ακρόπολη

"ακρόπολη" means "acropolis" in Greek.  But do you know what it really means?  An acropolis is the highest point of a city.  We visited two acropolises (acropoli?) in Rhodes, Greece.

 

But first, we visited the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.  It was once a hospital of the Knights Templar.

 

 

 

The coolest thing about the palace was the moat system.  There were actually four moats.  And one of them was a trick moat.  If an enemy tried to break in, and they made it past the first outer wall,  they would then think that the wall of this moat was the city wall.  But, it was really another moat.  The knights guarding the city could them go through a secret tunnel under the moat and surround the enemy from the outside. 

 

The main enemy that they were defending against was the Ottoman Turks.  We could see Turkey across the ocean from the island.  It was not very far.  (Actually the Turks did take over the island eventually, but it took them six months to get past the moats.)  The island was given back to Greece after World War II.

 

The next place we went in Rhodes was the Acropolis of Rhodes, where there was the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Greek God, Apollo, which is the sun god. 

 

There was also a stadium for athletic competitions....

 

And a small theater...

 

Next we went to the Acropolis of Lindos.

 

At the Acropolis of Lindos there was a castle, and inside the castle walls there was the ruins of a temple to Athena.

 

 

The symbol for Rhodes is a pair of fallow deer, one male and one female.  The fallow deer were actually introduced to the island because they are a kind of deer that steps on snakes and kill them.  The island had so many snakes because the snakes were brought to kill all the rats.  And there were so many rats because Rhodes was a very busy port and the rats would come off the sailing ships.

 

(We had no rats on our ship...)

 

καλημέρα

"καλημέρα" (say it "colly-meruh") means "Good Day!" in Greek!

 

Our next day on the cruise we went to Santorini, which is an island in Greece.  While we were walking around this little cat started following us.  He even posed for a picture with us! 

 

 

Then we went to an archeological site called Akrotiri.  It was a city that was covered and preserved in ash when a volcano exploded around 1200 BC.  Some people even think that Akrotiri might be the Lost City of Atlantis.  Everyone in Atlantis mysteriously disappeared and we know that everyone in Akrotiri left before the volcanic eruption because there are no human remains in the city.  Akrotiri was also very advanced.  They had three story buildings, running water, and they had frescos preserved by the ash showing that they wore very nice clothing.  Now the main part of the site is covered inside of a building to protect it from the weather.

 

 

We thought this hotel was funny because it was near Akrotiri.

 

On the island we also saw a lot of doorways that led to stairs going down and we called them the doors to nowhere because you couldn't tell there was anything behind the door but the ocean. 

 

The city of Fira is built on this big cliff so there are lots of buildings that are built on different levels and so it looks like they are built on top of each other.

 

All of the streets in the city are very narrow and so you can't drive cars on them.  You have to go around on a donkey or walk.  (I walked.)

 

There were a lot of churches.

 

 

Most of the homes were painted white or light yellow to reflect the sun so it doesn't get too hot.

To get from the top to the bottom of the island there are three choices: You can walk down lots of steps, you can take a donkey down lots of steps, or you can take cable cars.  (I took the the cable car.)
In this picture you can see the zig zag road up the side of the cliff that the donkeys take.

 

 

 

And that was my trip my to Santorini!

 

αθλητής

"αθλητής" (say it: "ath-ley-teys") means "athlete" in Greek!

Last Wednesday we went to Olympia, Greece!  It is the place where the very first Olympics was held in 776 B.C. in honor of the Greek God, Zeus. 

The original Olympics only had five sports.  (Ping Pong and Synchronized Swimming were not on the list.)  They were running, discus, javellin, jumping, and boxing.

 

 

Here I am running in the original stadium with my mom.