The Vatican

I was still so tired from the previous day that I wasn't really sure I would fully appreciate our day in Vatican City.  As a Protestant, it's easy to dismiss some of the pomp of the Catholic Church and I just wasn't sure that I would be impressed by what we would see.  I was wrong.

I think this was my favorite day of the trip.  The Vatican Museum would have been a highlight of the trip all by itself, but it was only the warm-up.  The real jewel was the Sistine Chapel.  I've heard about it all my life, and I guess I thought it couldn't live up to the hype.  In addition, there were THOUSANDS of tourists all over the place, so we were ushered into the chapel where there were so many people that there was barely room to stand and take it all in. But it didn't matter.  I was mesmerized. The vibrant colors, the scenes that covered all the walls and the ceiling were every bit as jaw-dropping as people have said they are.  The images on the ceiling were smaller than I thought they would be, especially the iconic Creation of Adam.  But the Last Judgment covered an entire wall and it was spectacular.  I wished two opposing things at once - that we could have taken photos and that we could have worshipped there.  But photos weren't allowed and worship - other than my own silent prayers - wasn't possible.

After that we went to Saint Peter's Basilica.  I hadn't remembered that Michelangelo's Pieta was here, so I was astounded to turn a corner and see it.  It also took my breath away.  I have seen other versions of Mary holding her son's body, but this one is THE Pieta.  I could have stared at it for hours, but there were other tourists jostling for my spot.  The rest of the basilica was beautiful and moving, but that statue was my favorite.

Then we had time for lunch and shopping, but Clif and I were so tired of the fast pace of this trip that we decided to sit on a bench and watch people.  It was a very enjoyable part of the day. 

To end the sight-seeing part of our trip, we went to the San Callisto Catacombs to see where some of the early Christians, including some popes and martyrs, were buried.  All the bodies have been removed, but you can still see where they were laid and what kinds of inscriptions and paintings were placed near them.  I was also very moved by this experience.  It felt like holy ground as we walked through the dark, narrow chambers.  Once again, no photos were allowed underground, but I took some photos of the garden and area above ground.

Then it was time to return to the hotel and pack up to go home.  I'll be sorting through my photos and my thoughts for quite a while!

Rome

Our first day in Rome was the most grueling day of the trip.  I mean, we saw some amazing things, but the pace nearly killed us.  And again, we are some of the youngest people on the trip!

We disembarked from the ship and loaded our luggage onto a bus.  Our first stop was at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Wall.  This is the traditional burial place of Paul.  It is "Outside the Wall" because when he died, bodies were not permitted to be buried within the city walls of Rome.  The Basilica is huge and beautiful, like all the churches we have seen on this trip. But there was something very moving and solemn about standing in front of the place where Paul's body is buried.  Our group stopped in this place and had a prayer together - remembering all that Paul endured for the sake of the Gospel and offering ourselves in that purpose as well.  It was essentially the culmination of our study of Paul and it was a fitting place of closure.

Next we went on a walking tour of ancient Rome. I can't even tell you all the things we saw, except that it felt like we saw ALL the things.  I know we saw the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

We were so exhausted that many of us considered skipping out of dinner when we heard we would have to get back on the bus to drive to the restaurant.  But fortunately, most of us rallied and we had a wonderful evening of Italian food and fun opera.  Clif was even part of the show when a singer in a red dress drew a heart on his head in lipstick :-)

Pompeii

I think I'm going to have to process Pompeii for a while before I can really say much about it.  One reason is that it was SO much bigger than I thought it would be.  At the Corinthian ruins and the Parthenon, it was possible to stand in one spot and see most of the site.  In Pompeii, I couldn't even stand on the longest street and see both ends. We walked around for 3.5 hours and barely saw 1/4 of it.

But I couldn't ever shake the reality that this had been a busy, metropolitan area with thousands of people.  And within 24 hours, they were gone.  The town is still much as it was when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.  And Vesuvius could erupt again.  Our guide says that the people who live around Naples grow up knowing the evacuation plan.  But how long will it take to move 4,000,000 people?

Corinth and Athens

This whole cruise has been called "Journeys of Paul" but other than Malta, we had yet to be in any place Paul was known to have been.  We have been learning a lot in the lectures by Adam Hamilton and we've learned about the climate and terrain where Paul traveled, but today we finally stood in two places where Paul was known to have stood.

We started the day before the sun, loading onto our 16 tour buses.

First we went to the ruins of ancient Corinth.  Paul spent 18 months there and wrote two of his epistles to the church in Corinth.  We saw the Bema where Paul stood when he was brought before Gallio.  We ate a great Greek lunch and then went to Athens where we saw Mars Hill (and read Paul's speech from there in Acts) and then climbed up to the Parthenon.

I took hundreds of photos and have lots to share with my church when I get back.  But honestly, I literally ran around each place snapping photos of everything in sight and all of the signs so I would know later what I actually photographed.  It was not the way I like to travel - leisurely reading signs and looking through museums.  But we saw some very cool things and I have a new understanding of the life and journeys of Paul.

The day ended with a gorgeous sunset at sea!

Tomorrow is another lecture in the morning and then a day at sea.  I need the rest!

Santorini

I have seen photos of Santorini since I was a child and it was amazing to finally see it in person.  It is built on the caldera of a HUGE volcano that erupted around 1600 B.C.  The legend of the lost city of Atlantis comes from the eruption and the 100-ft tsunami it triggered.  The streets of Santorini are narrow with shops on either side and there are times churches everywhere.  Since Clif has been working late at night on the graphics for Adam's lectures, we slept in and tendered over to the island around 9:30, not sure what we would do.  We immediately saw a tour service that would take us to Oia by speed boat and then back to Fira (Thira) by bus.  So we did that.  Both cities were beautiful but Oia had more high-end shops.  We weren't interested in shopping so we just took photos.

There was another cruise ship in port so everything was very crowded.  We used Trip Advisor to find a cheap local restaurant and had a great lunch.

Then we came back to the ship for worship and teaching from Adam.  It was a long, full day!

Tomorrow is our longest excursion to Athens and Corinth.

Mykonos

There is nothing in the Bible about Paul ever being on Mykonos or Santorini, so there aren't any spiritually meaningful things to do here other than notice all the beautiful church buildings.  But since Paul sailed and traveled in this part of the world, we have a better understanding of what the climate and geography was for his travels.

Mykonos is known as the party island but we were there in the morning and things were pretty quiet.  We found a great recommendation on Trip Advisor for a lunch place so we explored the area for a while and then walked uphill and uphill and uphill some more.  It turns out that the restaurant wasn't anywhere near the dock.  It was all by itself, a place where locals eat.  It also turns out that they didn't open for lunch until 12:30.  Since we got there at 11:30, we weren't willing to hike back down so we found a little cafe and got drinks for an hour.

We met a young couple from Texas outside the restaurant and ended up sitting with them at lunch.  It's fun to talk to other travelers and hear their stories.  And, the food was fantastic!  Worth the long hike up (and back down).

Malta

I'm writing this at the end of our third full day of the cruise, our first full day at sea.  I couldn't write about our day yesterday because I was EXHAUSTED. People who wore fitbits said we walked over 6 miles yesterday - on cobblestones with no lunch break until 2:30.  Clif and I are two of the youngest people on our bus of 46, and we were pushed to our limits.  Part of the problem is that our own tour - 650 of us - create a HUGE line at every place we need to go.  So we spent at least 1.5 hours just standing in line.  Our bus was full of intrepid troopers, but good Lord, we all needed a day to decompress today.  Of course, we still had an hour and a half lecture/worship time  with Adam Hamilton but it was on the ship - no buses or lines required!

Now that I'm done complaining, we saw some cool things in Malta!  The view of the sunrise on the stone buildings was breathtaking.  I felt transported back in time.  We saw the traditional place it is believed that Paul's ship ran aground - St. Paul's island.  Then we went to Mdina, the city where the governor Publius lived.  Paul converted him and he became the first bishop of Malta.  The city is enchanting with narrow streets and tall stone buildings built in the 1300s  where people still live and work.

Next we toured the ruins of the home of a wealthy Roman family.  It is believed to have been inhabited when Paul was on the island so it is likely he visited or even dined with that family.

Then we went to Valletta to see St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was incredibly ornate.

We had lunch with local Maltese foods and saw the preparations for an Indian wedding that was estimated to cost $4 million.  They even closed a street for it!