Holidays

Costs me £78 for a daily peak time Travel card from Newhaven to that London

(I never pay this but the firm does).

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That’s a great price. I can only get them £10 cheaper than that.

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While wandering around the area near our hotel, we spotted several very small churches that turned out to be Byzantine but built on even earlier ancient Greek temples to Athena and Demeter.

I don’t have a religious bone in my body but I really do love a good church (especially good icons) and these were spectacular.

Does make me laugh as Anne always comes over all holy :joy:

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Fabulous. Great that they are so well preserved/maintained.

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That top one dates from around the 11th Century but is built on an earlier temple of Athena so likely the site has had a building on it for around 3,000 years :exploding_head:

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I’m pretty far to the atheist side of agnostic (was brought up Catholic) yet still bless myself and light a candle for my long dead grandmother whenever I enter a chapel. Claire thinks it’s hilarious.
Looks an amazing place, hope you are enjoying the holiday.

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I’m the same in that I was brought up Catholic but firmly aethiest now but Anne does all the lighting candles etc in my place. :slightly_smiling_face:

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The Greeks haven’t got Scooby how to do understated.

Very true.

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Same here for my long departed Mum who never had the opportunity to see these places but would have loved them. SWMBO stands to one side then gives me a knowing look as we leave.

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Nice view from inside the Acropolis Museum.

The museum itself is one of the best designed museums I’ve ever been in and not to be missed if you ever happen to be in Athens.

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Full on atheist bought up Catholic here.
I am always impressed by the architecture, but then again the churches and cathedrals were built to impress so I suppose they should.

The rich golden interiors just make me want to puke, when I think about how every penny was given by people who couldn’t afford it, who were brainwashed into keeping a load of perverted cunts in luxury.

In most poor catholic countries around the world the people were in serfdom to the church, who were in cahoots with the landowners, spending lifetimes paying for all those weddings funerals and baptisms.
Religious slavery.

What really pisses me off, is that if I go to a Catholic funeral or whatever I still remember most of the responses prayers and liturgy.

However much I protest, at some level they got to me too.

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My father was born into a very Catholic family.

Throughout his life he went back to the man who appeared to be his lodestone, Father Hellemans.

He seems to have recognised a bright boy, and nurtured and nudged where appropriate.

No rolling around in money or weird sex stuff, just exactly what he was supposed to do for his flock.

Plenty of wrong uns, but also some who were genuinely doing what they believed in IMO.

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Some of his best friends were Catholics!
There will always be exceptions, but overall, on balance the Catholic church is a corrupt harmful institution imo.

I should add that my Uncle was a Catholic priest and I had great respect for him as a man.
But maybe having been married with two kids he had a different perspective than most.
I did joke with him that he must have been the only Catholic priest to openly baptize his grandkids. :grinning:

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