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10 Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands - Da'at Educational Expeditions
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10-Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands
Air & Land
$3,860
Land Only
Greece Tours

Explore Athens, a place of ancient culture and modern Jewish history. See Athen's ancient structures -- where people worshipped and admired the Greek gods of yore. Understand the history of the Jews of Greece, a community that was established with the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and expulsion of Jews from the ancient land of Israel. Meet Greek Jews who are recording their long and peaceful history in the country; a community almost completely destroyed during World War Two.
Program Highlights Need to Know Register Now
 
Tour Highlights
  • Visit the new Acropolis Museum
  • Visit Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum
  • Meet with Jewish community members
  • Visit the Benakai Museum
  • Walk through the old Jewish section of Thessaloniki
  • Drive thtough the Saronic Gulf to Cape Sounion
  • Evening event with Greek music
  • 4-day islands cruise including: Mykonos, Kusadasi, Patmos, Rhodes, Herkalion and Santorini

 

Trip Includes


  • 8 nights accommodation in selcted hotels
  • 4 nights in Hilton Athens
  • 4 nights onboard Louis MV Aquamarine
  • Breakfast daily 6 lunches and 8 dinners
  • Sightseeing per itinerary in a modern air-conditioned motor coach with panoramic windows
  • Services of a friendly and professional English-speaking Expedition Educator throughout the trip
  • Entrance fees per itinerary
  • Airport transfers on arrival and departure
  • City taxes and VAT
  • All hotel portage and tipping included

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Day One
Wednesday - DEPARTURE

 

  • Depart the U.S. on your way to Greece.

Overnight: Flight

Day Two
Thursday - Arrival in Greece

 

  • Arrive in Athens.
  • Welcome by Da'at representative, assistance with arrival formalities and transfer to your hotel (included in package price).
  • Take a city tour of Athens and gain an appreciation of this ancient city, one of the world's oldest. See thePanathenic Stadium, known as the Kallimarmaro, Temple of Olympian Zeus, the neoclassical Greek Parliament, Syntagma or Constitution Square, Hadrian's Arch and the ancient Agora.
  • Visit the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum -- the most extensive ruins are from the Golden Age of Athens but there are also remains thought to date from the Late Bronze age.
  • See the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, with works inspired by ancient jewelry design to modern commissions and private collections of jewelry and decorative arts from all over the world.
  • Da'at Encounter: Welcome dinner and dialogue with the Jewish Community of Athens, discussing the past, Present and Future.

Overnight: Athens

Day Three
Friday - Athens and the Jewish Culture

  • Breakfast at your hotel.
  • Da'at Encounter: VIP visit to the Jewish Museum of Greece. Originally founded in 1977, it has developed an impressive collection and helped in the recording, research and preservation of the history of the Jews of Greece.
  • Guided visit through the Jewish community compound, including the Etz Haim Synagogue, home to the Romaniote community of Jews who are first recorded as living in Greece shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 ACE; and the Sephardic community's Beth Shalom, the site for the new Holocaust Memorial in Athens.
  • Da'at Encounter: Meet and dialogue with community leaders over cocktails in the courtyard of the Jewish community compound.
  • Benaki Museum: Private VIP visit and chance to view this extensive collection of Greek art from pre-history until today.
  • Shabbat dinner with members of the Athens Jewish community.
  • Optional walking tour through the Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens with its numerous pedestrian areas, quaint shops and coffeehouses.    

Overnight: Athens
 

Day Four
Saturday - Thessaloniki and Jewish History

  • Breakfast at your hotel.
  • Transfer to the airport.
  • Departure from Athens and arrival in Thessaloniki.
  • Guided visit through the Jewish sites of Thessaloniki, including Villa Allatini, Villa Mordoch, the Hippocrates Hospital, Museum of the Jewish Presence in Thessaloniki and the Yad Le'Zicharon Synagogue, still in daily use today by the local community, which numbers about 1,300 people. During the Ottoman period, Jews accounted for almost half of the local population but numbers dwindled after a catastrophic city fire in 1917. The remaining 50,000 Jews who were successful and well-integrated into local society were almost all murdered during the Holocaust.
  • Continue your tour of Thessaloniki including the Great Wall and the White Tower, remains from the city's Byzantine period.
  • Da'at Encounter: Meet and dialogue with members of the local Jewish community at the Thessaloniki Jewish Community Center -- The Jews of Thessaloniki: The Glory of Yesterday and the Challenges of Today.
  • Transfer for the airport.
  • Departure flight to Athens.
  • Arrive in Athens.

Overnight: Athens     

Day Five
Sunday - View From Poseidon's Perch

  • Breakfast at your hotel.
  • Enjoy a scenic drive from Athens along the coastal road and views of the Saronic Gulf.  Pass through some of Athens's upscale, suburbs of Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza. Continue on to Cape Sounion, home to the 5th century BCE, Temple of Poseidon. Dedicated to the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, it is perched high above the Aegean Sea with panoramic views that extend for miles.
  • Return to Athens.
  • Farewell dinner and program.
  • Enjoy an evening of Greek music and dance at Plaka.

Overnight: Athens

Day Six
Monday - Cruise Day One

  • Breakfast at the hotel.
  • Check out of your hotel.
  • Transfer to Piraeus - embark on your cruise.
  • Lunch onboard.
  • Arrive at Mykonos just in time for the evening's festivities. Famous for its nightlife, Mykonos will charm you with its famous windmills, whitewashed buildings and quaint streets.
  • Free time at leisure.
  • Dinner onboard.
  • Depart Mykonos.

Overnight: Cruise

Day Seven
Tuesday - Cruise Day Two

  • Breakfast onboard.
  • Arrive in Kusadasi, a resort town on Turkey's Aegean coastline.
  • Free time at leisure, exploring the town, inhabited as early as 3000 BCE.
  • Optional half-day tours (not included in package price):
    • Ephesus and the house of Virgin Mary (Not suitable for passengers with walking difficulties). Visit this site, reputed to be Mary's home when she was brought to Ephesus with St. John after the resurrection.
    • Ancient Ephesus, home to magnificent Roman ruins - the most extensive in the Western Mediterranean - as well as other important antiquities from Ephesus's long history.
  • Lunch onboard.
  • Depart to Patmos.
  • Arrive in Patmos, where there are remains found on the island that date back to the Bronze Age, and which is also home to the Monastery of St. John the Divine and is said to be the place where St. John received his revelation.
  • Dinner onboard.
  • Depart Patmos.

Overnight: Cruise

Day Eight
Wednesday - Cruise Day Three

  • Breakfast onboard.
  • Early morning arrival in Rhodes, the largest and most populous of the Dodecanese Islands.
  • Free time at leisure to explore the Roman ruins as well as the Jewish Quarter of Rhodes, once home to a thriving community that was almost completely destroyed during the Holocaust.
  • Optional half-day tours (not included in package price):
    • Rhodes and Lindos combined: Both cities are places where ancient peoples lived, fought and built their monuments, many of which survive in part to this day. 
    • Old City and Filerimos: The Old City is where the Jewish community once lived, at one time nearly one-third of the population of Rhodes was Jewish. The synagogue, Kahal Shalom, established in 1557, is the oldest one in Greece and is still standing in the Old City. In Filerimos, see the remains of a Byzantine church and an early Christian basilica as well as other fascinating ruins that lay on this hilltop about 35 miles from the city of Rhodes.
  • Lunch onboard.
  • Depart to Heraklion (Crete).
  • Dinner onboard.

Overnight: Cruise

Day Nine
Thursday- Cruise Day Four

  • Breakfast onboard.
  • Arrival in Heraklion, Crete, in the early morning.
  • Morning at leisure in Crete's largest city, first established by the Saracens in 824 ACE and close to the famous ruins of Knossos from Minoan times.  
  • Return to the ship for lunch onboard.
  • Arrive in Santorini - a group of volcanic islands that formed as a result of the Minoan eruption about 3,600 years ago.
  • Leisure time to explore the island and admire the colorful, sandy beaches, marked by the lava flows that ran underneath, forever changing the look of the sand. Ruins remain from the Minoan as well as later Hellenic periods.
  • Dinner onboard.
  • Depart to Piraeus.

Overnight: Cruise

Day Ten
Friday- Depart Greece

  • Breakfast onboard.
  • Arrive in Piraeus.
  • Transfer to Athens airport (included in package price).
  • Departure flight back home.

 
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11 Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands
2010Land/Cruise OnlyStatus 
Oct 20$3860On Sale
 
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