The View....the View....the View

Bryan and I are in Athens, Greece. We did not bring our laptop so I am using the hotel computer with no ability to download pictures. Too bad for you because I have some good ones. Bryan did a semester of his ULV experience here in Athens. He is flooded with memories as we walk the streets and see the sights. I imagine him as a 20 year old Bryan.

We are staying near the Acropolis in a hotel with a rooftop garden. We went up there last night for the view and could not believe the view. The hilltop, Parthenon and Temple of Athena are lit up at night. No one is allowed up there after sundown. The beauty and the stillness of it made me feel reverent. Bryan and I didn't speak. We just sat and soaked up the sight.

Our room also looks out on a little Byzantine Church and the Acropolis. When you open your curtain in the morning and look out it is amazing all over again. Today is Sunday. We got up early....I mean really early....and went back to the rooftop to sit and stare some more. We actually watched as the automatic lights that shine inside the Parthenon and the temple clicked off.

So far we have visited the new Acropolis Museum, the National Archeological Museum, the changing of the guard at Parliament, ridden the subway and been invited into every store and restaurant in the Plaka. The new Acropolis Museum is brilliant. Underneath it they have uncovered an ancient city. They built the museum over it with glass floors so that you can look down and see Ancient Greece.

Tomorrow we leave on a four day trip to the Corinth Canal, Mycenae, Delphi, Olympia and the monastaries at Meteora. It may be the jet lag but I have been weepy ever since I arrived. I feel steeped in gratitude....for a church family that gave me the time and the means to make this fabulous trip; for a husband with whom I enjoy traveling; and for being alive in such a huge, beautiful and long lasting world.