Thessalonika, Philippi & Kavala, Greece - 2006

In the Steps of Alexander the Great

or

In the Shadows of Mt. Olympus

or

Following that Evangelist, Paul

Yes, there are so many ways I could title this trip because there’s so much history in Greece everywhere you go.  You can’t throw a rock without hitting something historic in the area.  This trip, like many others, had very little planning in the making.  We knew a three-day weekend was coming up but would the weather cooperate?  It’s always dicey this time of the year.  Finally on Thursday we trusted the three-day forecast enough that we decided to pack the night before and head out Friday morning as early as we could assemble without being ridiculous. 



So Friday morning we headed north on the main motorway, which alternates from good six-lane divided highway to two lanes of rough pavement which the Greeks turn into a four-lane road by flashing their lights as they come up behind you and passing you as you drive on the shoulder.  Four cars can squeeze by on two lanes if the shoulders are not blocked.  It gets exciting at times.  We passed Lamia and then Volos where Jason set out with the Argonauts.  The scenery changed from a mountainous seacoast to flat cotton farmland near Larisa to narrow mountain pass through the Tembi Valley.  Once more we came into view of the sea and the impressive 11^th century Crusader castle, Platamonas, with intact ramparts and towers in a commanding position.  But we’ve seen Crusader castles before – we have bigger fish to fry.  Soon we came into view of Mt. Olympus where Zeus and the Greek gods lived.  Typically the top was covered with clouds keeping the gods in privacy.  Just past Katerini we turned west to the small town of Vergina for our first stop.



Vergina is where the ancient Macedonian town of Aegae was located and the main item to see in this area is the museum built in the underground royal tombs.  It’s fairly well agreed that the graves housed the remains of Philipp II, father of Alexander the Great.  The museum is done up extremely well and the treasure, much of it gold, is impressive.  Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos, even without flash.  Next we headed a short drive away to the ruins of the royal palace and theater where Philipp was assassinated in 336 BC.  Our sunny skies were turning dark and the wind was picking up strongly.  As we were leaving we noticed a young lady walking back into town so we offered her a ride.  It turned out she was Swiss and getting around Greece by foot, bus, and train.  So we gave her a ride to the next town of Veria where she could catch a bus.  We had a quick look around at Veria, where St. Paul came to preach to the Jews in 54 AD.  We headed north just to the outskirts of Edessa and turned east before stopping in ancient Pella.  Pella was the birthplace of both Philipp II and his son, Alexander the Great.  Aristotle was one of Alexander’s tutors here and Pella was the largest royal city of the Macedonians.  Unfortunately it had closed before we arrived so we could not walk through the ruins but we could see most of them through the fence.  It was starting to get dark so we continued our drive into Thessaloniki.



Let me say here that we liked Thessaloniki a lot but think that the traffic and parking may be worse than in Athens.  We had no reservations but had seen a nice, new hotel on the Internet that we decided to try to find.  We were able to inch our way through traffic onto the right streets and amazingly found the hotel and a very fortunate parking spot.  The hotel is called the Tobacco Hotel and is a converted tobacco warehouse.  It is very nice and modern.  Best of all, they had a room available at a reasonable price.  We checked in and left our car on the street for the night without any problems.  We changed into heavy coats as the wind was very strong with some intermittent raindrops.  On the recommendation of our desk clerk, we found the Ouzou Melathron restaurant, which turned out to be quite nice.  They had a giant menu sprinkled with funny witticisms but the food was good and the atmosphere was cozy.  After dinner we walked around some more but because of the weather we decided to go back to our hotel and retire fairly early.  It had been a long day already.



Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast in the hotel (included in the room charges) and headed out for a walk around Thessaloniki.  The weather had changed dramatically with clear skies and cool temperatures.  First we walked to the 7^th century Orthodox basilica of Agios Dimitrios, built on the spot where St. Demetrios was martyred and buried.  Next we walked to the building known as the Rotunda, built in the 4^th century as a mausoleum for Roman Emperor Galerius, but he died in Sofia and was never buried here.  It was converted to a church and when the Turks ruled this part of Greece they added a minaret and turned it into a mosque.  Today it is an empty building but impressive.  A short walk took us to the triumphal arch of Emperor Galerius who spent much of his time in Thessaloniki.  We walked to the Archaeological Museum with its impressive stock of Macedonian gold plus statues, mosaics, and pottery.  After the museum we walked to the waterfront where a large statue of Alexander the Great stands and then to the famous White Tower, symbol of Thessaloniki.  In high school Rita was given a silver charm of the White Tower from a school friend who moved to Thessaloniki so it had a special meaning to her.  We walked along the waterfront then into the main shopping streets and to the remains of the Roman forum which are continuously being excavated.  It was noon and we had seen the highlights so we headed back to the hotel, checked out, and navigated ourselves out of town successfully.



But before we leave Thessaloniki let me hit just a few historical highlights of this fascinating city.  It was founded in 315 BC on the site of the ancient town of Therme by the Macedonian general, Kassander, who named it after his wife, also the sister of Alexander the Great.  Paul visited the town twice, in 50 and 56 AD, and wrote his letters, epistles in the New Testament, to the newly-founded church members here.  Early in the 4^th century it became the main residence of Emperor Galerius who was the last Roman emperor to actively persecute Christians.  The Roman road, Via Egnatia, went through Thessaloniki and was the Roman road to the Middle East.  In 1492 during the Inquisition in Spain, about 20,000 Jews fled to Thessaloniki and settled there.  By 1910 the Jews numbered about 65,000 and made up about half the population of the city.  In 1941 the Germans deported about 50,000 Jews to concentration camps from here.  The Turks captured the city in 1430 and ruled it under the name of Salonika.  Kemal Ataturk, first President of the Turkish republic, was born here in 1881.  In 1912 Thessaloniki returned to Greece, was mostly destroyed by a fire in 1917, and again suffered from a major earthquake in 1978.  It remains the second largest city in Greece with a mixed cultural background and population.



We headed northeast through hilly terrain and just a few miles outside of Serres encountered a flat plain with cotton fields once more.  Serres is about 30 miles from the Bulgarian border and we had to navigate around several old clunkers with Bulgarian plates.  The next major town was Drama, a drab town in pretty settings at the base of Mt. Falakro.  I have to presume there is skiing nearby since there were many shops selling ski equipment – and tire chains too which probably explains the poor condition of the roads in this area.  From Drama we headed south towards Kavala but stopped to see the ancient ruins of Philippi, also named after Philipp II, King of Macedonia.  Alexander the Great visited Philippi several times as some of his royal decrees carved in stone have been found in the area. 



We explored the large ruins of Philippi for some time - the theater, Roman forum, public latrines, sanctuaries to various gods, agora, and good remains of the Via Egnatia highway.  There are also remains of three later basilicas built on top of the Roman city.  In 42 BC Brutus and Cassius, who had assassinated Julius Caesar, fled to Philippi where they assembled 19 Roman legions and 20,000 cavalry.  Anthony and Octavian marched on Philippi from Rome with 28 legions and 13,000 cavalry.  Brutus and Cassius had the better location for a battle but still lost this major battle with both of them eventually committing suicide in defeat.  In 49 AD Paul and his companion Silas came to Philippi on his first trip to Europe and were imprisoned here for a short while.  Later, in about 61 or 62 AD, he wrote his epistle to the Philippians which is also a book of the New Testament.  We stayed until the park closed at 5:00 pm then headed a short distance down the road to Kavala, which was called Neopolis when Paul landed there in 49 AD.



Kavala is a very pretty town situated on hills leading down to the sea.  We quickly found the nice Egnatia Hotel at the top of the hills with commanding views of the city.  We checked in, hurriedly took photographs before the sun set, and then headed into town to explore.  Kavala was under Turkish control from 1380 to 1913.  The old town surrounds an imposing citadel which stands on the site of an ancient acropolis.  A large 16^th century aqueduct supplied the old town with water.  Rita and I walked the narrow streets of the old town up to the citadel as darkness set in.  We found the house where Mehmet Ali was born in 1769 to Albanian parents.  He led an interesting life, first as a soldier in the Turkish army, where he was involved in the wars between England and Napoleon in Egypt, and then when he became viceroy of Egypt after he massacred the Memluks in the citadel of Cairo.  He founded the ruling Egyptian class that lasted down to King Farouk in 1965.  Mehmet Ali is buried in the beautiful Alabaster Mosque in Cairo, sometimes called the Mohammed Ali Mosque.



We walked back to the harbor port and found a nice little restaurant with just a few tables.  The restaurant, really an ozouri, was named Nikiforos.  We had a delicious meal with a large rocket salad covered with parmesan cheese, pomegranate seeds, walnuts and balsamic vinegar.  For main course we had an excellent grilled fish called a dorado.  Local white wine rounded out the fairly healthy meal.  We walked around the harbor a while to digest our food then drove back to the hotel.



Sunday morning we had another good hotel breakfast and checked out early to get on the road by 8:30 am.  We had a long drive ahead of us heading west on the highway that used to be Via Egnatia.  We skirted around Thessaloniki and followed the road south past Katerini once more.  Mt Olympus was in view again and this time there were no clouds on top.  We stopped to view the ancient ruins of Dion, sometimes called Dios, at the base of Mt. Olympus.  Dion was a Macedonian city named after the god Zeus and a favorite of Alexander the Great.  It was a walled city but considered more of a military city where sacrifices were held to the gods before war campaigns.  We walked the old stone roads viewing the baths, public latrines, sanctuaries, houses, and workshops.  Here, too, were several later Christian basilicas built over the former ruins.  Our guide books do not mention Paul in Dion.  We also visited the nice little museum before getting back on the road once more.  We drove straight back to home in Athens arriving about 5:30 pm as the sun was setting on another great Greek trip.