Day 3 Greece

Our hotel

My breakfast

View from the breakfast dining room

We are leaving Neapolis and heading to Veria today. This area of Greece is known for white marble. It is everywhere. 

Even the street curbs are white marble. When we put our feet into the Aegean Sea we were sitting on slabs of it like we would sit on rocks in the US. We passed a marble place in a small town so we stopped and Nickolaos did some talking to the men cutting the marble. Kim paid the man 5€ for a piece to bring home. It would have cost a fortune in one of the nice shops in town. 

We were only 36 miles from the Bulgaria border and Kim really wanted to go so when Nickolaos asked if we wanted to, he said yes! Then we started talking about what we might need to get back into Greece and Nickolaos wasn’t sure. There were just too many questions so we decided not to take a chance. 

Stopped in Amphipolis to see the lion. This thing was huge and was only the top portion of a mausoleum. It’s a 4th century BC funerary monument in honor of admiral Laomedon from Lesbos, a devoted companion of Alexander the Great. 

Coffee break

The road sides were covered with oleander and these bushes with orange berries

This was kind of a weird stop.

It’s the old metropolitan cathedral of Edessa. The door was open so we walked in to take a look and we’re astounded by the beauty. The original Byzantine church was built in the 1300s and dedicated to Christ the Word and Wisdom of God. 

Next srop: Edessa to see the waterfalls. 

It normally looks like this. 

But today it looked like this. They are doing some construction and have diverted the water somewhere else. That’s a lot of water to divert. 

The pictures below are in the waterfall cave. It is the only “primary” cave in Greece. The term “primary” refers to caves of the same age as the rocks. They are formed in travertine deposits mainly in areas of waterfalls and are very rare. The dissolved limestone covers the rock by creating thin layers of CaC03 which forms travertine. How’s that for a chemistry/geology lesson?

It was a very short and very small cave 🤣. 

But really beautiful. 

I can’t believe I took that many pics in a cave that’s only 20 meters long. 

It’s a really peaceful area, mostly because the falls aren’t running and it’s not packed with tourists. 

Lunch - pizza

Bao buns - Jo Anne, the chicken on these buns tasted exactly like the sesame chicken we ate at the Luau Room. Talk about bringing back memories. 

Look what landed on the table while we were eating. FALL!!!

There were some huge trees 

With huge knots. 

Yep, really big trees. 

After leaving the falls, Nickolaos asked if we wanted to go to another town. We said sure, so he plugged it into his gps. I may have mentioned this before but when the gps says turn right, he turns left and when it says turn left, he turns right. Then we go round and round and he gets frustrated because he can’t find where we’re going. Anyway, today we ended up going through someone’s orchard on a rocky road and I was pretty sure we were lost. We did end up getting there eventually. 

This is Aristotle’s school for Alexander the Great. Aristotle was hired by Alexander the Great’s father. Philip the 11 of Macedon to teach his son, and was given the Temple of the Nymphs as a classroom. In return, Philip rebuilt and freed the citizens of Stagira, Aristotle’s hometown, which he had razed in a previous conquest across and Macedonia. Aristotle didn’t like royalty (he believed in a democracy) so the only way he would teach Alexander was if he could teach all the children. Some of the students from the school were Hephaestion, Ptolemy 1, Soter, Cassander, and Cleitus the Black. How’s that for bringing back school memories?

School was held in these caves. 

Kims giving thought to Aristotle’s school of thought 🤣

Tonight we are staying in the Jewish quarter of Veria. 

Kim has to duck on the stairs. 

It’s a really cool room. 

With a view (not quite like last night’s). 

We walked around town a bit and saw a few sights. 

Another church 

Sweets sweets and more sweets.  

Cheese and olive oil. 

Little kids driving their little BMWs around the square 🤣. 

I’m closing tonight with pics of the steps we’ve climbed today. 

And that’s not even all of them. There’s even this step in our room. At the end of this blog I’m going to give you a number of the stairs we’ve climbed. It’s crazy!!!

I can’t believe this post is so long when we mostly rode in the van all day. 

Goodnight. 💤