We arrived at this port city around 8 a.m. and took the panoramic tour that left at 8:30 a.m.
Thessaloniki is the capital of the northern Greek province of Macedonia. It was founded by King Cassander of Macedon in 315 BC. The King named the city after his wife, Thessaloniki, half sister of Alexander the Great. Her name means Thessalian victory. The city is an ancient blend of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman cultures and architecture. Today it has a population of 1,200,000.
Our first stop was at the White Tower (formerly known as the Tower of Blood.) It stands 115 feet tall.
It originally was part of the city’s defensive wall. It later became the quarters for the sultan’s private guard (after the Ottoman takeover.) However, when a plot against the ruler was uncovered in 1826, the guilty members of the guard were sent to the tower for execution, thus the Tower of Blood. Later, it was painted white. It is an icon of this city.
We continued walking down the waterway promenade of the city along the Gulf of Thessaloniki which comes in from the Aegean Sea. It is a beautiful walk that many locals enjoy daily.
Our next stop was by the Statue of Alexander
III (the Great,) son of Philip II. He is facing East, representing his desire to conquer all the land east of Greece. His father was a military genius and expanded his empire, suppressing resistance with extreme brutality. He set the stage for his son to continue to expand. Alexander was only 20 when he assumed the throne (at the death of his father – which some believe he had a hand in.) Below is the picture of the kind of spears and shields he
used. His were 6 meters long while everyone else’s were only 3 meters long. On the shield were images that were to scare his enemies (as if the longer spears didn’t!)
By the time he died in 323 BC, his empire included Egypt, Persia, all of Asia Minor and much of modern Afghanistan and India. He was only 33 years old.
We drove through the town and then up the hillside where some of the old walls could be seen. This is what they call the upper city where the Ottomans lived (the Greeks and Jews lived below.) From the top, you had a wonderful
view of the city below. (Click to enlarge pics.)
We stopped for a snack at a restaurant high up on this hillside with a great view for tea and cookies.
There was a large Jewish population before they were deported during WWII. They had beautiful villas 
that have been restored and are now museums and galleries. Before the 50,000 were deported when the Nazis occupied the city, it was the oldest Jewish community in Europe. There were very few survivors, and now only 1,500 Jews live here. There is an excellent museum, Simon Marks Museum, that documents the rich and tragic societal history. It includes horrible relics survivors brought back from the camps, including soap bas that were made from the body fat of murdered Jews. The museum was closed the day we were there.
The largest university in Greece is located here. It is Aristotle University with 70,000 students. Tuition is free.
St. Demetrios is Thessaloniki’s patron saint. He was locked away in an ancient Roman bathhouse where he was later murdered in 303 AD. When Agios Dimitrios church was built a few centuries later, the ruined bathhouse was incorporated as a crude crypt. You can see part of the church in the left part of this picture. 
Another church we passed was St. Sophia, a copy of the one we will see in Istanbul. It has a similar basilica and cupola. Its minaret is now a bell tower – not seen in the picture above.
We were delighted with the tour of this city, and it was much more interesting than we had thought it would be. We were glad to have taken the tour instead of just walking around on our own. We would have missed a lot.
This evening was formal night, and we had dinner in the Vista dining room with Craig and Makena. It was a fun evening full of interesting conversation.
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