2018 Eastern Mediterranean Trip - Day 34, Thessaloniki Iron Man/Woman Day

I am telling you right now all you children/nieces...don't want to hear a word...not one word...hear me...about certain older folks NOT learning from past experience...NOT ONE WORD.

Today was long...It was great...It was exhausting...It was a complete experience.

We did a photography tour but unlike others we've done it was less like a photo workshop and more a complete immersion into what this city is all about. It was a whirlwind going to all the places there were to go to an take pictures that captured its essence.

Thessaloniki is a city built on the side of a hill with a coastal plain. It has an incredible history. After being a Greek and Roman city, it rose to prominence in the late Roman period and the Byzantine era. During Byzantium it was the second city of the Empire. It was actually the capital in exile during the Fourth Crusade when the Crusaders and Venice capture Constantinople. During the Ottoman Empire it was equally important. When Moorish Spain was conquered by the Christians, many Jews and Muslims came to Thessaloniki adding to its prosperity. When the Ottoman Empire died, numerous Balkan countries fought to gain control over Thessaloniki with Greece ultimately prevailing. In this city are remnants of all these events.

Our tour was scheduled to start at 9 and last 5 hours. It went to 3:30. We drove to a citadel at the top of the old city (in past times, the city was mostly inland so it was not vulnerable to attack from the sea. We then proceeded to wind our way downhill through the old town, an visual delight of color. Then into the modern city which is dotted with various monumental artifacts throughout...a Roman Arch here, a Byzantine church there, an Ottoman era bath, the old Roman Agora, the offices from the early 20th century with clock that was frozen at the hour an earthquake hit. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Genoa, Italy, a city with all kinds of history but which was alive and in the moment.

Our guide, Spartakos, was not the photo teacher like some of our past photo tour guides but man he knows his city. We covered so much of it and were given free rein to do what we love to do best - just let our eyes wander and take pictures of the aspects of the city that strike us. It is rare that we get that from the guided tours we take.

We were about two thirds into our tour, when suddenly the weather turned and it started to pour. We made our way through an area mercifully with lots of overhangs until we came to grill place and grabbed some gyros since we hadn't eaten all day (it was around 1:30 in the afternoon at this point).

I think we got a better idea of what this complex city was about in one day then we might have in a week on our own. But oh my goodness we were tired when we got back to our Airbnb. We both collapsed and took a nap. Since then we've been working our our pictures. I took 195! That's more pictures in one day by a factor of almost 30%! Wife took even more but she always does. We've been working for around 3 hours since we've been back trying to winnow them down. I got it down to 70. But the bandwidth on the Internet here is limited. So I've decided I will get up early in the morning and try to upload them then in a separate post.

Tomorrow we are going to take it easier, go down to the waterfront which we did not see today. We continue to love and have a great time in Greece. But our time here is coming to an end. On Wednesday we leave and head for our last destination, the Aegean coast of Turkey. More adventures ahead!