to the boat you can see at the bottom.

This is the island in the center of the Santorini caldera. There are still active hot steam vents and you could smell the sulpher.

Audrey dipping her toe in the not so hot, hot springs.

My little Greek daughter.

Greek Isle of Santorini

Coming into the port on Santorini. We learned that Santorini was a huge volcano that exploded 3500 years ago. There are theories that the explosion was so massive that it created a tsunami that wiped out the Minoan civilization on Crete and even may be the basis for the legend of Atlantis.

This is what we wake up to every morning.

Two island girls. Audrey has just lost her front teeth.

We had to move quickly out of the way of the donkeys that are going down to get tourists.

White buildings and blue domes...how cool is that!

A whole bunch of Beaudoins.

Legendary sunset from the town of Oia.

Athens and its Illegal Immigrants

We saw many of Athens illegal immigrants selling fake handbags, watches and sunglasses. We heard that they come over to Greece and sink their boats to be saved by the Greek authorities to gain entry to the country. They set up shop on blankets that they can quickly move when the police come after them. Daily we saw the police chasing them out of the touristy areas as they have no papers or pay any taxes. We even saw a fight between some of them and security guards where one of illegals lost his entire inventory when all the watches spilled out onto the road when he was shoved.

Acropolis and the Parthenon

The Parthenon (means: House of the Virgin) was a temple to Athena. It was converted into a Catholic Church and suffered massive destruction when a Venetian cannon ball set off stored Ottoman ammunition during the 1687 war.

They currently are restoring it by using special cranes that fold down so as not to ruin the view.
Parthenon

Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. Bartholdi used one of the Caryatid women as inspiration for the statue of Liberty along with his mothers face.
These are copies of the originals that are now in the Athens Museum. Lord Elgin, in the early 1800's, tried to take the originals but couldn't because his workers got scared off by strange shrieking noises coming from the underground caverns. He ended up with only one for his garden which is now in the British Museum.

Hadrians Arch

Hadrians Arch was erected in the 2nd century in honor of the Emperor.

Behind the arch is a Temple of Zeus. One of the columns had been blown down during a storm in 1852 and was never put back up. It was interesting for the kids to see how the columns were constructed.

Athens, Greece

Our arrival in Athens with the Acropolis in the background. The domed churches are are now mostly christian (Greek Orthodox) although they were originally built as mosques during the 400 years of Turkish rule.

The Temple of Hephaistos which is one of the lesser known but best preserved Greek temples.

At 2 euros the Gyros have gotten the thumbs up from Audry. Although I think in one of these countries, we have to watch our use of the "thumbs up" as it has a completely different meaning.

We watched the changing of the guards with their tassels, pompoms and their pleated kilts. They have 400 pleats, one for every year of Turkish rule.

Bari, Italy to Patras, Greece

This is part of the long journey to Greece. Our Eurail passes covered the overnight trip but we had to pay extra for a cabin. Some people just sleep in the chairs so they don't have to pay extra. The rooms are small but do-able.

Athens, Greece

Turns out, to get from Naples, Italy to Athens, Greece you have to pay attention. We took a train, a bus, a train, a city bus, an overnight ferry, a shuttlebus, a train, a bus, a train, and the subway. Now try that with 3 kids in tow. It can be done! We celebrated with retsina. Nuff said....

Herculaneum

We went to another town that was covered in ash from Mount Vesuvius. The Romans here were a little wealthier than those at Pompeii and the site was better preserved.
More on Herculaneum

This is a bakery. They would pour the wheat into the center at the top of the mill stone which had 2 wooden bars for men to turn the grinder. The stone in the foreground is missing its top. They would gather up the flour from the floor and bake it.

This shows how colorful and ornate their buildings were.

Pompeii

A well preserved Roman bath house. The basin behind Josie had an inscription mentioning who donated the funds for the basin.

The statues on the sidewalls of the bath.

Pompeii

"The chariots coming!" Note the well worn grooves done by chariot wheels in the pavement stones. The stones the kids are standing on are crossing stones so that pedestrians would not get their feet wet when the rains would deluge the streets.

This gives some idea how much ash covered the city. As you can see, the kids are standing at an intersection which has been temporarily walled up until they excavate more of the city.

This was a vendors stall on a busy street who sold olive oil, olives, etc from the pots in his counter. Note the fresco on the wall.

The streets had wells which gave the name to the street. This would be Taurus Road.

Sad to see the reality of the wrath that Mount Vesuvius rained down on the city. When the diggers would find an empty space they would pour plaster into the hole to make these casts of people.

Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Florence Statue People

Statue people are popular in Europe now for photo ops.

Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Uffizi Gallery was built for the very powerful Medici family which eventually died out and left the museum to the city of Florence. It contains some incredible art such as Botticelli's Venus in the clam shell.
More on Uffizi

The kids took a great interest in looking for the belly button on Adam and Eve. Of course being the first humans, they should not have one, but I guess that was an oversight on the part of the artists of that time.

No visit to Florence would be complete without including the Ponte Vecchio bridge which was built by the Medici family as a private walkway for them to go from their palace to the Uffizi.
Ponte_Vecchio Link

Florence

The Duomo is very impressive although the interior is surprisingly sparse.

These doors on the baptistery across from the Duomo are said to have started the Renaissance. It was the first time someone had used proportional 3 dimensional art.
Florence_Baptistery
The kids learned a lot about the Renaissance and about perspective drawing.

Here is one of the most important scenes from the doors that amazed the artists from the 15th century.

Lighting a candle for Grandma Jackie.