We begin our discovery of classical Greece in Athens. From the Acropolis to the Temple of Zeus, Athens is bursting with art, history and culture. Walk through the agora and imagine life in the ancient capital. Stroll through the Plaka and look for bargains in the shops and from the street vendors. Try a cup of Greek coffee or Ouzo at a cafe in Syntagma Square and watch the world go by.

We'll spend a night in Ouranoupolis in order to get our permits to visit Mount Athos. Ouranoupolis is a lovely small port city with many restaurants and a charming waterfront.

We depart from Ouranoupolis by boat to the Holy Mountain, home to the theocratic republic of Mount Athos. We will spend four nights as guests of the ancient monasteries, sometimes sharing simple meals with the monks. Each day we will hike along stunning mountains paths overlooking the Aegean Sea, then tour the monasteries and inspect icons, crowns, coronation robes, ancient books, manuscripts, and a myriad of Byzantine artifacts. We will dine simply under frescoes of the saints and the Last Supper. At sunset generators are shut down and our world is illuminated by candlelight.

We complete our journey with an optoinal extension to Mykonos, the gay mecca of the Greek Isles. Lay on the white sand beaches or visit Super Paradise, a famous nude beach. Have lunch at a lovely restaurant on the water and relax in the shade of gently swaying palm trees. For a little history, we also take a side trip to uninhabited Delos, a stunning small island with sacred roots dating back to the 5th Century BC.

1: Arrival in Athens

Most travelers will arrive in Athens in the afternoon, with North American travelers departing home the day before. Our first group activity will be our Welcome Dinner on the terrace of a lovely restaurant overlooking the Parthenon, which crowns floodlit Acropolis.

2: Temples & Tavernas

Our introduction to Athens begins with morning and afternoon guided tours to the splendid Benaki Museum and the Acropolis. We'll see the Temple of Zeus, and the ancient agora, brilliantly restored by the American School of Archeology in Athens, and additional places of cultural interest in the city. Dinner is at a typical Greek taverna near our hotel.

3: Never on a Sunday

This is a day for exploring on one's own. For starters, the legendary Sunday flea market in Plaka (old town) is a shopper's delight; you might enjoy brunch at Kafe Abyssina, a favorite local restaurant; and a walk through the wonderland of Plaka's outdoor cafes, street vendors and shops. Another must is the funicular ride to the top of Lycabettus Hill for a breathtaking view of the city. And you can't miss the formal Sunday changing of the tall pom-pom-footed guards outside Parliament, complete with marching band!

4: Ouranoupolis Permitting

In the morning we transfer to the Athens airport for our one hour flight north to Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki. We drive across the hills of the Chalcidice Peninsula to Ouranoupolis, where we will stay at the small traditional Hotel Ellinikon. The hotel is within walking distance of both the harbor, with its pier and excellent restaurants, and the Pilgrims Bureau, where we will obtain our permits early the next day to visit the Holy Mountain.

5: Hands across the water

Weather permitting, we can enjoy breakfast under an arbor of ripe grapes in the hotel's courtyard before presenting ourselves to the Holy Community officials at the nearby Pilgrims Bureau. With our letter of permission from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs already in hand, we receive the impressive-looking diamonitirion, a document we present to the guest master in each monastery where we stay. One hundred permits are granted to Orthodox men each day, but only ten are reserved for non-Orthodox men. Women have not been allowed on Mount Athos for 1000 years.

We then depart by boat along the peninsula to the port of Dafni where we stop for lunch. From there we travel to our first night's lodgings. Depending on our final itinerary, we may take the bus up to Karyes, the tiny capital of Mount Athos, and then make an easy downhill hike to the Monastery of Iviron on the north coast. Another possibility is to take a smaller boat from Dafni to Dionysiou, one of the monasteries overlooking the rugged south coast of the peninsula.

6-8: The Holy Mountain

Our route for these three days will depend upon the decision of the Holy Community and the monasteries as to where we are to be received and lodged. Our hikes are never too long or arduous, but Mount Athos is mountainous and we must be prepared to walk two or three hours every morning and afternoon at a leisurely pace. On some days, we may ride part of the way in a Land Rover, along the recently built gravel roads, and then hike the final portion of our journey.

In passing from one massive walled, domed and pinnacled monastery to another we walk through valleys and dense forests, and along cliffs rising precipitously from the sea. During the day the monasteries are powered by generators, but these are replaced by candles at sunset. The scarcity of signs of modern life has led travelers to compare Mount Athos to legendary Shangri-La.

In the monasteries we hear the hammering on wooden boards, summoning the monks to prayer, beginning pre-dawn and continuing periodically during the day. We may see the Abbot seated on his gilded throne while bearded monks and novices prostrate themselves during services in the candle-lit churches. We inspect icons, crowns, coronation robes, ancient books, manuscripts, imperial charters and a myriad of additional Byzantine artifacts in the Monasteries' treasure rooms and libraries. In the vast refectories (dining halls), under frescoes of the saints and the Last Judgment, we break bread at marble tables and eat bean soup, fish, vegetables, rice, cheese, olives and fruit. We drink tea or wine made by the monks. Throughout the meals one of the monks reads aloud from the Holy Scriptures, while we eat in silence. In fifteen or twenty minutes, when the Abbot has had his fill, the meal is finished for us all.

These four days on Mount Athos will provide us with an incomparable flashback in time, a very memorable and moving experience.

9-10: Ouranoupolis and Thessaloniki

This morning, we depart from our last monastery, board the ferry for our voyage from this unique peninsula, and arrive back in the modern world of Ouranoupolis in the early afternoon.

After a late luncheon at a waterfront restaurant, we return to the Hotel Ellinikon (where our luggage has been stored during our visit to Mount Athos) for dinner and the night.

In the morning we travel from Ouranoupolis by motorcoach to the port of Thessaloniki, the second largest city and port in Greece. During our city tour we will see the White Tower, originally part of the ramparts that surrounded the city, and sites where Saint Paul visited and spoke to the Thessalonians as early as 50 AD. After some free time in the afternoon, we will have our Farewell Dinner and spend the night at one of the finest hotels in the city.

11: Good-bye or good beaches

After breakfast we transfer to the airport for our flights to Athens and home, or connect for the optional extension to Mykonos.

Those opting for the Mykonos extension will transfer at Athens airport for their non-stop flight to Mykonos where we relax for three days at the Hotel Leto, located right on the harbor and within easy walking distance of all the restaurants and bars in town. With its whitewashed houses and narrow, clean streets, countless little churches and thatched windmills with canvas sails, Mykonos is a delight. The island has many beaches and quiet coves for swimming and sunbathing, tempting boutiques, and outdoor cafés for watching the locals and visitors.

12-13: MYKONOS EXTENSION

Mykonos offers a wide variety of activities, including relaxing and planning nothing at all. Our one included excursion is by boat to nearby Delos, the sacred island which was a noted religious center as early as the 5th Century BC. The small island is now uninhabited, and we are guided through the ruins of ancient monuments and commercial buildings, some with delicate mosaic pavements. We see the famous terrace of the lions, where five of these archaic stone beasts remained in their original positions until being moved into the Delos museum in 2000 for preservation from the continual salt-air winds.

On our final day you'll be on your own to explore the many faces of Mykonos. Those who wish to visit the beach can board a local bus for the drive over the hills to Piati Yialos. From there small boats ply all day along the coast to Super Paradise Beach, a secluded half-mile crescent of soft white sand, with magnificent swimming. From May to October, Super Paradise and the even more secluded beach of Elias nearby, are filled with visitors from all over the world, many of whom sunbathe and swim nude. For those who have lunch at the pleasantly shaded restaurant on the beach, a swimsuit is required. Those who prefer an alternative to the beach can enjoy a bus ride to a quieter village in the center of the island.

14: Departure day

Today our wonderful tour of Greece, ancient and modern, quiet and raucous comes to an end. We transfer from our hotel to the Mykonos airport in the morning to connect to flights home from Athens.