Day 3

We left Thessaloniki early Wednesday morning in route to a tomb of some dude named Philip.  My friend, John Wiggins, told me he decided to take a stroll Tuesday evening after dinner.   to get a feel for the city at night.  John is a big guy and retired after 30 years of law enforcement.  He said he intentionally got away from the main street our hotel was on to get a feel for the real city.  He quickly realized he had made a bad decision.  Based on his experiences, I will slightly edit my review of the city.  Stay on the main road in the shopping district unless you are interested in illegal activities.  In that event, just walk a block off the main road and you’ll be good to go. 

Most Greeks have cell phones and most of the smokers are a generation or so older than I.  Some people speak English but not many.  I am a little surprised how few speak English and even fewer speak it well. 

In route to Vergina, we passed Mount Olympus, the highest point in Greece, which was snowcapped.  I was not aware that the 12 Greek gods were housed on Mount Olympus.  My understanding is that they no longer live there. 

Fields of fruit trees lined both sides of the bus windows.  Mountains were on three sides of us as we drove north, away from Thessaloniki and the sea.  Every 5-10 miles we would pass a cluster of milky, limestone houses with orange tiled roofs. After about an hour, we left the main road in favor of a two lane. 

We drove through the countryside, passed thru a really small town, and arrived at our destination, Vergina.  Archaeologists had noticed a mound of dirt that was likely man-made and so they started excavations as far back as the 1800s. Excavations take a really long time and need to be funded so the work was start and stop for the better part of 150 years.  What turned this little town into a tourist destination was a discovery that was made in 1977.  Several tombs had been found over the years, most of which had been thoroughly looted.  However, in 1977, archaeologists located an untouched tomb.  They opened it up and realized they had stumbled upon the tomb of Phillip II, the father of Alexander the Great!  Alexander the Great’s son was then discovered in a tomb adjacent to his grandfather’s and it is believed that Phillip’s wife, Cleopatra, was also in the front portion of her husband’s tomb.  The museum was fantastic and the tombs were fascinating.  It is a popular field-trip location for local schools.

I now know who the Philip dude is.   

From Vergena, we had a short drive to Veria, aka Berea (Acts 17:10-13).  We visited what remains of the synagogue Paul visited and taught at.  It’s tempting to overlook the significance of such a spot.  It helps me to think of the big picture of what was happening.  Christianity was just beginning to spread into Europe and this was a place where the apostle Paul first taught in Europe.  It was here where those who heard Paul “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.  Many of them therefore believed…”  Being at this location referenced in Acts makes imagining the scene easier for me.  It’s one thing for me to read it and it’s another to see the three steps of the synagogue and picture Paul teaching and preaching.  I picture people listening and studying and realizing, “Wow!  He’s speaking the truth!” Then, to look around this small Greek town and see churches everywhere all as a result of what happened at this spot.  And then I think of churches in the United States and in my hometown and realize that most of them are also a result of Paul coming to Macedonia and doing what he did right here, at this synagogue.  Wow.  

We left Veria and had an insanely long bus ride to Delphi.  So long that I took two naps.  We did break up the really long ride with a really late lunch at a really cool place.  I don’t remember the name of it but it was in the mountains.  What made this spot unique is that there were about 20 monasteries on top of cliffs in this one area.  You cannot drive to the monasteries and in order to reach a couple of them, someone has to lower a ladder.  Beautiful and strange.  I think of Simeon the Stylite who is worth a google if you’ve never heard of him.  One of the monasteries is featured in the James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.  We had lunch overlooking this odd spot and then continued around, across and through the mountains toward Delphi.  We passed by the battlefield featured in the movie 300. 

We stopped at a travel plaza and they sold ice cream.  A tall young Greek smiled and asked, "One scoop or two?"

“Two,” I replied without thinking. 

I did it again.