When confronted with the word acropolis, one normally thinks of the Acropolis here in Athens, Greece. Google “Acropolis” and that’s the first thing that shows up. However, the word acropolis simply means top of the city. We’ve been to several acropolises (acropoli?) but today we were able to see the “real” Acropolis up close and personal.
From the hotel roof, we could get a good view of the Acropolis, and particularly the Parthenon. Since it is lit up at night, several people went out there after dark to get a picture (as did I). It’s a commanding view, and the city of Athens spares no energy in lighting it up.
Kind of a blustery day today, cold and windy, with rain spattering on the bus windshield as we drove the short distance to the Acropolis. Turns out there were several cruise ships that docked here today, so we joined the throngs of people on shore excursions in viewing one of the most famous locations in Greece.
So walking was a bit slow and our guides did a masterful job in keeping 45 cats herded together.
We left most of the crowds behind when we clambered up on Mars Hill, sat down on the far side of it, and listened to a lesson on Acts 17, the account of Paul arriving in Athens and finding the city full of idols, including one to “the unknown God” (The Greeks wanted to cover all their bases). One historian recorded over 30,000 public statues in Athens during the reign of Nero (Paul’s time). Paul was brought before the Areopagus (Mars Hill) where he speaks eloquently before the leaders, showing a knowledge of their culture and a knowledge of scripture that convinced some of them to put their faith in Christ.
Acts 17 records that Paul was greatly distressed to see the city full of idols. The challenge for us was: when was the last time my soul was distressed because of the state of someone else’s soul? Many of us go through seasons of life completely insulated from people who don’t know Christ. This is a sign that we are becoming domesticated in our faith.
We took the bus to the market district, trooped for several minutes through throngs of people, and ended up in a small restaurant where we crammed into several long tables for lunch. The Greek Salad, pita bread with beef and pork gyros, French fries and bread were all good; the only problem was, the bread, salad and fries were served first, and then the gyros came out after we had filled up on the other stuff. The gyros were the star of the show and no one was able to finish them.
The formal stuff was done for the day so Deb and I walked back to the hotel, taking in the market district and a few more historic sites (Hadrian’s Library) on our way. This, too, was a madhouse of humanity, a narrow street jammed with people and lots of souvenir-type stuff for sale.
Dinner was in the rooftop restaurant again. It’s gonna be a little hard to come home and not eat in rooftop restaurants or places overlooking the Aegean with a view of the sunset. On the other hand, maybe some more simple food at regular times will help me get over this intestinal distress I have been struggling with for the last week.
Okay, too much information.
Yesterday, when we arrived in our hotel room, we discovered we were assigned a handicap-accessible room. No big deal, except the bathroom had no shower walls. Just roll your wheelchair in, transfer to the seat and take your shower. And the whole room gets wet. The bathroom mirror was angled so a tall person was looking at their navel. You could swivel it up, but it sagged back down to waist-level. I fixed it by stuffing a towel behind it.
Showers this morning caused a small flood, contained to the bathroom, but highly slippery on the marble floors. Not an ideal situation.
In addition, many European hotels will create a queen bed by shoving two single beds together and spreading queen linens across both of them. This usually works fine, but this room had two single beds pushed together with individual bedding for each. And a six-inch gap between them. Deb found herself falling into this gap during the night so she didn’t sleep very well.
We requested a room change and we actually have shower walls and a real queen size bed for the next couple of nights. American-style. Win.
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