Day 4 - Athens

Day 3 - At Sea

Day 4 - Athens
ATHENS, GREECE - is the main port and capital of Greece with 4 million inhabitants. Athens has sun 360 days each year. Athens is one of the world's oldest cities in the world with recorded history from at least 3,000 years ago. Athens is the birthplace of Socrates and Pericles and other important philosophers. Athens is widely referred to as the birthplace of Democracy due to it's cultural and political achievements in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

Today, if builders find ruins or remains, the government has 6 months to claim it or the builders can proceed.

90% of the country's Christians are orthodox, which allows them to marry 3 times. But their priest can only marry once.



Acropolis - a religious center on the hill, honoring pagan gods. Poseidon and Athena fought to be the protector of the city. Athena won. She gave the city an olive tree. It is still the only olive tree on Acropolis Hill. (olive trees can live 5,000 years). Later, the Romans after conquering Greece, claimed Greek gods as their own. However, they changed their names because they couldn't pronounce them. Zeus was the god of wisdom, became Jupiter. Athena became Minerva, Artemis, the fertility god, became Diana. Poseidon became Neptune, the god of the sea, and Apollo became Apollo. They didn’t want to miss with god of sun. Nike was the god of victory.

The Greeks had all of their temples face east so that the first rays of sun from the god Apollo would cleanse the deeds done the night before in the dark. Today, most churches want their altars facing east. The Christian church do because Christ will return, at the second coming, thru the East gate of Jerusalem.

At the corner of the building, a carved stone lion opens his mouth and drains the building's roof. The building is a perfect symmetrical rectangle. The walls are 5th century BC. Some of the marble statues from the Acropolis are owned by the British and it is their decision when they want to return them to Greece. The British own them because they bought and paid for them from the Greek Government.
Original Olympian games played here.



The statues of the emperor's were changed with each new emperor. They did this by changing the head and leaving the original body. In the Temple of Athena, 6 women statues were used as the columns holding up the portico. The 3 women on the left had their left knee bent and the three ladies on the right had their right knees bent, allowing for perfect symmetry. The statue of Athena had her wings clipped so that her powers would always remained in the city of Athens.

Greece has a special marble, the angelic marble, that cannot be shipped outside Greece, and is only used to repair the statues.

The Parthenon was a temple of virgins. Athena was the ever virgin. Owls were used to signify Athena’s wisdom.

In 54 AD, St. Paul addressed the Athenians and converted Senator Dionysius who became the first bishop of Athens.

In 393 AD, the temples started turning into mosques. Mosques are temples honoring the pagan god, allah, the god of the muslims.

In 1896 the modern Olympiad was built for the Olympian games.

Day 2 - Cavtat

CAVTAT, CROATIA - is a small town on the coast that is now becoming a tourist spot. The Government just recently allowed people to own more than 1 home. This has opened up the opportunity for leasing homes to vacationers during the summer season. It is a beautiful town with no industry other than tourism, coral jewelry and fishing.

Day 2 - Croatia

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - Dubrovnik is called the pearl of the Adriatic Sea. The true highlight is the Dalmatian Coast. With 1200 islands, only 66 inhabited, it boasts the clearest and cleanest waters in the Mediterranean.

Dubrovnik has coastline on 3 sides and mountains on the fourth. It was a part of Yugoslavia until becoming independent in 1990. It is 82% Christian and borders on Bosnia which is 80%+ Muslim.

This area has seen many battles and is enclosed in high stone walls on all 4 sides to protect itself. ALong with military supplies, Dubrovnik stores a year's supply of grain in case of war. It's last war was 1991-92 when Bosnia Bombed them.
The streets are paved with marble because in the plague that took many of the residents in the 1700s. Shops are on the first floor with homes above them on the 2nd and 3rd floors. There are not many cars and most people walk or bike around the city.

The main church is town is St. Blaise. The saint who was able to cure, thru the power of the Holy Spirit, throat diseases. Every year on February 2, people come from all over to have their throats blessed in this Church, and other Catholic churches in the world.

The first necktie originated in Dubrovnik. Girlfriends and wives who often had to see their boyfriends and husbands off to war, gave their chosen partner a kerchief as a sign of mutual fidelity and love. In the first half of the 17th century, during the Thirty Year War, the Croatian light cavalry arrived outside Paris with beautiful kerchiefs of cotton and silk. They conquered the Court of Louis XIV decked out in these fluttering ornaments and thereafter became popular. Later the neckties were perfected into the neckties we are familiar with today.

Murano & Burano ( Italy )

Murano - An island of Venice which specializes in glass blowing. Sons of the Murano glass blowers must agree to stay in Murano before they are taught the secrets of glass blowing. At age 16, they began their apprenticeship. Their wages are based on their level of skill and that continues thruout their life.





Burano - Another island in Venice. It specializes in lace making. They call it "stitching in the air". A handmade lace tablecloth will sell between $750 - $5000. Each piece is a masterpiece, but due to machine lacework, it is also a dying art.
Each of the houses in Burano is painted a different color. The reason for this, we are told, is that originally the homes were all alike. The men of this town would leave early in the morning to fish and when they returned to port at night, tired and exausted, they would sometimes wonder into the wrong home and wake up with the wrong wife! So they painted each of the houses a different color and now there is no excuse. They houses painted more than one color, have more than one family living there.

Venice

Venice, Italy - Venice is comprised of 26 islands along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The city is connected with canals instead of streets. Most transportation is done by boat, including the Fire Department and Police. Alot of transporation is done by gondolas and are a popular way to see the City.
Their hospital for infectious disease was on a seperate island. Later they opened a hospital for men and a seperate one for women from a convent that had closed. Of course, the ambulances are boats!
They built their homes without the use of science or technology. They thought that would prove to invaders that they were smart and would defeat anyone who tried to attack them. They cut down trees andthen beat them into the marshy land of the island vertically. Then the natural salt from the marsh petrified them. Then they built the houses on top of them. Where we live, our foundations are poured concrete. Of course, concrete was not discovered till hundreds of years later.
The oldest church in Venice is St. Mark's. It's bell tower is also a lighthouse, guiding ships to port.
Originally established 1,000 years ago, Venice was the center of the world's east and west trade routes. During this time, they sold salt. The salt was used perserving food (before refrigerator, tanning animal skins, and keeping skin young. However, with the discovery of America their strategic location was lost. Now their economy is glass, lace and tourism.
Venice governed themselves for 1000 years. They have only been part of Italy for 2 decades. THey joined the European Union and switched to Euro for money from litre. However, they did not take the time to calculate the adjustment in value from litre to Euro, which caused all of their prices to instantly double.

Our Trip Begins

We are loading up in Pekin to head to Chicago to catch our flights. From Chicago we are flying to Madrid, Spain and then onto Venice, Italy where we will board the ship. I won't be able to post until we are on the ship and settled in. So please pray for a safe journey to the trip for all of us.