Well, we're off to Greece!

[LizaMarie]

Great pics and beautiful family!! Maybe I'll see it in person someday........

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

We saw it from a distance, utbthe tour didn't include it, so we're going to go back to it on our extra day in Athens.

I hope you stopped at the Areopagus on the way up. Soak up the atmosphere where Paul preached to the Athenians

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

My wife with an AK? She has shot mine, but I'm the AK fan.

Great picture of your family. Its funny how I can picture your wife with an AK-47 hanging off her shoulder. In fact I think it would suit her more than you

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

today we went through Napfaxos, drove along the Peloponnesus West coast along the Ionian Sea, through ancient Patra, ended things in Delphi. Majestic and breathtaking. So far I've seen...

Athens
Corinth
Mycenae
Olympia
Patra
Naupflios
Napfaxos
Delphi

We're in Delphi right now. Tomorrow...Meteora and the Orthodox monasteries within!

 

[prodromos]

Tomorrow...Meteora and the Orthodox monasteries within!

[yoda]Blown away, you will be[/yoda]

 

[ArmyMatt]

blown, George, blown away! blow-ow-ow-own!

(said like a Larry David sounding George Steinbrenner look-a-like)

 

[Dewi Sant]

Have an excellent time, I'll be in Thessaloniki next month.

 

[Constantine_Orthodox]

today we went through Napfaxos, drove along the Peloponnesus West coast along the Ionian Sea, through ancient Patra, ended things in Delphi. Majestic and breathtaking. So far I've seen...

Athens
Corinth
Mycenae
Olympia
Patra
Naupflios
Napfaxos
Delphi

We're in Delphi right now. Tomorrow...Meteora and the Orthodox monasteries within!

WOW!! I have been only in the first two and I 'm native! Meteora is only 76 km (46 miles) from my home village and I haven 't been there! I envy you very much! 2 minor corrections: it 's Nafpaktos and Nafplio.

 

[prodromos]

WOW!! I have been only in the first two and I 'm native! Meteora is only 76 km (46 miles) from my home village and I haven 't been there! I envy you very much!

When you do go, see if you can visit with a priest or monk in your company. You will get to see many of the precious relics they have at each of the monasteries.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Hi Constantine,

Sorry for the misspellings. It's my darned iPad correcting what I type and screwing up what I try to say.

WOW!! I have been only in the first two and I 'm native! Meteora is only 76 km (46 miles) from my home village and I haven 't been there! I envy you very much! 2 minor corrections: it 's Nafpaktos and Nafplio.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

"I'm busting!! Jerry, I'm busting!"

blown, George, blown away! blow-ow-ow-own!

(said like a Larry David sounding George Steinbrenner look-a-like)

 

[ArmyMatt]

"I'm busting!! Jerry, I'm busting!"

funny guy! right here!

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

So yesterday we went to Meteora....there are no words...it was positively breathtaking and spiritually nourishing!!! I've ever in my life seem anything so awe-inspiring! I can't imagine how anyone could visit Meteora's many monasteries and not immediately want to sign up for Holy Orthodoxy ASAP!

Today we ventured, while still in Meteora, to a well-respected and known icon studio owned bt Father Pefkis, a priest and iconographer trained in iconography at Mt. Athos. We got an awesome discount in our tour group, and Father and Presbytera took to our family quickly. They threw in several icons for free, blessed us, blessed the icons, signed them on the back with blessings. It was a real treat. $1,150 of icons cut to $850 with discount (cough,cough) and we could barely carry all those icons out of there! I estimate the worth at around $1,800-2,000. Real worth to us---priceless. All hand-painted and the five I show here,uh-hem, are definitely not all of them!!

Tomorrow is more touring around Athens on our own. Got back to Athens around 4 hours ago. Long drive from Meteora to here! We had a side stop at Thermopylae!

 

[Jesus4Madrid]

View attachment 199274 View attachment 199275 View attachment 199276 View attachment 199277 So yesterday we went to Meteora....there are no words...it was positively breathtaking and spiritually nourishing!!! I've ever in my life seem anything so awe-inspiring! I can't imagine how anyone could visit Meteora's many monasteries and not immediately want to sign up for Holy Orthodoxy ASAP!

Today we ventured, while still in Meteora, to a well-respected and known icon studio owned bt Father Pefkis, a priest and iconographer trained in iconography at Mt. Athos. We got an awesome discount in our tour group, and Father and Presbytera took to our family quickly. They threw in several icons for free, blessed us, blessed the icons, signed them on the back with blessings. It was a real treat. $1,150 of icons cut to $850 with discount (cough,cough) and we could barely carry all those icons out of there! I estimate the worth at around $1,800-2,000. Real worth to us---priceless. All hand-painted and the five I show here,uh-hem, are definitely not all of them!!

Tomorrow is more touring around Athens on our own. Got back to Athens around 4 hours ago. Long drive from Meteora to here! We had a side stop at Thermopylae!

I am vicariously enjoying your trip. You've bought some truly beautiful icons which will forever remind you of this glorious odessey to Greece. Can you identify the less obvious one, for those of us who are less illumined? St. Paul?

 

[ArmyMatt]

View attachment 199274 View attachment 199275 View attachment 199276 View attachment 199277 So yesterday we went to Meteora....there are no words...it was positively breathtaking and spiritually nourishing!!! I've ever in my life seem anything so awe-inspiring! I can't imagine how anyone could visit Meteora's many monasteries and not immediately want to sign up for Holy Orthodoxy ASAP!

Today we ventured, while still in Meteora, to a well-respected and known icon studio owned bt Father Pefkis, a priest and iconographer trained in iconography at Mt. Athos. We got an awesome discount in our tour group, and Father and Presbytera took to our family quickly. They threw in several icons for free, blessed us, blessed the icons, signed them on the back with blessings. It was a real treat. $1,150 of icons cut to $850 with discount (cough,cough) and we could barely carry all those icons out of there! I estimate the worth at around $1,800-2,000. Real worth to us---priceless. All hand-painted and the five I show here,uh-hem, are definitely not all of them!!

Tomorrow is more touring around Athens on our own. Got back to Athens around 4 hours ago. Long drive from Meteora to here! We had a side stop at Thermopylae!

very nice, my jealousy meter is running pretty high!

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Bottom right? Yes, St. Paul.

Today we went to the Aerapogus where Paul addressed the Athenians. Incredible. I stood up there thinking how hard that must've been. I felt the same thing at Corinth when I got to stand at the place St. Paul addressed that agora.

I am vicariously enjoying your trip. You've bought some truly beautiful icons which will forever remind you of this glorious odessey to Greece. Can you identify the less obvious one, for those of us who are less illumined? St. Paul?

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Just landed in Crete a couple hours ago...

 

[Anhelyna]

Have a really great time - but don't get worn out

 

[ArmyMatt]

Just landed in Crete a couple hours ago...

remember if you see a minotaur, don't play with it. they can be testy

 

[Jesus4Madrid]

Bottom right? Yes, St. Paul.

Today we went to the Aerapogus where Paul addressed the Athenians. Incredible. I stood up there thinking how hard that must've been. I felt the same thing at Corinth when I got to stand at the place St. Paul addressed that agora.

You refer to one of my favourite passages of the Bible. "for in Him we live and move and have our being". Those were the days, when people where actually intellectually curious. Where is our Areopagus today? Maybe it is TAW.

Acts 17
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.