Before we began the Best of Greece Tour, we traveled to several cities by car.
Corinth
Our trip to Corinth was pretty well covered in the Apostle Paul's Mission Journey blog post. Click here to go to the blog post.
Kavala
Kavala is another port city. As to Apostle Paul's journey, it is covered in another blog post indicated above.
In addition, we visited the Roman Aquaduct, called Kamarea. It reminded me of the Roman Aquaduct we saw in Pont du Gart in France.
We walked around the town to look for St. Nicolas Church and ran into a beautiful coastline.
Philippi
Our visit to Philippi was pretty well covered in the other blog post indicated above.
Veria
Our visit to Veria was quite productive. We visited several landmarks related to Apostle Paul's mission journey as posted on another blog. Click here to go to the blog post.
Thessaloniki
We explored more in Thessaloniki. We walked to Aristoteles Blvd., probably the busiest blvd people gather. For the name's sake, there was a statue of Aristoteles.
It leads to the board walk facing the sea. The sea breeze was cool and a lot of people were strolling on the boardwalk. Along the boardwalk, there are many restaurants and bars.
On this board walk, there are two famous landmarks. One is White Tower and the other is the Statue of Alexander the Great.
White Tower is a watch tower that monitored any foreign attack.
The Statue of Alexander the Great stands pretty prominent and rightly so because he is from this region. The Northern Greeks are proud of the fact that he is from the northern region of Greece.
We took a boat ride to cruise for 30 minutes in the Thessaloniki Bay. It was free as long as we purchased drinks. It was cool and good to see the bird's eye view of the city.
Drove to Kavala... to Lydia's Baptistery... Philippi Archaeological Museum and Site... UNESCO heritage site... I missed the Paul's prison or crypt... Church of St Nicolas... Apostle Paul's Monument... Acropolis... Castle... Drove back to Thessaloniki... Parked for Euro10 per night... Walked over to Extravaganza to dine... glass of wine... calamari with green curry... chicken breast over pumpkin sauce... free desert... Fabulous!
We visited the Castle on top of the hill where we could see the entire city.
Close to the Castle was the Monastery where Apostle Paul was believed to have stayed and preached.
Right behind this Monastery was the North Wall where Apostle Paul escaped the City of Thessalonki to avoid the mob that was chasing him down.
We stopped over at a cathedral that has been named after St. Paul. Its architecture was uniquely beautiful.
Initially, I made an arrangement with a local tour guide for a day trip. But she got sick and cancelled our tour. So we ended up exploring around the city ourselves. We had an extravaganza dinner at a restaurant called Extravaganza based on the savings from the cancelled day tour. The foods were great!
The hotel was minimal and the street was crowded and noisy. Besides, I had to park the car at a garage for 10 euros a night.
Overall, our stay in Thessaloniki was short, but quite productive. - Jeffrey
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