Kavala and Philippi Greece

They say a little rain must fall, but this is day 40 of our European Adventure and it's the first time we've had rain during a daytime outing. We've dodged the bullet on numerous ify days, but heh, with weather, you get what you get. Anyway, we found ourselves in the port of Kavala today, with its Roman Aquaduct, still used until the 1950's for delivering water.

Kavala also has an acropolis featuring a citadel.

Our excursion took us about a half hour out of Kavala to the archaeological site of Philippi with our guide for today, Athena.

The ancient city of Philippi, originally called Krenides, was started in 360 BC. When Philip ll of Macedonia captured it in 356 BC, he got his own name planted on the outskirts of town. It was buried for many centuries before being discovered in 1914. They found the top of this theatre first and then knew where there is a theatre, there must be a town.

It turns out that in the peak of its prominence, Philippi had a population of between 35000 and 40000. All we saw today were the remains of the common areas of the town like the forum and basilicas.

There will be no stunning photos today since it drizzled the entire tour. One unique highlight of the tour was the common area toilet used only by men. Women could only go potty in their own homes.

Also, we walked along a section of the original road through Philippi called the Via Egnatia. This Roman road stretching from Albania to what is now Istanbul, linked up with the other famous Roman road the Appian Way.

Philippi is known to Biblical scholars, because Apostle Paul founded the first Christian church on European soil here in 49/50 AD. Earthquakes and Slav raids accounted for the area's demise and abandonment. Following our soggy visit, we abandoned it as well and returned to Kavala and the ship.

Heh! Happy Halloween! Someone on the ship seems to be getting into the spirit of it.

Of course noone in this part of Europe - or most of Europe for that matter - knows anything about Halloween. But we're on an American ship and later tonight there will be a party - dress up I'm guessing - because even though Dawn really loves costume parties, we'll be giving this one a pass. Tonight was our last visit to a specialty restaurant - once again Polo, the steakhouse. There is nothing wrong with this restaurant, but generally it is always too much - too much meat in particular. Anyway, we wandered up to the show this evening and called it a night.