Done Worse

Yesterday we drove to the museum of Aigai in Vergina, which contains four burial mounds — including the father of Alexander the Great (Phillip II) and his son, Alexander IV.

Apparently, no one is yet quite sure where Alexander himself is buried — the historical texts have conflicting information and much digging has not yet revealed him. (I say follow England’s lead on Richard III and check under parking lots.)

The museum is located under the actual burial mound. In addition to many amazing artifacts, you can still see the original tombs in their original locations, including paint on the tombs and the elaborate fighting scenes of Greek gods and myths.    You’re not supposed to take photos but Kostas said, “come on guys, it’s Greece,” so he was my human shield as I snuck a flash-free shot.

With the elaborate artifacts and amazing historical details and descriptions, the whole thing was really amazing. AJ responded appropriately by commenting that if you’ve seen one ceremonial suit of elaborately constructed armor, you’ve seen them all, yeah yeah with the incredible meticulous and delicately constructed and golden oak leaves and acorn crown symbolizing Alexander the Great and power and Macedonia — are we done yet??

The next stop was an incredible park with fields of white daisies and Greek trees that grow in and near streams. We all enjoyed running around and, as an extra nerd bonus, looking for wild Arabidopsis plants (well, okay, Kostas and I were probably the ones who really got into that).

Last, we went to Edessa to see an amazing waterfall and some of the open air museum of water works, which had an old waterwheel to grind wheat into flour. We also checked out the old part of town where you could see building construction of wooden beams and rocks. Pretty amazing. AJ and the kids enjoyed collecting poppies, lilacs and other flowers and giving them to Caterina and me.