Oct 1, Athens

Happy October, everyone!  It's hard to believe how September just flew by. And it's hard to believe how fast this trip has gone by.  

The agenda for today was to tour a few locations in Athens, GREECE before we depart for Rome, ITALY.  

We make a quick photo stop of the Athens Stadium.  This is the world famous finish line for the Athens marathon as well as the Olympic Games.

Our next stop was Mars Hill.  THIS is a very significant landmark in Paul's journey.  Paul gives yet another pivotal sermon, this time, in Athens on this hill.  We pick up in Acts 17:

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (‭Acts‬ ‭17‬:‭22-25‬ NIV)

The Areopagus is the council of judges and city officials to which Paul was brought to explain his strange teaching.  The location of that council in Athens's history is called Mars Hill. 

This is a view of the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon from Mars Hill.

A panoramic view of Athens atop Mars Hill:

Next we visited the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon.  Acropolis means "city on a hill".  And, the Parthenon is a gigantic temple that sits on the Acropolis.  This megastructure, when it was in its full form in the past, told of the history of the gods and goddess and is dedicated to Athena, the Greek goddess which the city of Athens is named after. 

Here we are making our climb up top the Acropolis:

The Parthenon

Folks from Dunwoody UMC, Atlanta, GA.   Front row, left to right: Diane Rhea, Martha Davis, Pam Metz, Joy Melton.  Back row: John Rhea, James Davis, Karen and Andy Drexler, David Melton. 

David Philpot of Dunwoody UMC, Atlanta, GA

Judy and Bill Vogel

Andy and Karen Drexler

James and Martha Davis

We came down from the Acropolis, toured another market area of ancient Athens still under excavation, then headed to the airport for our next destination:  Rome!