Today is Independence Day in Greece. We went downtown for the big parade. It was all military - related. There were no scout troops or politicians, just military vehicles and soldiers. There were marching bands - but they were all military. I'll provide pictures with brief explanations.

I wish we had Anthony with us. There were all sorts of military vehicles. Not sure what were tanks and what were something else (like Bradleys). He could have explained them all to us... I think these things are rockets.

We got to the parade staging area before the parade began, so we were actually able to walk right down the street where all the vehicles were lined up.

I don't even know what to write. Did the Greek military buy its tanks from us?

Look carefully. In addition to the two machine-gunners on top, you can see
the driver below.

They made sure the capital looked good for the holiday, as evidenced by these freshly-planted flowers.

There were a wide variety of military uniforms of all sorts. Prior to the parade these guys were just chatting.

Interestingly, I think the immigrants who sell umbrellas or toys or other items on the street were all selling Greek flags today. I wonder about their suppliers. They must be tied into some major source of stuff.

Never buy an umbrella when it's raining, and never buy a flag on Independence Day.

A number of children were dressed up in traditional Greek costume.

The boulevards aren't usually liked with flags but they all were today. There was a flag in our apartment, so we hung it from the balcony today. Our landlords were proud of us.

I'm reluctant to include more pictures because it takes the page so long to load. I'll probably include more tomorrow. I haven't even included any of the flyovers by fighter jets and helicopters (at least 5 different types).