The Barney's Visit

Elder and Sister Taylor had visitors at the same time we did. Elder Taylor's sister and her husband came to visit from Texas. They wanted to bring them to Meteora, so arranged to be there the same time we were there. We met them for dinner in the evening in Kalambaka. Brother Taylor on the far right is a patriarch and was able to give patriarchial blessings to several of the members in Athens. They have no patriarch in Greece, so he received special permission to give the blessings. Those who received them had to be fluent in English. We put the Barney's on the train in Larisa the next day and they finished out their trip in Athens before flying home.

Meteora appears to be a mecca for rock-climbers and we got treated to a real spectacle. These climbers had a rope strung between these two rocks and this young man was walking across it. I thought he must have a death wish, but he did have a safety rope to catch him. He did lose his balance and sit on the rope a couple of times, but got back up and walked across to the other rock. All the onlookers (us included) cheered and whistled for him.

While Bob and Tiffany were looking in one of the monasteries, we took a road to a little village further up the mountain. The village is called Vlachava and the scenery below us was incredibly beautiful. You can see the road we drove up on and just to the right of where the road disappears over the hill is one of the monasteries atop a pinnacle.

Tiffany and Bob with their heads out the window at the Holy Trinity Monastery at Meteora. In years past, this is where the rope basket hung that let the monks up and down to enter or leave the monastery. They go by gondola now and the tourists have a good climb up lots of stairs and back down to visit.

The grapevines intrigue me and this one is just down the street from us. It begins on the ground and two vines go to the roof of the third story where it spreads out over the lattice work and the grapes grow.

What would a trip to Thessaloniki be without having your picture taken in front of the White Tower!

Tiffany and Bob and Aristotle himself!!!

This enterprising fellow was playing his homemade instrument in Aristotelos (Aristotle) Square, the big pedestrian walkway in the center of the city. The base of his instrument looked like it was made from an empty olive oil can. We didn't give him money for his music, but we did for letting us take his picture.

On Tuesday, we spent the day seeing the sites of Thessaloniki. Since there is so much graffiti here, Bob and Tiff figured that Dennis must have put the D + B on the post below one of the towers of the old fortress, so they had us pose for a picture there. Thessaloniki was a walled city in centuries past and parts of the old city wall and fortress are still in tact.

This probably just looks like another mountain to you, but this is a famous one. This is Mt. Athos. It is the on the end of the eastern-most peninsula of Halkidiki and is the "Vatican" of the Greek Orthodox Church. There are 21 monasteries there and it is home to about several thousand monks. The public is forbidden from entering Mt. Athos and it is only accessible by boat. Woman are never allowed and men can visit with a special permit from the government, but they don't go to site-see. They go for a spiritual retreat. It is an impressive-looking mountain.

This is the beach right below where we ate and Tiffany has now been in the Aegean Sea.

We stopped at a little village called Sarti and Bob and Tiffany wanted to put their feet in the water. The weather was a little cool, but we dined outside at a little taverna, and after we ate, Bob and Tiff both tried out the water.

Some of the beautiful scenery driving around Halkidiki...lots of mountains and sea. These little church-like memorials are erected by people who want to remember a blessing God has given them, like sparing their lives in an accident, or as a memorial to a loved one. They are all along the roadsides all over the country. The people who erected them will sometimes put pictures in them or other mementos or icons and will come back and light candles there on the anniversary of the event.

It was wonderful to see the Barney's after missing them for more than 20 months!! Here they are arriving at the airport.

Mohammud was working on a fishing boat. Dennis stopped to talk to him and he invited us to come aboard and look around and he posed for a picture with us. He didn't speak English, but we managed to get by with our limited Greek and lots of sign language. We learned that he was preparing the ship to go out the next morning for two days of fishing with two other crewmen and a captain. He was from Cairo, was married and had a little boy and a little girl. He was very friendly and kind to us.

We stopped at a little village called Porto Koufo. That might sound familiar from a previous post. (It's the little village where Alexandros took us in January for our cultural seafood dining experience.) We enjoyed looking at the fishing boats and made a new friend, Mohammud, from Egypt.

The Barney's attended church with us Sunday. It was Fast Sunday and we had a wonderful, spiritual testimony meeting. Bob added much to it with his beautiful testimony. Some of the missionaries said that was the most spiritual meeting they had been to since they came to Greece. On Monday we took the Barney's for a drive around the second finger of Halkidiki. Here we are at the marina at Neo Marmaras.

We went to the Greek Orthodox Church just before midnight to hear a little of the mass and see the passing of the Holy Light. The pappas lights another person's candle and that person lights another's and so on, until everyone's candle is lit. We just observed.

Bob and Tiffany arrived at about noon on April 3rd, the day before Easter. Even though they were tired, they joined the Branch for an Easter activity that evening. We had a good turnout. Here are various Branch members and missionaries getting ready to do the traditional egg-tapping. (Notice that the eggs are dyed red in remembrance of the blood of the Savior.) Each person holds a hard-boiled egg in his hand and taps it against another person's egg. The first person is supposed to say "Christ is risen" and the second person responds, "He is truly risen." You keep tapping with different people until your egg cracks....much like the egg-rolling tradition we have in our family.