Last day in Greece :(

Our fourth, and final hotel.

Metro ride!

Poseidon's Temple at Cape Sounion. There is very little known about this because when it was found, the first archaeologists took very little care when excavating and lots of items were destroyed. What is known is that this was the temple that reached out the farthest in the Aegean, and when invaders were spotted, fires were signaled that could be seen at Aphea Temple on the island of Aegina, that would then fire signals that could be seen at the Parthenon on the Acropolis.

Luke is holding up the temple to protect it from falling on Sarah and Hannah!

Nice group shot looking over the Aegean.

Corinthia Canal

Apparently people bundgy jump over this... Personally, that sounds a bit crazy to me! I was too afraid to go near the edge of the railing to take a closer picture over the side!

Clay class in Mycenae

Sage's Spartan clay figure.

Natalie's clay figure.

Mycenae

Walking up to King Argrmendon's castle! This dates back to the Trojan War and was built 1,300 years before the theatre at Epidaurus.

They found his burial chamber during excavations!

Here is the tomb within the chamber.

Supposedly, when you take pictures and orbs show in the pictures, then it means he's happy to see you. It was my lucky day!!

99% original!... Even after an earthquake and landslides!!

Epidaurus is a 2,400 year old stadium that is still used today. The acoustics in it are amazing, and we tested it out just to make sure. Standing at the bottom of the theatre (or the stage) one can talk quietly and those at the very top can still hear! The theatre can seat up to 15,000 people. 

Pre- and post- dinner activities

Someone got a little sleepy while others were playing cards...

Our third hotel: Iria Mare in Argolida

Lunch at Olympia

Olympia!!!

The site of the FIRST EVER Olympic Games! 

The arena where wrestling and boxing matches took place. 

Zeus' Temple

The Temple of Hera (Zeus' wife). The grass area that you can see in the photo is the site of where the torch was lit for the Games - there used to be an alter there. Today, the torch is still lit there at the start of every Olympic Games, even if not held in Athens.

The stadium where many of the Games took place. It held up to 46,000 people, but they sat on the grass as there were no seats.

Some of the boys decided to race at the stadium... Sage won!

Here is our victor with his olive branch crown!

This building used to house tools and was a workshop. When Greece fell under the control of the Roman Empire and converted to Christianity, the building was made into a church.

This is where the cheaters of the Games had their names posted for all visitors to see; the wall of shame! There were 16 statues of Zeus where the cheaters' names were engraved on his statues posts.

Directly across was the wall of fame!

Inside the Olympian Museum... 

There were many great monuments, but one that I thought was especially great was a statue of Hermes, which is what Michelangleo's David is modeled after. 

There was also a statue of Marcus Aurelius (from the Gladiator movie!!)

The sunset over the Aegean (again!)

This photo was taken by Wynn (great work!)

Hotel Shananigans

The students were a bit surprised to find that their showers did not have shower curtains...

Some of the boys (Sage, Luke and Wynn) decided to have a workout session. Luke didn't want to be in the photo, though.

Natalie found a friend!

The boys are playing cards.

Hotel #2: Hotel Rodini in Patras (pronounced Patra)

We found another stray!

We were very tempted to adopt him, but our tour director talked us out of it, as it's quite expensive. We did name him (and feed him), though: Apollo. 

Delphi: the belly button of the world!

Here is the symbol for Delphi, the center of the world, which is also called the naval of the world. 

This photo (of a photo) shows what archeologists found when they began excavating the site of the original city of Delphi. Look at the statues they found! 

Here are the actual statues, including the Sphynx! 

This statue used to stand 36 feet tall!

 

The dome like statue is another symbol of Delphi. 

Here is a model of what they believe the ancient city of Delphi looked like. 

The stadium - originally used for the Olympic Games from 8 BCE to 4 CE. 

The theatre - it was built to house 5,000 people, and all theatres in Greece have since been modeled after it.

View from the top of the theatre! 

The ruins of Appllo's temple!

This is the Athenian treasure house where Athenians brought gifts to offer the gods. They had the largest treasure house of all the 27 city states in ancient Greece. Delphi was a place that belonged to ALL of Greece, as that was their center of the world. 

The old market place.