I can hear the whistle blow.......

And the whistle blew for 460 kilometers, or about 300 miles as we said "Goodbye" to Turkey and "Hello" to Greece. We did get caught for a while in traffic in Istanbul, but what can you expect when trying to leave a city of 13 million people? We traveled back down the same road we had come into the European side of Turkey on, and then afteer a short coffee and ice cream bar stop (too many of our folk have fallen iin love with Maxim bars, rich dark choclate coating delicious ice cream, that covered in caramel or other flavours if you like) continued west to our jumping off point for Greece.

A weird Turkish law that does not allow buses under 50% capacity to continue across the border (go figure whose brother-in-law in government is profiting from that one!) meant that we had to transfer to a smaller bus, move our luggage, and continue chugging down the road with the Gesticulating Turk, a transfer agent who spoke no English or Greek, but managed to get us through the border with small hassle so we hesitate to criticize him. We traveled down the Egnatian Way, the same route as th old Roman Road that lead across the Empire back to Rome--all roads lead there, you know!

There we met our new travel agency bus and guide, Katerina of Aristotle Travel. We drove two more hours along a new highway that, being just recently opened to traffic, had no place for us to stop for LUNCH!! Out came the crackers, Turkish Delight, secret snacks, and we somehow survived our arrival in the city of Cavala.

Cavala is ancient Neopolis, the port where the Book of Acts says the Apostle Paul first landed in Greece and Europe bringing the message of the Gospels.

Here we climbed (aren't we ALWAYS climbing?!) the street up to the Acropolis, that today features a Byzantine fortress and some buildings from the time of Suleiman the Magnificent (16th century). The town was also fed by a large aquaduct re-built by Suleiman in 1520 on the ruins of an earlier Roman structure. It is quite impressive and bridges the valley.

Our hotel is near the waterfront and some are off for an after-dinner stroll in the coolish air of the this city of 90,000. Tomorrow we will visit ancient Philippi, the main city for which Neapolis was the port. This was a centre named for the father of Alexander the Great, "Grumpy, Nasty, Mean" Phillip the Second.




Watch for news of our day then! Goodnight from Greece! Kali Spera!