Beroea and the Road to Athens: Day 9

Today we set out from Thessaloniki toward our final destination of the trip, Athens. It's a long ride, but there were a couple of stops that we made along the way. In the morning we made a stop in Vioria, which in Biblical days was known as Beroea. This is where Paul escaped to after the drama in Thessalonica ( Acts 17:10-15). Here Paul preached and taught for multiple days, enough that Jews from Thessalonica heard about it and came to Beroea to cause trouble for him. In the town today there is a site that commentates Paul's work in the town, including a statue of him, a beautiful monument depicting his ministry in the town, and finally a set of ancient steps that tradition says Paul stood on to preach.

Next we had a special treat for all the history buffs in the group. We went to the small town of Vergina (vur-HEE-na) where we were able to visit the tomb of Phillip II. Phillip was the father of Alexander the Great, and was known for strengthening Macedonia, which would provide the stability Alexander needed to go about his conquests. The museum was unique because it is actually inside the mound of dirt that was constructed over the tombs, known as a tumulus. Also inside this tumulus was the tomb of Alexander IV, Philip's grandson and son of Alexander the Great. We were able to see the artifacts found in the tomb and learn about the accomplishments of Phillip.

We made one other stop that I sort of geeked out at, and that was the location of the battle of Thermopyles. This is the site where the 300 Spartans under the leadership of King Leonidus fought the massive Persian army. They held them off and maybe would have won if they had not been betrayed. It was just really fun for me to see the mountain where this took place since me and all my teammates in college loved the movie 300!

It was a long day of riding. We finally made it to Athens and our hotel at 8:30. Tomorrow we ride the two hours over to Corinth to see all that there is there.

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