England and the Bolitho Homeland

Our time in England has flown by!  It seems it was just yesterday we were nervously dodging traffic from London to Oxford trying to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of road.  It’s harder than either of us remembered.  I think that’s because the last time we did this we were young and invincible and didn’t quite realize how easy it would be to die while attempting to drive in England.  At this point, however, we are managing quite nicely and have almost conquered the art of navigating

the British traffic circle (called a round about) of which there are many!  We have not, however, and will never get used to the Cornish lanes which are barely wide enough for one car with tall hedges growing up either side of the car.  The tricky part is these single lane roads are two way!  That’s right.  Traffic comes both ways on these roads.  So as you round the corner and come up over the hill, it’s possible you will meet another car coming the opposite direction.  After you both come to a quick stop, you have to negotiate who gets to drive forward and who must back up to the last drive way or slightly wider curve in the road in order for your cars to pass.  This could require a long back up!  But enough of driving.





Our time in England has been divided into two segments.  We began in Oxford.  We went to visit our

niece, Julie, whom we haven’t seen since her father’s (my brother's) funeral 8 years ago.  It was wonderful to see Julie and to meet her husband, Vikram, and Vikram’s mother who was visiting from India.  The three of them had us out to their home twice for a meal and long visit.  On the second night we went for a long “country walk” to the local pub in the next village over.  The British people love to walk in the country or along the coast and Julie has picked up the custom.

The second segment of our journey took us down to Cornwall where my Grandfather grew up. We stopped off at my cousin Marion’s house in Crediton near Exeter and again made our way to the local pub for dinner.  We met Marion 30 years ago when we visited England the first time.  She has since been to America twice to visit with us.  She remembers with some fondness our celebration of Halloween and watching our boys tunnel in the snow in Sturgis.

From Marion’s home we drove down to our rented apartment in the village of Newlyn which is just south of the town of Penzance - you know... where the pirates come from.  Actually these days there are apparently drug smugglers in Newlyn! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5974811/Police-bomb-squad-close-harbour-storm-yacht-arrest-two-men.html  Newlyn is usually a small quiet fishing village of about 6000.  The harbor is

filled with fishing trawlers and the homes crawl up the hills that surround the harbor.  There is a butcher, bakery, small grocery store, pharmacy, a couple of galleries and some nice seafood restaurants.  Our apartment in situated uphill - seriously uphill.  We have a switchback driveway with no turn around space at the switch.  So we  back up the hill about 50 feet and then put it in drive to go the next 50 feet up to our place.  We reverse the process on the way down.  Apart from the scary driveway, the apartment is lovely and our hosts welcomed us with English cream tea and a plethora of Cornish goodies!

Our location in Newlyn has put us in a wonderful location to see the rest of my cousins.  We went to

church in Truro with Roger and Cynthia.  We met them again, along with Keith and Margaret at the Stithians Show the next day.  Stithians is the little village where my cousins parents and my grandfather were raised.  It has a country fair once a year that is similar to our County fair that we have in La Porte each summer.  It was fun to be at an event in my grandfather’s hometown.  A few days later Margaret and Keith had us to their home for dinner and today we gathered with Marion and Roger and Cynthia and some of their family in their home in Truro for homemade Cornish pasties.  Tomorrow we are gathering the whole clan back in Stithians for a final luncheon out.  It has been so great to renew my relationships with my cousins.

In the in between time, we have done a little exploring of the countryside.  One of the most interesting jaunts was a trip to St. Michael’s Mount.  We took a ferry over to the Island where there is a beautiful castle that was an addition to the 11th century church and monastery original to the Island.  The church still stands.  The really cool moment for me, however, was walking back on the causeway that connects the Island to the mainland.  The causeway only appears at low tide!

We also took a “country walk” to the next little harbor village called Mousehole (pronouced Mowzel.). We drove over to the beach town of St. Ives that has five beautiful sand beaches!  We visited a little church in Gulval once called the Bolitho church which has my family name plastered under stain glass windows and on monuments and over tombstones in the graveyard.  There were also apparently some Bolithos from Newlyn as the name is attached to several civic places here as well.  We also made our way to Lands End which is rather commercial these days, but still beautiful!  My cousin, Marion, always reminds me that when you stand at Land’s End and look out to the west, that the next stop is America.  That’s what I did yesterday.  I looked west toward home.

Our next stop is America.  We leave for home in three days time and I’m ready!  This has been such a great adventure, with many interesting insights and impressions that will last a lifetime.  It has been filled with delightful people in many countries of many different cultures.  And it has reminded me that I am glad to be an American and proud of my Protestant heritage.  We look forward to planting our feet on American soil again and in a few weeks time to begin again with the Presbyterians in La Porte and Sturgis.

Good bye to Greece (part two)

So here’s what happened in Athens!  I ate some bad food and came down with a fine case of traveler’s revenge.  😒  This turn of events, however, resulted in the added adventure of visiting a Greek hospital ER when we couldn’t get the fever under control.  I share this with you because I found the hospital visit pretty interesting.  Greek medical practices are actually quite modern though they don’t have all of the equipment and staff that we have in the states.  They are short on nurses, so I ended up mostly dealing with the doctor which was a plus in many ways.  When they gave me IV fluids to bring down my fever they hung the bag on a pole without feeding it through that little machine that inevitably ends up beeping every few minutes until the nurse comes to fix it. No beeper box was fine with me. There was a decidedly small amount of paperwork.  I had to ask for a diagnosis sheet so we could apply for reimbursement from our insurance when we get home.  The doctor wrote out the diagnostic procedure and treatment plan by hand.  Mostly, I was blown away by the costs.  We had to pay for services up front and file for reimbursement later.  It cost 58 Euros to see the doctor and 95 Euros for the blood work and IV fluids.  Wow!!! Net result:  They put me on Greek antibiotics to deal with the infection, and I’m much better now.

Unfortunately, this temporary illness meant that we missed most of our Athens plans.  We did get to walk around the city a bit and visit some of the shops.  We made it to the Acropolis Museum where I enjoyed seeing the original Caryatids and we took most of the Peloponnese photo tour for Mike.





I especially enjoyed seeing the Corinthian Canal.

 The canal was begun in the time of Nero (roughly 60 AD) but was never finished.  Construction began again in 1881 and was completed in 1893.  Remember, this would have been accomplished with hand tools.  The canal cuts through a narrow isthmus that separated the Aegean Sea from the Ionian Sea.  The canal is only 4 miles longs but it allowed ships to avoid the potentially dangerous trip around the Peloponnese which could be treacherous with rocks and Islands.  In Paul's day, they used to bring the ships up on land and roll them on logs the four miles rather than risk the trip around the Peloponnese.



Unfortunately, I did not get to see the Acropolis, the Parthenon or Mars Hill, but I sent Mike out on our last day in Athens.  So I’ll let him describe it for you:  

Mike: Similar to the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."  We can say, "When in Athens, visit the Acropolis."  You can get to the base of it quite easily.  Ascending to its heights is quite another matter.  First you wind your way up through the streets of the Placa - a part of town below the entrance which is filled with shops and restaurants.  On occasion you see a sign - usually hand written and not very official looking which points up the hill or around a corner to go to the Acropolis.  You honestly don't know if you can trust it or not.  I went early in the morning to try and avoid the heat of the day.  It was still plenty warm and there is precious little shade on the top.    The nice young lady behind the ticket counter offered me a Senior admittance ticket for half price which I politely refused.  I must have looked worse than I thought after climbing all those steps.  The hardest part about getting up the hill is the other people;  tons of them.  Particularly obstructive are tours whose leaders don't pull them to the side to speak with them.  Ascending to the main entrance you see the temple to Athena Nike.  This temple was built to honor Athena for giving the Athenians victory in a battle with the Persians that proved decisive.  They also put it up hoping she would help them defeat the Spartans in the Peloponessian war - which they did not.  Did you know the name of your tennis shoes means "victory?"  In an odd twist, the statue of Athena Nike had wings on it.  In an effort to make sure she gave Athens victory and no one else they clipped the wings of the goddess in her temple.  I haven't been able to get my head around that.

The Parthenon is the largest building on top of the Acropolis and they have been working on it for over twenty years.  They are not so much restoring it as trying to stop the deterioration.  You will recognize the picture of the towering white pillars.  Today we know the original builders loved color - brilliant color and decoration were part of the building enhancing its carvings and statues.  All the buildings on the hill were designed by the same architect and tie in well with one another.  Their message was simple.  "We are a powerful people - don't mess with us."  There have been many people over the centuries who have tried to co-opt the symbols of power on that hill over Athens.  Rulers have sought to bask in its grandeur.  Enemies have sought to destroy it.  Walking near its towering height and descending to Mars hill - where Paul proclaimed that God does something new in Jesus - it is no surprise that most Athenians hearing him preferred to imagine that the lives we build and the power we claim are a much better guarantee of life than a prophet who was killed by his enemies.  As if to underscore this point and the scandal of God's ways - Mars hill isn't much today.  It is a slippery and treacherous bit of rock used by most people as a way to get a good view of the city or the Acropolis and its pretensions of power.  This is one of the most enduring historical assertions of human power - a power whose frailty is made plain with the passage of time.

Sally:  Mike and I were very sad to say goodbye to Greece.  We have very much enjoyed the beauty of the natural landscape, the amazing story of its churches, and the hospitality of its people.  We are not so sad to leave the heat behind.  We are on to Britain where it is much, much cooler!  More about merry ole’ England soon!

Good bye to Greece (Part One)

I am behind in my blog mostly due to illness.  (More on that later.)  On the way to Athens we made two important stops.  The first was to the cliffs of Meteora and the “Hanging Monasteries.”  Greece has a strong monastic tradition that I believe stems from the influence of the great number of Christian martyrs from the Greek speaking world in the early days of the church.  This tradition of suffering for one’s faith led many to seek out an austere life of prayer, reading of scripture and the church fathers and little else.  This monastic life

began in earnest on Mt. Athos in the 7th century after the Arabs conquered Egypt, Syria and Palestine which were centers of monastic life.  By the 9th century some of the monks of Mt. Athos moved to the Meteora region and began living in these single cell dwellings cut into the cliffs.  Wanting to be isolated they were accessible only by rope ladders.



Later a couple of Monks decided the cliff hermits might do better living in community and the first Great Meteora Monastery was built in the mid 14th century atop of one of the rock formations shooting into the sky.  It sits 615 meters above sea level.  Again, anyone wishing to visit this or any of the similarly constructed monasteries was either invited up a rope ladder or could choose to sit in a rope basket and be hauled up by a couple of monks.

Today the monasteries are accessed by steps that have been cut into the cliffs - lots of steps!  We visited two monasteries and it took us about half an hour to reach each one by these steps.  You have to first climb down many steps into the valley beneath the monastery before you begin the ascent up.  Both monasteries we visited had over 300 steps each.  Three things impressed me about these monasteries.  First of all, the remote beauty is extraordinary.  You cannot help being overwhelmed by the majesty of the Creator in such a place.  Secondly, I was stunned by the artwork in the sanctuaries.  The walls are covered in ancient frescoes, which graphically depicted the death of the martyrs.  Monasticism seems to draw energy from the faithfulness of the men and women of old, but I would find it challenging to worship with any joy in such a setting.  Lastly, I was surprised by the low  numbers of monks left in Meteora.  There are only 14 monks left among the five monasteries remaining.  Our guide said they have fled the visitors who flock to the area to see their beautiful monasteries and have returned to Mt. Athos.  In contrast, the two nunneries are thriving with almost 50 nuns between them.  They do not have the option of fleeing to Mt. Athos as women are not allowed on that holy mountain.

The second stop on our journey to Athens was to Delphi.  Delphi is a religious site of the ancient Greeks that was established probably as early as 1400 BC during the time of the Mycenaeans. The

ancients believed Delphi was the center of the world determined by Zeus himself.  Over time the god Apollo was worshiped there and a prophetess known as the Oracle of Delphi was said to speak for him.  People of all statures came to seek out advice from the Oracle who was said to deliver her words in a trance like state.  Alexander the Great sought her advice as did many of the Roman Emperors including Constantine.  The Christians finally shut it down in 394.


What remains in Delphi is one of the most magnificent examples of Ancient Greek ruins.  The temple grounds are impressive just on their own.  What surprised me was the amphitheater which was part of

the complex that provided poetry, theater and especially music to the community.  Further up the mountain into which this impressive ruins is built (with many many steps) is a stadium for competitive games similar to the Olympic Games in Olympus!  I was surprised to find such vibrant religious expression.  I remember learning about the Greek gods years ago back in school.  The religion was presented in such a way as to suggest that no one really believed these myths or worshiped these Gods.  Clearly, that was either a mistaken impression on my part or a  misunderstanding of the religion on my teacher’s part.  The ancient Greeks took their Gods seriously and when Paul addressed them on Mars Hill in Athens with a new teaching about a single God who had chosen to reveal himself in Jesus of Nazareth... well, Paul had his work cut out for him!

Santorini - a Little Bit of Heaven

Wow!  We loved Santorini!  We have just returned from six days in Santorini - almost a week.  What an incredible place.  After a week of busy, busy travel with the Rick Steve’s Italy tour, Mike and I were pretty tired.  Santorini was just the place to relax and recharge our batteries.  Just look at this place!

If Santorini is new to you... here’s the 30 word summary.  Santorini is an island that experienced a major volcanic eruption somewhere around 1500 - 1550 BC.  At that time there was a prehistoric community on the Island of at least 30,000, who apparently had adequate warning and  escaped.  (More about that later.) Back to the eruption.  The volcano threw huge amounts of lava and volcanic ash on to the island - so much so that the center of Island collapsed under the weight of it and sank beneath the sea leaving only the outer rim of the Island with huge cliffs on the interior side of the rim.  The outer rim included a large island and a smaller one with the sea in the middle called the “Caldera.”

Two other eruptions have happened since the major eruption in 1500 resulting in two smaller Islands being created in the middle of the Caldera.  Palea Kameni was created in 197 BC and nine eruptions have been recorded since this island first broke the surface of the water.  The last eruption was in 1950.  Nea Kameni emerged from the Caldera in 1707 and the volcanic action has continued since with three eruptions in the 20th century.  The last one was in 1950 although scientists detected a swell of molten rock in 2011-12 which caused the Island to rise out of the water by another 8-14 centimeters.  (Hmm... I think that was more than a 30 word description. Sorry about that.)

Today Santorini is considered to be one of the most beautiful Greek islands and is certainly among the most interesting places to visit because of it’s unusual geological history.  While we were there, the Island was inundated with tourists from 3-5 cruise ships each day.  We learned very quickly when not to walk through the local shopping district!

We stayed in the little town of Oia (pronounced Ee-ah.). The O is silent and the “I” has a long e sound to it.  We stayed at the far end of town which put us in a terrific place to watch the sunsets.  Our hotel was called “Golden Sunset Villas” and consisted of several small cave rooms built into the cliffs.  They were charming and very unusual!  Alternatively, one of the rooms was at the top of an ancient windmill - also quite cool.  There were two windmills in Oia.  One belonged to our hotel.

We had a couple of cool adventures while on the Island.  The first was a catamaran trip around the island, or at least part of it.  The crew was a small group of young Greek men in their 30s and the trip attracted a young crowd.  Mike and I were among the few people over 50 on the boat.  We headed first for hot springs at Nea Kameni - the active volcano.  The hots springs are at the edge of the water

and turn the water a muddy brown color.  The catamaran pulled as close as was possible and told us that if we wanted to swim in the hot springs we could dive in and swim the rest of the way.  They warned us, however, we would probably smell like sulfur and our swim suits might turn brown or orange.  They also offered to provide life jackets for those who didn’t know how to swim.  That’s when people started jumping off the boat and swimming for the hot springs.  Mike and I looked at each other in amazement.  There was no liability contract to sign.  No one was asked to take a swimming test.  No one counted how many people swam away from the boat, or took names, or created a buddy system.  Mike and I did not go.  After a while, when it seemed everyone was back on the boat, the crew just started up the engines and sailed away.  From there we went to the far side of the main island to see the Red beach and the White sand beach created by the volcanic activity.  There is also a Black beach which we did not see. Near the white beach, they offered snorkeling equipment to anyone who wanted to borrow it to look at the fish and sea bed below.  Mike took advantage of this and was awestruck by the beauty of the sea life.  The evening ended with an on board barbecue and a slow return to port at sunset.  All tolled, it was about a five hour cruise.

The second adventure took place a couple of days later when we rented a car to drive around the island.  We started with Akrotiri which is a little village on the south end of the island.  Right next to the village is an archaeological dig into what is called Ancient Akrotiri.

Ancient Akrotiri is the remains of the village of 30,000 people who lived on Santorini in 1500 B.C. when the volcano struck the island, collapsed the core and reduced it only the rim of the original island.  Like Pompeii  the resulting lava acted as a natural preservative for the town, only the Akrotiri eruption happened 1500 1600 years earlier.  Unlike Pompei, however, there are no human remains and the most valuable pieces are not present indicating the people had ample time to pack up their valuables and leave the Island.  These people were the Ancient Minoans and the original community was on Crete, visible from Santorini on a very clear day.  It’s likely they went there for safety.  Unfortunately, the eruption created a huge tidal wave estimated to be 820 ft high moving at a speed of 217 miles per hour.  It reached Crete in half an hour and many historians believe this is what destroyed the Minoan civilization.

Visiting the archeological site of this ancient community is a pretty awesome experience.  First of all, the archeologists took the time to set up the dig correctly, building the necessary foundations and creating a roof over the dig to protect the site itself as well as the archeologists.  A couple of years ago the roof was reconstructed with better technology and is a wonder in an of itself!  It makes the place very comfortable for visitors.

I can hardly do justice to describing this place of ancient civilization.  But let me say a few things about it.  Their homes were surprisingly large with several rooms to a home.  Many of them were two and three stories high with steps leading from one floor to another.  They had running water, indoor lavatories and a city sewer system!   

They had incredible art on the walls - most of which has been taken to the Archeological museum in Athens.  Yes, it’s on our list to see when we visit Athens soon.  Some historians have suggested that Akrotiri may be the ancient city of Atlantis that’s is thought to be mythological.  The legend describes an ancient city of art and poetry and great happiness that sank into the sea.  That sounds like Akrotiri.  I just kept thinking about how often we assume we modern people are so much smarter than the ancient undeveloped people of the past.  Akrotiri sure takes that idea to task!  What a privilege to see this amazing place!

I found it! (Or at least part of it.)

Tuesday, June 19th was an amazing day.  It’s the day I found the early church, or at least a part of it.  I didn’t really even know I was looking for it until we visited San Clemente near the Coliseum in Rome.  This was part of our Rick Steve’s Italy tour, and was the last official day of the tour.  We had been to Venice, Florence and were now in Rome.  The day before we visited the Vatican and St. Peter’s which I found to be sadly disappointing.  The power, prestige, and riches of the church which are meant to impress felt very distant from the Jesus of Nazareth I believe in.

So on this last day of the Rick Steve’s tour, we set out for the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.  As a way of setting the stage for this tour our guide took us first to San Clemente - a 12th century basilica. Ho hum.  Not even very old.  Our guide, Francesca, explained our visit would help us understand how the layers of Roman civilizations get uncovered.

Once inside I was impressed by the beautiful and rather simple sanctuary built on the model of what had been a fourth century basilica.  There was a large choir section right in the middle of the church for intimate daily worship.  As it turns out, this choir section was taken directly from the original fourth century basilica and is decorated with early Christian symbols - not the cross.  The cross was not used as a symbol of Christianity until the late fourth century/early fifth century.  Instead it is decorated with the fish (which is an acronym for the words: Jesus Christ, son of God, savior), the dove - a symbol of peace and the vine - a symbol of the Eucharist or communion (the vine held the grapes from which communion wine was made.)

The chancel mosaic was also quite beautiful and is so characteristic of 4th and fifth century theology that it has been suggested it was simply a copy of the original church’s mosaic.  Jesus is pictured on a cross that is the tree of life planted on the hill of paradise with rivers flowing out of it.  The doves, here a symbol of souls, decorate the cross.  A deer drinks from the river and the phoenix is pictured - a symbol of immortality.  The inscription underneath reads, “Let us liken the Church of Christ to this vine.”  And the scenes around the rivers show people and animals drawing substance and life from the river.  What a wonderful image for the purpose of Christ and Christ’ church.  Our tour, however, was not over.

Francesca, our guide, invited us to follow her.  We headed through a hall and down a staircase.  While we were descended the stairs she explained that in 1857, a Father Joseph Mullooly, the then prior of San Clemente, had discovered a loose tile in the floor of the church, and having lifted it discovered an old pillar descending under the church.  he spear headed an effort to excavate under the church and discovered the original fourth century church buried beneath.  Francesca took us below to this very sanctuary to which St. Jerome refers to in 390 as “a church in Rome that preserves the memory of St. Clement to this day.”  Clearly this basilica was built sometime between the Edict of Milan in 313 which allowed Christianity to come out into the open and 390 when we hear it is a thriving church community.

The fourth century church was remarkable with frescoes around the room and a simple altar with an anchor on the front of it - another ancient symbol of Christianity, recognizing Christ as the anchor that holds us true in troubled waters.  The tour, however, was not over.  Francesca explained there was more below.  We headed down another set of stairs and found a second century building that belonged to someone who had practiced Mithraism, a religion popular with soldiers in Rome at the time when Christianity was also beginning to flourish.  Mithraism died out in the fourth century.

We continued around the corner and sat down in a brick room.  Francesca pointed out the herringbone bricks on the floor and the patterned stone work on the walls characteristic of first century homes.  She said these brick rooms (there were several) were attached to a large public area that remains un-excavated because such an effort would endanger the present church.  That public area, however, is believed to have belonged to a Christian named Clement who made his space available in the late 1st century/early second century to Christians for worship.  We were sitting in a room that either was an early house church or was next to a room that was an early house church on top of which a fourth century basilica was built over which a 12th century basilica was constructed years later.  This was holy ground.  I had chills.  In fact, Mike and I came back again the next day just to sit in this space and think about those early Christians sitting together, perhaps listening to one of Peter’s disciples retelling the stories Peter had told him and breaking bread together and drinking out of a common cup remembering Jesus.

There are a lot of Christian traditions and Christian churches that have grown up since the first century when those early believers gathered in hope because they were convinced God had done something unique and profound through Jesus of Nazareth.  I’ve been looking for those early believers and trying to grasp something of their experience.  I think I found them, at least maybe a few of them.

Postscript...  There is more below this last first century level.  There is evidence of a building that was destroyed in the great Roman fire of 64 AD.  Nero, looking for someone to blame, accused the Christians of setting fire to the city and a great persecution swept through the church in Rome.

Musica A Palazzo

We survived the Rick Steve’s Tour of Italy!  What a busy, busy tour.  We are now quietly located on the Greek Island of Santorini enjoying a little rest and great beauty.  Everywhere we look there is an amazing vista. I want to recall a couple of amazing days of the tour for you and will add a couple of blogs in the next few days.

The best night we had in Venice was spent in the Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto which is a 15th century Gothic Palace overlooking the Grand Canal.  Mike and I, in a free evening, went to see and hear a production of Verdi’s La Traviata, a tragic opera.  The Opera was put on by the Musica A Palazzo which is technically a traveling opera company although they consistently perform in the Barbarigo Palace in Venice.

Verdi’s opera is performed in three acts and all three acts took place in different rooms of the Palace.  We, the audience, moved with the performers after each act.  The really fun part of seeing the opera in this setting is the audience becomes part of the set and the singers interact with the audience frequently.  So for instance, in the first scene, we were all part of a great party.  The soprano hostess went around kissing the ladies in the audience in welcome as she was singing.  Later she handed out champagne glasses for her final toast in the scene.  At one point in the second act Mike found himself seated next to this same soprano as she sat at her writing desk composing a letter to her beloved.  I think he found it a little unnerving to be sitting next to this woman as she was pouring her heart out in song beside him!  It was truly a magical night!  We were not able to take pictures of the actual performance, but Rick Steve’s has a video of the night he visited.  Click here to get a glimpse of the Musica A Palazza along with a bit about St. Mark’s square in Venice: https://youtu.be/w5iFgVaAAos.

Just to add to the remarkable evening... we came out of the palazzo at the end of the night, heading back to our hotel, only to find the streets of Venice partially flooded!  We had to wade through water over our ankles to get back to the Main Street!  We moved through the streets to St. Mark’s Square

which we needed to cross to get back to our hotel and found the entire square flooded.  People (mostly young people) were splashing around the square in water up to mid calf in some places. There was no way to cross it without getting really wet, so we back-tracked and wove our way through other streets getting only a little lost on the way.  Many of the streets were wet and some of them flooded.  Luckily the street on which our hotel was situated was only wet!  The water had already receded.

You may have heard that Venice is sinking into the sea.  Venice is actually a series of Islands that were built on fallen trees.  It is sometimes called the floating city. There are a variety of reasons that contribute to the flooding problem.  If you want to see a few pictures of recent floods, click here:  https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2015/jun/16/history-flooding-sinking-city-venice-in-pictures.  The city is in the process of building an elaborate system of gates designed to close off the waters at high tide to try to address the problem.  Hopefully this beautiful city will still be around for our grandchildren.

Philippi

Before we move on to Italy tomorrow, I wanted to share something of our experience of Philippi which was nothing short of amazing.  We drove to Philippi via the seaport town of Kavala which is the place where the Apostle Paul first set foot on European soil.

Luke tells us in the book of Acts that Paul and Silas came to the Roman city of Philippi and remained several days in the city.  On the Sabbath day they went outside the city to a place of prayer by the river.  They spoke to the women gathered there and a woman by the name of Lydia, a seller of purple cloth, was moved by Paul’s words and asked to be baptized - she and her entire household.  Afterwards Paul came to stay with Lydia and her family.

Some time after this Paul and Silas encountered a slave girl who was telling fortunes and making money for her master by doing so.   She knew who Paul and Silas were and kept calling everyone’s attention to them.  After a while it became annoying, so Paul ordered the spirit out of her that was enabling her to do fortune telling.  Her master was understandably upset to have his income curtailed and had Paul and Silas arrested.  They were beaten and imprisoned.  Later that same night while they were praying and singing an earthquake shook the earth so violently the doors of the prison were opened.  Paul and Silas, however, did not run for it because they knew the guard would be in serious trouble.

The guard was so impressed that he became a Christian along with his whole family.  They were all baptized.

In the morning, however, the authorities asked Paul and Silas to leave Philippi.  After stopping off to see Lydia and to encourage the new believers, Paul and Silas moved on to Thessaloniki.  With just these few encounters, the church of Philippi was begun.




Today Philippi is a ruins of the original town, but remarkably we were allowed to walk all over the ruins. This means we wandered on the Via Egnatia - the road everyone, including Paul and Silas,

walked on to get anywhere from east to west in this part of the Roman Empire.  We were allowed to walk all around and through the old Roman Forum where Paul would have been arrested.







We saw what might have been Paul’s prison and no less than 3 early Christian churches – 4th, 5th and 6th century.  The oldest was the Octagonal church which was the earliest church and built in 313 AD right after the last Macedonia persecution.

Being in this place was nothing short of amazing.  We spent 2.5 – 3 hours wandering around trying to understand what we were looking at in spite of the ferocious heat.  When we were out of water and verging on dehydration we headed to the near by park with a snack bar.  They took one look at us and brought us a bottle of water and made us sit down.  We ordered French fries and sugared drinks to replenish the electrolytes.  Then we headed back to the city in our air conditioned car.







We got up the next morning and drove back to the Philippi area to visit Lydia’s Baptistry.  Surprisingly, it turned out to be the highlight of the whole trip.  The site is the presumed and most likely spot of Paul’s encounter with Lydia.  It is a beautiful place by the Zygaktic river.

 There is a very peaceful outdoor baptistry and an exquisite church which centers completely around a large baptismal font in the center of the church.  All around the interior of the church are gorgeous mosaics telling the story of Paul and Lydia and the Christians in Philippi.  (The pictures above are from the interior of this church.)  We sat at the waters edge for about half an hour.  There was a group from France having a remembrance of baptism service when we arrived.  After they left we went to the water’s edge, touched the water and enjoyed God’s peace in that place.

Finding our Feet in Greece!

It’s been a while since my last post.  I think Mike and I have been a little overwhelmed by Greece. I am reminded frequently of our time in the Middle East so many years ago.  In Greece, like the Middle East, traffic rules (or lack there of) are left up to interpretation.  The food is also similar - lots of cheese (especially feta), vegetables, honey based desserts like baklava, coffee and Ouzo! Greece, of course, is not the Middle East, but it is also not Germany, Switzerland or France, and takes a little getting used to.

Here’s a picture from our flat in Thessaloniki. We are staying in this flat courtesy of Bert and Adi Veenendaal.  Their daughter, Elka, and their Greek son in law, Yannis own the building which has three flats in it. Yanni’s mother lives in the bottom flat with a caretaker.  Elka and Yanni have the middle flat, and Bert and Adi rent the upper flat which they have loaned us while we are in Thessaloniki.  Yanni also has a shop in the basement which opens out onto the street.  You walk down about four steps into his shop where he sells water purifiers.  Yanni is a plumber by trade.  Everyone up and down the street lives in similar flats.  There are shops opening out on the main street below every flat.  It seems everyone knows each other in the neighborhood.

Almost everyone in Thessaloniki lives in this type of flat, by the way. Thessaloniki had a terrible fire in 1917 and created quite a housing crisis.  The Greeks secured their independence from the Turks in 1832, deepening the housing problem as thousands of Greek refugees came pouring from Turkey into Thessaloniki.  The net result was the construction of thousands of apartment complexes usually 3-6 stories high.  Here’s a picture I took from the upper city.  This is only a small slice of the city.

The Veenendaal flat is quite comfortable.  We have air conditioning which is very helpful as most days it is in the high eighties or low nineties in the shade.   The other day I read a local thermometer which said it was 40 degrees Celsius.  That’s 104 Fahrenheit, but Mike pointed out it was in the sun.  Still...!   I think most people do not use their air conditioning.  We do!  The  result of the heat, however, is that most of the shops open around 9:00 in the morning and close at 2:00 PM.  There follows a quiet time when people go home and eat their lunch and then rest or nap.  The shops reopen at 5:30 and stay open until 8:00 PM.  Most Greeks eat dinner between 8:00 and 12:00 PM.  Getting adjusted to the heat has been a challenge.  We keep getting caught down in the city center in the heat of the day and have to make for the shade and some water so as not to get over heated.

Here are a few other observations about living in Greece:
1. Everything is in Greek and everyone does not speak English.  All those hours practicing Modern Greek are paying off.  Even the little we know is helpful.
2. We live on the third floor of a big building.  We walk up the marble circular staircase every time we go to our flat.  Everything is in marble here!  We carry everything upstairs with us... suitcases, food, etc.  There is no elevator.  Mike says this means we can take more trips to the bakery!
3. We have a small washing machine, but no dryer.  Not really a problem.  The clothes are hung up on a clothes line on the roof, up another flight of marble steps.  The roof is beautiful, by the way.  Elka and Yanni have it set up with table and chairs for dining or relaxing and decorated with plants.
4. The oven settings are in Celsius.  Thank God for google.
5. We have to turn on the hot water 25 minutes before we need it and then turn it off again afterwards to save on electricity which is very expensive.
6. Food is purchased in a variety of shops that are all within a few minutes walk of our flat. We go to the butcher for meat, the bakery for breads and pastries, the fruit and vegetable stand for fruits and vegetables unless we go to the farmer’s market on Saturdays where the growers sell everything fresh from the farm. Shampoos and personal care items are purchased at the pharmacy.  Nuts and candy are bought in the nut  shop.  Sweet patisseries are purchased in yet another shop!  There are a couple of small supermarkets, but one only goes there for items you can’t find in the local shops - so Elke and Yannis tell us.  Oh... and you need to bring your own bags to carry home your purchases.
7. Clothing can be purchased in shops all around the neighborhood.  I did a little shopping in the last couple of weeks because my clothing was mostly too warm for the hot climate here.  Shopping is an interesting experience because the shop keepers all want to help you pick out your clothes.  They run to the back for the correct size or a different item they think you will like better.  They are not shy about telling you if they don’t like something on you or if they do!  And if it doesn’t fit just right they will send you around the corner to the home of a seamstress who will make the alterations in less than a day for a few Euros!

We love being in a different culture, but there are always bumps and missteps with such experiences.  For us, these have been eased by the kindness and assistance of Elke and Yannis.  They have been quick to ask questions when we look confused and more helpful than we would have asked them to be.  They are delightful people and we have been the beneficiary of the good graces they naturally seem to offer to everyone they know.

Part of me thinks I could get used to this slower, simpler lifestyle with close knit neighborhoods.  We made a salad for lunch with fried feta cheese, cashews from the nut shop and fresh cherries from the fruit market.  We ate it with a slice of bread baked at the bakery this morning.  Tonight we are walking to the sea shore where we will have a leisurely dinner... after the sun begins to drop of course and we, like our Greek neighbors, venture out for the second half of the day!

Churches, churches and more churches!

We have made it to Greece where we will be most of the next of the next six weeks.  We have settled into Thessaloniki and began exploring churches yesterday on Pentecost.  I know you’ll think I’m confused as Pentecost was two weeks ago, but in the Greek Orthodox Church, which follows a slightly different calendar, Pentecost was yesterday.  We got to celebrate twice this year.

So we began our exploration of churches in Thessaloniki in worship yesterday morning, May 27th at the Metamorphosis Greek Orthodox Church of Kalamaria around the corner from where we are staying.  It was packed - standing room only.

Mike and I stayed near the back of the crowd being very aware that we did not know what we were doing and understood very little of what was being said because it was all in Greek. (We later learned from an Orthodox friend that many parishioners don’t understand what it being said because the language is Byzantine Greek and most of it is chanted or sung.) Mike and I didn’t actually feel like we needed to understand every word to be able to worship God.  The low melodious chanting combined with the incense, bells and the symbolic actions of the priest and the worshipers is mesmerizing and fills one with a sense other worldliness.  I found the music, in particular, to be very moving.  It is called Byzantine chanting and sounds almost like it is in the Aeolean mode which differs from our major and minor scales.  For the musicians reading this blog, you can take a look at this link for more information:  http://www.apostoliki-diakonia.gr/byzantine_music/en/ymnografoi/ymnografoi.asp?main=hxoi.him.  For those of you who would just like to hear what the chanting sounds like, try this link:  https://youtu.be/VcK26_mYD4Q.

Traditionally worshipers in the Orthodox Church stand for the entire service and the worship service is long!  Fortunately churches now have seats and the congregation is invited to use them for some of the service.  A few of the faithful, however, refuse to sit although they periodically fall to their knees on the hard stone.  Mike and I could not find any information either at the church building or online  as to when the service began so we just showed up at 9:00 AM.  The sanctuary was full and we learned later that they probably began around 7:00 AM.  We left around 10:00, and they were still going strong.  Interestingly people came and went while we were there and somewhere in the middle one of the priests clearly stepped forward and did announcements.  Then they began the chanting again.  They did celebrate the Eucharist (communion). Surprisingly, only a small portion of the congregation came forward to receive, and afterwards people around us in the back seemed to be carrying several large chucks of bread they were munching on.  I don’t think this was communion bread, but perhaps bread for the poor.  We found the same large portions of bread at the entrance of another church we visited this morning.  There are a lot of poor people in Greece these days.  All in all worship was a strange and lovely experience.  We will go again, perhaps to a different congregation next Sunday.

This morning we ventured into the heart of the city to visit some of the oldest churches in Greece.

They are all in Thessaloniki.  I lit a candle to pray for the Presbyterians in La Porte in the Hagia Sophia - the church of Holy Wisdom.  Christ is revered to as the “Word” in John’s gospel which in Greek is interchangeable with the word Wisdom.  The church dates back to 795, but was built on an existing church built in the 5th century mostly destroyed in an earthquake in 620 AD.  The church is beautiful and inspires a sense of awe in it’s ancient construction.  The Fresco in the dome dates back to the 9th century and some of the columns to the 5th century!

Just when it seemed it couldn’t get any more amazing than Hagia Sophia we stepped off the bus at St. Demetrios. The church of St. Demetrios appears to be a newer church until you step inside.  The church was severely damaged in the 1917 great fire of Thessaloniki - something like the great Chicago fire!  So the exterior was largely rebuilt in the first half the 20th century.  But inside the church is an amazing tribute to the early church of Thessaloniki.  The church was built in 413 AD

over the site of the Martyrdom of St, Demetrios.  Demetrios was a Christian in Thessaloniki during the reign of three different Roman emperors - all of whom persecuted Christians.  Demetrios was also endowed with leadership skills that were recognized by the Emperor Galerius who made him a member of the senate and General of Thessaloniki.  When it was discovered, however, that he was a Christian Demetrios was imprisoned in the Roman baths, tortured and eventually martyred for his faith.

One of the extraordinary features of the St. Demetrios church is that the crypt is the old Roman baths from the 3rd century where Demetrios died!  This part of the church has ancient mosaics dating from the 4th century.  In the church proper we found additional frescoes and mosaics from the 5th, 6th and 7th century.  It was astounding to sit in this church and pray where Christians have prayed for over 1500 years.




 We rounded out the day with a visit to the Rotunda, built in 306 AD for the Emperor Galerius, either as a temple to Zeus or as a mausoleum for the Emperor.  In the fifth century, however, the Rotunda was reconstructed by Christians to become a Christian cathedral.  What impressed me most in this place was the mosaics high up in the dome.  They are possibly as early as fourth century.  The mosaics are of the saints of the church.  All of them are in long robes with their hand stretched out to each side in the ancient pose for prayer.  They surround the dome.  I counted 15, which means there were probably at least 20 originally. (Some are missing).  They are beautiful and give the worshiper the impression one is surrounded by the Great Cloud of Witnesses praying for the perseverance of the Christians of this day.

We have had a blessed beginning in Thessoloniki.  I had the sense today that the church has marched faithfully through many centuries and now it is our turn to carry Christ’s message of grace.

Impressions of the Impressionists

Paris was a whirlwind of activity - churches, museums, historic sights, amazing food!  The highlight of our last day (May 25) in Paris was a visit to the D’orsay Museum which houses the Impressionism and post impressionist paintings.  I think in some ways it is fitting the Impressionists have a museum to themselves because they had such a time getting any recognition in the 19th century from the established art world in France called the Salon.  The term Impressionist comes from a critic, Louis Leroy, who dismissed a work by Claude Monet suggesting it was only an impression of a painting. I don’t pretend to be an expert on Impressionism at all, but do note the impressionists intentionally sought to paint “real” subjects and loved to paint outside in particular which was unusual at the time.  They employed a new brighter color palette and focused on changing light patterns during the day.  They also used a broader brush stroke that could be easily detected.

I love impressionist and post impressionist painting and the Orsay Museum has the finest collection I have ever seen. It was amazing.  My son, Terry, asked us to take lots of pictures, so here are some of my favorites.

Renoir

Cézanne 

Renoir

Monet

Signac

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Van Gogh