Dancing With The Stars, Here We Come!!

So, we went to this dinner theatre-type restaurant in Athens with several friends from the Bible College on Wednesday evening, and oh! the fun we had!  It was a delectable feast of traditional Greek food, and 8 traditional dances were performed as the entertainment, with the dancers in the traditional costume for each particular dance.

The funny thing about these previous two pictures is that this dancer was standing on OUR table to do this--right in front of me--OH MY!!  

Well, the advantage of being at a table right next to the stage was that we had a great view of all the dances...the DISADVANTAGE was that when they choose people to come up on stage, folks from those close tables were chosen...So, here is yours truly trying some sort of Greek move with traditional Greek music...you see Brad up there too...oh yes, FOUR of us from our table were sacrificed to the stage...

Brad was a natural, even adding twists and turns...I was proud of my man!!

Next up were Myrto, who not only danced, but sang with the gentleman in white, and Viorica...

...who very wisely opted to cheer on Myrto, thereby not having to sing with the Greek crooner..

Brad's rave of the evening...this gentleman was a master on his instrument 

Caleb and Viorica enjoying the show...

Our friends Robert and Myrto...

On our way home we stopped by the Olympic stadium there in Athens where the 2004 Olympic games were held.  This stadium was built over the earliest Greek stadium where the games were originally held.  Still today the corridors underneath thru which the runners run to enter the field are THE SAME ONES used by the ancient Greeks at the first games...impressive...

Ancient Athens

 Our first Sunday in Greece we went to the First Greek Evangelical Church in Athens.  It was really something...as the service was entirely in Greek, we were given headsets with simultaneous English translation.  We felt like we were at the United Nations.  

As we exited the church, this was one of the first sights we saw, in a nearby park.  It is the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which is the largest in Greece (even larger than the Parthenon).  It took 650 years to complete, and the roman Emperor Hadrian dedicated it during the Panhellenic festival of AD 132.

It was surreal to have a picnic lunch here...

...between the temple and Hadrian's Arch, which marks the boundary between the ancient city and the new Athens of Hadrian.  (The kids were enjoying feeding --and scaring--the pigeons.)

We then decided to head to the Acropolis...on the way up, cut into the southern cliff face of the Acropolis, we spied the Theatre of Dionysos, which is the birthplace of Greek tragedy, and was the first theatre built of stone.  Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes all had their plays performed here.  The Romans enlarged this theatre to seat 17,000, and used it as a gladiatorial arena.  Victoria is sitting on the theatre's throne...the actual seat where Roman Emperor Nero sat for the gladiatorial contests...

This is another view of Dionysos' Theatre with the same three great kiddos and the Acropolis above...

Located just next to the Theatre of Dionysos, was the Sanctuary of Asklepios, founded in 420 B.C. and dedicated to the god of healing.  In every direction we looked were ruins of something historically significant and culturally relevant...

Also on the way to the peak of the Acropolis is the Porch of the Caryatids, where these statues of women were used in place of columns.  An olive tree (in the left of the photo) now grows where Athena first planted her tree in a competition against Poseidon.  Also in the background one can see part of the city of Athens among the hills...

This is thus far my very favorite picture of the trip...I feel like the caption should say, "Come Study Abroad in Athens" or some such...this is, in fact, the Parthenon...

Talk about the strength of Samson!!  Look what that Daniel Green had hold up!!

This is the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, originally build in AD 161.  It is used today for outdoor concerts...

This is the same theatre from a different angle...note the ancient structure in the left background...glimpses of antiquity everywhere...

See the handsome man looking away on the right with the khakis and navy sweater?  Yes, that would be Bradley about to go thru The Propylaia, the "new" entrance to the Acropolis.  See if you can find Caleb, Daniel, and Victoria in this picure.  (Hint:  Daniel has on an Indiana Jones-type hat.)  Did I mention that this NEW entrance was built in 437 - 432 BC ?!?!?!

One of the highlights of today was going to Mars Hill, known here as the Areopagus, where Paul preached the sermon recorded in Acts 17.  His entire sermon (Acts 17: 22-34) is written here on this bronze plaque, which is on the side of the Areopagus.

We are now on top of the Areopagus.  Acts 17:22 starts out, "So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said..."  WE WERE STANDING IN THE MIDST OF THE AREOPAGUS, WHERE PAUL STOOD!!!  Brad read Paul's sermon from Acts 17 to us overlooking the city of Athens from the "midst of the Areopagus"...INSPIRING...

Our day ended with gelatto...mmmm.....again, note the temple in the background...this one happens to be Hephaisteion, in the Agora, or marketplace, which formed the political heart of ancient Athens from 600 B.C.

Back "home" in Pikermi, we feasted on souvlakis and gyros at a grill just across the street from the Bible College...WHEW!!  WHAT A DAY!!!!

Silly Saturday in Saffron Walden

I just love this picture of Daniel.  I have oodles of silly face pics from this good-humored boy of mine, and thought I'd share one of my favorites. :)  Many thanks to Jim Leonard, a friend here, who gave Daniel this very British hat...I mean cap...

So, one Saturday we decided to go to a typical village near Cambridge that was not really known for anything too extraordinary.  We found ourselves in Saffron Walden, so named (we learned once there) because it was the center of the saffron industry in England in the early 1500's, and "Walden" was the name of the Abbey here from 1190 onwards.

We love country churches.  I don't know what I thought we'd find in a place called Saffron Walden, but the largest parish church in the county of Essex dating from 1250 was not quite what I had in mind. 

Then, we went to this quaint museum which had a big sand pit with replicas of actual artifacts found in the area cemented to the bottom, and the children had to use paint brushes to carefully brush away the sand to discover the artifact...just like real archeologists!  I think we could have stayed here for HOURS...

These castle ruins also were a surprise in our supposed-to-be-NOT-extraordinary village.  Turns out they date back to around 1135.  Oh my.  (The young boy on the right is Daniel Robar, the delightful son of some friends of ours here, who we invited to come along for the day.)

 

Pastel-colored homes...thatched roofs...suspended street lamp...

And even not-supposed-to-be-extraordinary villages have bakeries...

It was a good day in Saffron Walden.  I just hope when Brits come to the States looking for typical small towns, they don't look for cathedrals, castle ruins, and thatched roofs! :)

...And More Museums

Only one museum to date has the distinction of a repeat visit from the Green family:  the Whipple Museum, named after Robert Whipple, who worked as an assistandt to Darwin's youngest son Horace.  In it is a fascinating array of scientific instruments dating from the Middle Ages to the present day.  The exhibit Caleb is exploring below explains and demonstrates Morse Code.  Victoria's favorite was in drawer #4, which was a microscope with a fly's leg on the slide.  If you'd like to see my seven year old daughter shudder, ask her to describe what a fly's leg looks like under a microscope! 

There was also this captivating device called a zoetrope, which Brad is

elucidating to the two Victorian-era clad children beside him.  The zoetrope was the first optical toy to produce an illusion of a lifelike moving image in the early 19th century.  Very clever indeed.

Our next museum of interest is known as the University Museum of Zoology.  With this huge skeleton of a finback whale (found washed ashore on the English coastline in 1865) visible from the street (!), this one is a real crowd-pleaser. 

Other sightings were this elephant, stoicly posing behind two children and two mamas, one of whom is within days of giving birth.  Considering the fact that one cannot tell WHICH of the mamas is 9 months pregnant, the mama on the left has decided that, uh, maybe she should cut back on Fitzbillies (bakery) runs. (ahem :) ) The pregnant one is actually Elizabeth Robar, and the little blonde cutie is her son Daniel, with whom we enjoy Friday afternoon classical concerts at a place called Kettles Yard, here in Cambridge.  Though ours are the only children there, these concerts are PERFECT for children--roughly 30-40 minutes each, with a different stringed instrument highlighted each week--a veritable gold mine in music ed and appreciation!

Doesn't Victoria look all grown up in this next shot?  She and the boys were GREAT with Daniel Robar, who is 3 years old and ADORES them.  She was explaining to him all the intricacies of the POLAR BEAR just beside them.

And, I've saved the best for last...let's see who can guess...this animal, which is extinct, has living relatives, which are:

1.  medium-sized mammals, who

2.  live in Central and South America, and are

3.  omnivores, with an

4. arboreal browsing lifestyle, and

5.  like to hang upside-down, and

6.  a common species has 3 toes

Did anyone guess ... toucans?  I hope not.  The real answer is a...SLOTH!!  Do you see the size of this thing?  I was dumbfounded.  Thankfully, they are/were slow-moving!  WHEW!!

Lastly, and this has absolutely nothing to do with museums, but Cambridge's newest landmark is quite the conversation piece around here.  Any guess what it is or how much it cost?  Well, for those of you who said, "Oh, it's a giant grasshopper sitting on top of a 1.7 million dollar clock nicknamed 'Chronophage', meaning 'time-eater', which Stephen Hawking unveiled in September 2008 ", you are EXACTLY right.  Well done.

And with that, I bring today's edition to a close...btw, did anyone notice that George Clooney is following the blog?  Wow...:)

Duxford Imperial War Museum

One of our favorite outings to date has been to the Duxford Imperial War Museum.  Duxford is a small village just south of Cambridge, and this museum is "Europe's Premier Aviation Museum," with seven acres of indoor exhibition space, and almost 200 aircraft.  It is truly remarkable!  Here are a few snapshots from our most memorable day...

Our day began at the bus stop.  This was the children's first time to ride a city bus, and the anticipation was high!  We actually got to change buses a time or two, and we all felt very European. :)

Some of the kids' favorite parts were the ride simulators.  There were "hands on" simulators for so many different aspects of flying--I think they were geared towards children, but, well, we ALL enjoyed them!  We went to this one hangar that was a type of hospital for broken airplanes, and in it was a wealth of treasures.  In many ways this one was a favorite because many of the planes had not been cleaned up yet--they may have been crashed in WWII, and still were as they were found.  So, we each chose our favorite plane in the plane hospital, and below are the winners.  Points to anyone who recognizes any of them...

Can you read the name on the plane that Victoria chose?  It says, "Memphis Belle".  Interesting...a taste of home...  The next plane was the boys absolute favorite of the entire museum.  It was the Blackbird, the fastest plane ever flown (2193 mph), and the boys were completely mesmerized by it.  In fact, we have about 15 pictures of it, at various angles, compliments of son number one.  He and Daniel will happily give anyone who asks a full explanation. :)  And then, you may recognize the F15 in front of which are two people demonstrating right angles with the positioning of their feet.  :)

This next one has a great story with it.  Do you see what Victoria is standing in front of?   There USED to be a hangar, built in 1919, which housed all sorts of planes.  An interesting fact about this place is that part of the movie, "The Battle of Britain" was filmed right here at the War Museum.  For those who have seen it, do you remember when the hangar blew up?  Yes, you guessed it.  There was a hangar here that they blew up in the movie, and the reason the explosion looked so real was that it actually blew up in real life, too.  The guide told us that the folks here were not happy about it.  So, he told us that even though the airfield here was active during WWII, it received more damage from the making of the movie than during wartime.  Funny.  Anyway, Victoria is standing in front of where the hangar used to be.  It is now a parking lot.

WHEW!  What a day!! :)