Conquistadors and Pirates

Last month while there was an ice storm in our home town we headed south to sunny and warm Florida where we visited my grandparents and had the privilege to go on Landmark Event's tour in St. Augustine. Mr. Turley did a wonderful job planning a tour exploring pirates, the fountain of youth, conquistadors, early settlers, and more. Mr. Bill Potter and Colonel Eidsmoe were our wonderful and informative tour guides.  I've gone on numerous tours with Mr. Potter and he never ceases to amaze me with his wealth of knowledge. 

The legendary Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. I have a couple things to say about it. 

First, it tastes horrible. 

Second, I was very disappointed to hear the the spring from this well actually provides the drinking water for most of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Deer Park and Dasani water also bottle water from this spring. So most likely you have drunk water from the fountain of youth and not even known it. Not as special and exclusive as I first thought it was. 

 Mr. Potter at Fort Caroline. 

On our last morning we visited the Pirate Museum, the only one of its kind in the world we were told.  It contained a lot of historical artifacts from pirates. Pictured above is Captain Kidd's family bible. Apparently, he did a lot of reading from it during his last days, though no sources report that he became a Christian. 

Athens day 1

Our last stop on the trip was Athens. I've always wanted to visit Athens after seeing so many pictures of it in history books. The city of Athens isn't particularly nice, the economic downturn shows. Countless beautiful old buildings are abandoned, falling apart, and covered in graffiti. Sad.

The incredible view from our hotel room. This is the temple of Zeus. You can't see it in this picture but just to the left you can see the Acropolis. 

This is what most of the buildings look like, beauty underneath but hidden by dirt and graffiti. 

I was so excited this day. I felt like I had stepped into my history book. 

This is Mars Hill. It's right next to the Acropolis and is the hill where Paul gave his talk in Acts 17. Like the previous Biblical places we had visited, to be where Paul spoke is very moving. 

Pastor Morecraft gave a wonderful talk walking us through Acts 17. 

This is the Antikythera. The function is written below. The most amazing part of this device is how old it is, before Christ, and yet they knew how to measure the placement of the sun, moon, and tides. 

There is one big rule in Europe. Eat gelato. It's 100 times better than the US. 

Mykonos and Delos

Almost everyone who has been on pinterest has probably seen a picture of Greece, specifically the picture of pure white buildings with blue roofs. Well on this day we visited that place, Mykonos. It felt like walking on my pinterest board. 

 The water around Mykonos is unlike any other water I've ever seen. It's CRYSTAL clear.

 For the morning we took a short ferry ride over to the island of Delos. A now abandoned island that used to be ultimate pagan city with the most temples. 

 It's still quite intact and you can still see the outlines of the houses and their rooms

 This is a courtyard of a wealthy man's house. On the other side are the rooms and there would have been a second story. 

 Some of the houses still have the plaster on the walls. 

 This is believed to be the oldest Jewish synagogue. 

 Still can't get over the color of the water

 After our adventure on Delos we headed back to Mykonos to do some exploring. 

 Pinterest worthy. 

Sunset as viewed from our sailboat in the Greek islands. Oh yes.