My nephew, Mark Erickson, and his wife, Sue, accompanied me on our 10-day adventure, planned by Trafalgar Tours.

Our flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam included a breathtaking view of Greenland’s mountains and snow. From Amsterdam to Athens, Greece, we flew over the Alps — a view I tried to enjoy even though the little boy sitting behind me kicked the back of my seat all the way!

Athens is the capitol of Greece, and the country’s largest city, with a population of 5 million people.

A sight-seeing tour of Athens started with a visit to the ancient Acropolis and the Parthenon. We also visited the Temple of Zeus, Hedron’s Arch, and the Olympic Stadium, which is made of marble and holds 60,000 people.

From Athens, we drove to Delphi, Greece. We saw jumbo cement factories, windmills and solar farms, olive groves, cotton crops, oranges, peach and watermelon farms on our ride through the countryside.

In Delphi, we walked on the Sacred Way to the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, dated from the fourth century.

One of the highlights of our tour was a visit to Meteora, Greece, home of several Eastern Orthodox Monasteries, built on sandstone rocks above the towns. Some monasteries date back to the 14th century. Today, six monasteries survive — four for monks and two for nuns. Five monks lived in the monastery that we visited, and we were privileged to visit with one of them.

We enjoyed a three-day cruise from Athens to Ephesus, Turkey. We disembarked on the islands of Crete, Mykonos and Santorini. When the cruise ships anchor a short distance from shore, passengers are tendered to shore on tender boats. All three islands are a shopper’s paradise. Tourism dominates the culture.

Mykonos Island is famous for its white-washed houses and churches, and a maze of narrow cobbled streets. Their windmills were used to grind wheat and barley to feed the sailors.

Crete is the largest island in Greece and fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Here we visited the ancient Palace of Knossos. Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archeological site in Greece and has been called Europe’s oldest city.

The volcanic island of Santorini, located in the southern Aegean Sea, sits halfway between Athens and Crete. Ninety percent of its industry is tourism. The island has a population of 95,000 residents, and its crops include pistachio trees, cherry tomatoes and vineyards.

Santorini is famous for its cliff-side homes and churches, which are painted white with deep blue colored roofs and domes, the same colors as the Greek national flag. The blue and white hues stand for the blue sea and white country. In the evening we witnessed a most spectacular sunset. What a beautiful way to end our visit to Santorini Island.

Ephesus is located on the southwest coast of modern Turkey. Ankara is the capital of Turkey. Turkey is slightly larger than Texas. In Ephesus, we visited the great Temple of Artemis. For more than 1,000 years, this Greek goddess, with her temple, provided religious, economic and cultural life for her worshipers.

We visited the ruins of the amphitheater where St. Paul the Apostle spoke to the people of Ephesus. He also spoke to the Greeks on the hilltop near the Parthenon. The road we walked on had carvings and designs from several past buildings that were destroyed by earthquakes. We also walked the streets of Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, most famous for being the location of the vision given to the disciple John in the Book of Revelation.