Hotel Vassilikon Loutráki

... who walked there before me. It’s so hard to describe the emotional feeling you get when you get to physically be somewhere like this.

Seeing Mycenae was crucial to our time in Greece. It helped us better understand the things we’d been seeing in other places, up until that point. And as you will read in the Athens blog entry, it really let our minds and experiences come full circle with understanding ancient Greece and our world’s history.

Hi everybody,

As you all know, we are back in the states! I haven't had time to finish writing the last three blog entries but I will as soon as I am able. I just wanted to let you guys know so you can check back over the next few days.

I hope everyone is excited to read about Athens because that was our last city and it was epic. Check back soon!

-Michelle

One of our day trips from Nafplio was to Epidavros. This is a small town that is home to the world's best-preserved ancient Greek theater and an ancient healing sanctuary.

The theater was built in the 4th century B.C. and has 56 rows of limestone seats that can seat up to 15,000 people. It’s especially famous for its amazing acoustics. You can stand on a small, circular piece of stone in ...

... 8217;s amazing how the ancient Greeks came up with the idea of an amphitheater and their designs are still used today: amphitheaters, coliseums, stadiums. The most effective way to pack people in needed little improvement it seems.

Had a nice picnic lunch perched at the very topmost seats and enjoyed eavesdropping on everyone’s conversations while they walked through the theater.

... to Delphi for 2 days, then hitting the Greek Islands for 5-6 days, the prettiest part of Greece and the real reason you come here anyway. after that we are heading to Athens for a couple of gays before our flight to Cairo. should be a good use of our 10 days here and the islands are prettier than the mainland i'm sure and like Spain, we can always come back when we have more time and can explore the mainland. for now, we head to Delphi.

... also had our photo taken by them for their book, and we were known to him as "Beautiful British Columbia" ... they even sang a little song for us. It was cute. The next the two girls and I just wanted to lay by the pool again and do nothing. It was super hot!! We were there for most of the morning/afternoon. Then we would go for a nap in the a/c before we walked into the town of Oia to see the sunset and have some dinner. Oia was known for ...

... br>Yep! This is where you should stand and speak so that everyone in the the theater will hear you talk!











This is an olive tree! I've always thought it would be much ...

... mind-blowing! You really don't know the scale of these ruins and what they provide the viewer until you are right there looking up at them. Wandering through the rubble, the temples, the sacred ways, my mind pictures what it was like during the ancient Greek times. The highlight for me was actually in the Ancient Agora. The most well kept Temple of Hephaestus sat perched on a hill right below the ...

... and votives were dedicated to the city's patron goddess and several small, auxiliary structures were built for cult purposes. The transition from the Archaic to Early Classical era took place during early 5th century and the works of this period set the paradigm for the Classical achievements in sculpture, architecture and minor arts. After the victory at Marathon against the Persians in 490 BC, the Athenians began to build a Pre-Parthenon which was never ...

... When tix became available, we bought some. We had decided to get the best tix available for the finals of the woman's team gymnastics. This was guaranteed to be a hot ticket and a potential gold for the US. Plus, Julie is a former high school gymnast so we were psyched. Hotels and airfare were really expensive at the time so we didn't book anything and decided to wait until prices fell. We searched and searched but prices never fell. It started to get closer to the Games, the ...