Thessaloniki, what a lovely place! We stayed at a beautiful motel ( The Golden star) right in the beach.
We traveled into the centre of the city, it was like driving in the centre of Sydney, however the streets were about the width of those in Balmain and we were in a coach! our driver Elias is an excellent driver, very, very skilled at navigating the narrow streets and huge amount of traffic.
We saw the ancient walls of Thessaloniki that protected them from invaders; and also the high density accommodation everywhere. Part of the protection was a tower called the White Tower, it was painted white because during the Muslim reign it was used as a prison for the Christians where they were tortured in many barbaric ways so it was then known as the tower of blood. After the Muslims left it was painted white in an effort to erase the bad memories.
The highlight of the morning was the visit to the ancient church of Saint Demetrius. The history was fascinating as Lula, our guide explained it.
Demetrius was from the aristocracy and became a Christian, joined the Army where he was a faithful witness for Jesus to both soldiers and civilians as well. He was discharged because of this and became a driving force in Thessaloniki. But when the Turks invaded he was captured and beheaded under this church. At this place a few days later that water started to come out of the wall, and later was a place of miraculous healing.
As we looked around in that place we felt the presence of the saints past who had worshiped and many became martyrs there, we felt the presence of God and were moved in our spirits as we thought about that early church, realizing that this is our heritage also! We owe so much to those who have gone before us.