This is our front door and we really like it because it’s red.

This is the little store, Orion,  a couple doors down from our flat. It is on the corner and we usually don’t go by it because we take the shortcut.

This is the shortcut. We don’t know if it really is shorter but we like it better anyway.

This is a little store around the block from our flat. We like to go to this store. We pass it on our way to the sea.

We’re here at the water!

We’re going back home the other way. This is the bar we pass.

The next landmark is the dessert place we sometimes go to.   The sell delicious cannoli and lots more yummies.

This is a place where you can rent movies and buy lots of other stuff. It is a few doors down from us the other direction from Orion.

This is the view from our window if you are looking down the street towards Mercury’s (see the blue awning?).

These are the maps me and Lily made of our walk to the water.

Our first stop was the ancient city of Corinth. It was a large site with many ruins and a main road running through the middle.   I really got a sense of what it was like as a town – the temples, agora, baths, shops, and the bema, which was where Paul preached to the Corinthians in AD 52.

Temple of Apollo in Corinth.

Our next stop was the ancient Mycenaean acropolis. This town was the oldest we visited, dating back as far as the 16th century BC.  The entrance gate and some of the walls are described as “Cyclopean” because who else could have built such huge walls but Cyclops? (At least that’s what the ancient Greeks thought about the even more ancient Myceneans!)

This was the entrance to a huge burial tomb for one of the Mycenaean kings, Agamemnon. The structure was impressive – the stones were huge (the lintel over the door estimated at 260,000 pounds) and the architecture amazing (the beehive dome reaches 44 ft high).

The next day, we went to ancient Olympia. I loved watching the archeologists at work uncovering more ruins.

Peek-a-boo!

The Stadium where the athletic games were held.  Up to 45,000 spectators sat on the surrounding hill.

Every ancient site had a museum attached to it with artifacts from the site.  We usually walked through the site and then the museum.  I enjoyed seeing the artifacts like tools, pottery, helmets, burial items and lots of statues.

Love those sun hats!

After Olympia, on to Delphi, on the mainland.   On our way, we stopped at a lovely little spot near Galaxidi to stretch our legs. The water was so clear and we saw lots of fun tidepool critters. We even got to hold hermit crabs and black spiky sea urchins!

The ancient city of Delphi, the religious center of the ancient Greek world for centuries. The city was laid out with the Sacred Way leading up to the Oracle of Delphi, housed in the temple of Apollo.  Along the way were treasuries where city-states could leave thank-you gifts to the Oracle.   The whole area, in the foothills of Mount Parnassos, was so beautiful.

After Delphi, we drove through the mountains and across a huge valley to the town of Kalabaka.  Over the mountain pass, we had to wait for oncoming traffic.

Our last day was spent at Meteora, a collection of 6 Greek Orthodox monasteries perched on top of natural sandstone rock formations.

It was really quite amazing!  It was fun to see something a little more recent (14th century) in Greece’s history and so important to their current religion.  We toured the largest monastery (on the left) for over an hour.  We visited the chapel, the old kitchen and dining hall, the old wine cellar and museums of art and artifacts.

We made it back to Athens on Thursday evening for one last blast before I left the next morning. What a great trip!

We spent our first afternoon walking around the Syntagma and Monastiraki areas. We listened to Rick Steve’s audio walking tour – it was great!

Syntagma Square, also known as Constitution Square, is right across the street from the Parliament building. It was here in 1843 that Greece’s Constitution was signed. Recently, when Greece’s economy was failing (2010-12), there were many demonstrations here – sometimes, more than 10,000 people gathered to protest.  We saw and heard a few protests while we were in Athens and pretty much every day the police were stationed outside our hotel.

Stopping for gelato was not part of the Rick Steve’s tour, but a necessary part of our tour!  We are sitting in front of the Church of Kapnikarea.

Our hotel was in a really fun area, not far from Monastiraki square, “souvlaki row”, and Ermou street, a pedestrian area with lots of shops. All this in the shadow of the Acropolis.

The next day, we took a full day trip to three islands aboard a Pleasure Cruise ship. The sea was so beautiful and the weather was excellent!

We went to the islands of Poros, Hydra and Aegina. This is a photo of Hydra, a lovely little island with no cars – but lots of horses and mules! The port community has less than 2,000 residents.  It’s a sweet little laid-back place.

We took a bus tour on the island of Aegina. We visited the ancient temple of Aphaia as well as a current Orthodox monastery.  The drive through the countryside was lovely – it was fun to see more of the island than just the port.  This is a view of Athens taken from the temple of Aphaia.

Pistachio trees! Aegina is famous for its pistachio groves. I love pistachios so I bought 3 bags of local nuts that I might share. 🙂

On our third day, 18 May, we had an organized tour of Athens. The Acropolis was the highlight for me.

Temple of Zeus.

We watched the changing of the guard at the Parliament building. These young men are a part of Greece’s military – every young man serves a year. These particular men are specially chosen to be the Presidential Guard (Evzone) with their 1867 replica uniforms.

Our final stop of the day was Lycabettus Hill. Incredible views of Greece from the top!  We took a nice break after climbing up the hill.

We spent a day in Valletta learning some Maltese history and seeing some popular sites like the Manoel Theater, Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Grand Harbor. They took a tour of St. John’s Co-Cathedral and had some pastizzi on the steps.

I love Valletta and it was fun to just walk around (and up and down) this beautiful city.

We rented a van one day and took everyone on an island tour. First stop, Marsaxlokk. Everyone loved this cute, colorful fishing village.

We went to the Blue Grotto and then on to Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, megalithic temples sites. I had not been before so it was a new experience for me, too!  These temples are over 5,500 years old – the oldest freestanding temples in the world.

We had lunch in Mdina and then walked around the cool little streets admiring the medieval architecture.

And of course, we had fun, silly times everywhere we went!

Our first stop was Verdiana, our bed and breakfast for the next three days. It was nestled in the beautiful foothills of the Italian Alps.  Everything was so green and lush – it felt like May in Iowa!

We chose Verdiana because it was close to Chiampo, the town where my grandpa’s father was from. We spent an afternoon driving to the city (and enjoying the lovely drive!) and walking around.  It’s not a great photo, but you can see Chiampo peeking above the trees.  The city is in a valley with a river running through it.

Chiampo was bigger and more industrial than I imagined. I would love to have seen it 100 years ago when my great-grandfather left to come to America! And as it turns out, Chilese (my mom’s maiden name) is a pretty common name in these parts. The owners of our Bed and Breakfast know a few and were excited to learn that I was a Chilese!

We love a simple supper of bread, cheese, meat, fruit and wine. And what a beautiful setting our bed and breakfast provided!

The next day we spent the whole day in Venice. We loved it!  It’s so unique – no cars, just boats and a lot of walking.  The architecture was quite different from other cities we’ve been to, as well.  The whole experience was great and we all said we’d like to go back to Venice.

The girls thought it was so fun to take a ‘bus’ around town that was really a boat. I thought it was pretty fun, too. 🙂  The water was quite busy at times but traffic flow seemed pretty smooth.  We really enjoyed standing on bridges and watching the boats coming and going.

Everyone thinks of the canals when they think of Venice. But what about the incredible architecture?  This building, the Procuratie Vecchie, flanks the north side of the Piazza San Marco.  It was built in the early 1500s as homes and offices for state officials when Venice was its own republic.

On Friday, we left the foothills and drove to the mountains. Our guest house was in Shenna, about a 3 hour drive from our B&B. It was a beautiful drive and an incredible valley. This whole region, South Tyrol (or Sudtirol), is huge apple country. In fact, the apples we eat here in Malta are from the Sudtirol region.  This is the view from our guest house, the Krebishof.

Krebishof is a working farm. They milk about 15 cows and have about twice as many out in pasture. The father/son duo also have some 14,000 apple trees and several hundred grape vines. The mom/daughter-in-law duo run the guesthouse. Oh – and they have adorable little bunnies! 🙂

We really enjoyed exploring the area. There were a couple impressive castles and although we did not tour either one, we had fun imagining what life was like when they were built hundreds of years ago.

Merano is the largest city in this area and the whole valley is very German. In fact, the area wasn’t a part of Italy until after WWI when the current borders were created. Thus, the majority of people speak German, the food is mostly German and the houses are all named something-hof (and look quite Bavarian, too!).

We spent a couple hours one afternoon at the Trauttmansdorff Castle’s amazing botanical gardens.  It was one of the best gardens I’ve been to.  The girls, despite their complaints about going, really enjoyed it.  There was so much to do and see, and it appealed to all ages.

We tried to fly out of Bergamo on Monday but all the flights were cancelled and we had to stay the night in a hotel. The next day, we had to drive to Turin to fly home. The girls made the best of the situation by setting up a toiletries store in our hotel suite. Good thing because I needed to stock up after being in the airport all day!

We arrived at our hotel around 10 pm and were greeted by this sight from our balcony.

Saturday was a tour day and our first stop was the Acropolis.  The Acropolis is a large fortified area high above the city where several temples were constructed, around 500 BC.  We are standing in front of the Parthenon, the most impressive of the remaining structures.

Before lunch, we spent time in the Acropolis Museum.  It’s an awesome museum, only about 5 years old and full of wonderful artifacts found in the Acropolis.

We walked through the Plaka, the historical neighborhood of Athens, on our way to the Agora.  It’s so impressive to walk around and look up to see this!  Interesting fact: Athens did not become the capital of modern Greece until 1833 (after Greece regained independence from the Ottomans and a new king was chosen).  At that time, there were only about 5,000 people living in Athens, most of them living in the Plaka area.

In the afternoon, we walked around the Ancient Agora, learning more about life in ancient Athens (and picking flowers).  The Agora was the city center where politics were discussed, commerce flourished, courts ruled and people interacted with each other over everything from current events to arts and culture.  There were also many temples in the area making the Agora a religious center as well.

By the end of the day, the girls were excited to spend some time at the hotel drinking tea and discussing the history of Athens on the balcony.

Later that night, the students and I attended Easter midnight mass at a nearby church. Again, everyone gathered outside the church, this time waiting for the priest to emerge.  He stood outside and chanted in Greek for a while, then everyone lit candles while he chanted some more.  Suddenly bells rang while everyone cheered and started kissing each other’s cheeks.  I’m pretty sure that was the Christ Has Risen! part.  🙂

On Easter Sunday, a group of us decided to climb Mt. Lycabettus. On the way, we walked through the National Gardens and found this playground. We played a mean game of tag on this rope contraption and had so much fun!

One of many views of Athens from our walk up Mt. Lycabettus.  Once again, there’s that Acropolis sticking up!

We ate a delicious Easter lunch at Smile restaurant. Jon had lamb, a traditional Easter meal. We also enjoyed Greek beer and music, and some dancing (I even joined in the dance party).  We also got to witness plates getting tossed over Lily’s head and smashing to the ground accompanied by a big hearty OOOPAH!

On Monday, we all went our separate ways.  The students split up and went to Ireland, Paris, the French Alps, northern Greece and a couple Greek Islands. We headed west, down the Greek coast to Nafplio. It’s a cute little down dominated by a huge rock and a beautiful bay.  Nafplio has quite a history in Greece, including a stint as the capital in 1829, before Athens took over the title a few years later.

We hiked up the huge rock, also known as the Fortress of Palamidi.  Built between 1711 and 1715, it is a group of bastions built to protect the city.  The fortress included water reservoirs, food storage areas and “murder holes” among other things.  There are supposedly 999 steps up to the top.  We counted 907 coming down.

We spent a little time on the beach in Nafplio.  The water was freezing! And the rocks were hard to walk on, but the sea was so beautiful we still loved it.  Later that afternoon, we took a bus back to Athens and left the following morning at 6 am for the last leg of our journey – Italy.

Our first stop was the Basilica of St. John. It was built in the 6th century, and it is believed that John (who wrote the book of Revelations) is buried here. The layout and design of the church is very similar to that of the Haiga Sophia.

The view from the Basilica, looking toward the Aegean sea. At one point, the sea covered this valley. The building with the 2 domes is an active mosque, Isa Bey.  It was constructed in 1375 and has a different design from more current mosques.

Goofy picture, I know, but seriously – the coolest public restroom I’ve ever seen. Most of the public bathrooms we encountered in Turkey charged a one euro entrance fee which helped pay for someone to take care of it. Obviously the woman who took care of this bathroom loved flowers and took pride in her work!

Gravestones at the mosque. I love the Arabic writing.

One of my favorite Turkish treats – pomegranate juice!  It was really fun to watch someone effortlessly smash half a pomegranate with the squeezer contraption and retrieve the fantastic juice.

The tall column in the foreground is the Temple of Artemis. This was a Greek temple to the goddess Artemis and said to be one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. In the background is the Isa Bey mosque, the Basilica and a castle that we could not visit due to reconstruction.

The girls had their own bedroom in Selcuk! We loved our cozy little hotel.

The next day we went to Ephesus, an ancient Greek city that flourished under Roman rule in about the 2nd century BC. The city itself was quite impressive with a sophisticated aqueduct system, public baths, housing and water mills.  The ruins were extensive and well preserved.  So much remains that you could really get a sense of what the town looked like – from the houses to the main roads to the market place.

The Library of Celsus, one of the best preserved buildings.

Ephesus was important in early Christianity and is featured many times in the bible (Ephesians, Acts, Corinthians, Gospel of John and Revelations). According to legend, this the stadium where Paul, who lived in Ephesus, preached to the citizens.

This was how Lily spent much of the day. The history lessons were not so interesting to her –  meh, they’re just a bunch of old rocks. 🙂

I finally got my Turkish coffee! We had lunch in Sirince, a pretty little town in the hills surrounding Selcuk. The drive was lovely.  Wish I could say the same for the coffee. I think it’s an acquired taste.  🙂

We flew into Istanbul in the evening, stood in line at the visa checkpoint for nearly and hour, arrived at our hotel and went right to sleep! The next morning, first thing, was the Hagia Sofia (which means Holy Wisdom).

This is the third church built on this property and it was finished in the year 537.  It was built as a Christian church (the largest built by the Eastern Roman Empire in Istanbul).  In 1453 after the Ottomans conquered Istanbul, it was turned into an Islamic mosque,  Now it is a historic museum. It is a spectacular place! Very unique in that you can see Christian pictures of Jesus, Mary and others right alongside Islamic calligraphy.

Across a lovely park and pedestrian area is the Blue Mosque, built between 1609-1616. We were able to go inside and see this active mosque   It was Sylvia’s favorite thing we did on our trip because this was the first mosque she has ever been in (that wasn’t a museum, like the Hagia Sofia).

After lunch, we toured the Archaeology Museums. There were so many interesting artifacts – we learned so much!  And Lily almost lost a hand…..

A highlight for us was meeting up with friends from Decorah right there in Istanbul! On the right of Jon is Stuart, a Luther grad. On his left is Huseyin and next to me is his wife Elvan and their adorable little girl, Bejna.

We went out to eat with Huseyin, Elvan and Bejna and had some delicious fresh fish. Then they took us to the most amazing baklava place – Karakoy Gulluoglu.  It was the best pastry I’ve had – full of pistachios, flaky crusts and honey sauce. Yum – it will not be forgotten!

Next day, we toured Tokapi Palace where the Ottoman sultans lived for hundreds of years. We learned about their lifestyles, harems (the designated spaces for the women of the family), life during the Ottoman times and so much more. One of the most stunning things about the palace were the interior walls, ceilings and floors made of thousands of beautiful tiles.

We spent the afternoon on the Asian side of Istanbul in Maltepe with Elvan and Bejna. We went to their local bazaar, their home and a newly established park close to the sea.

We packed in a few more things on our last day in Istanbul. First was a museum featuring Roman remains of tile flooring. It was very impressive work, and the pictures told a lot about Roman culture at the time.

We went to another Roman site – the Basilica Cistern. This was amazing! It’s an underground water system that stored water brought from nearby mountain streams. The cistern kept the water clean and was connected to houses so that families could have running water in their homes.

In the late afternoon, we went on a boat tour up the Bosphorus River. It was a great day to be out on a boat and it was fun to see Istanbul (the third largest city proper in the world!) by boat.

We sat up top for the best views.

Our last evening in Istanbul. We ate dinner at a rooftop restaurant and had beautiful views of the water, Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque.  A great way to end our time in Istanbul.