Day 3. Tuesday May 12. Delphi

Delphi
Tried to get up early—finally left around 9-ish—to drive to Delphi. Turns out the trip really is about 3 hours, just as all the books said. About half of that to get north, beyond Athens and then the toll road, then through an agricultural valley, and then over to the roads that take us up into the mountains to Delphi.

Driving through the valley before we get to the mountains reminded me of Salinas and the valley—only the mountains surrounding this valley are something between Sierra’s and Rockies. Not sure what the rocks are here, but they reminded me of Yosemite at one point.

Took tons of pics. I was in back seat and Mike, who was driving, was nervous that I wasn’t getting enough photos.


So I snapped away like crazy!













We drove and drove, up and up and around switchbacks.




Came to a small “Alpine” village, apparently where rich Athenians go for skiing—Arahova—a street full of the cutest shops. We were tempted to stop and shop.

But we push on and around and around and then, around a bend and we’re there.






So—Delphi—another un-describable place. I have had so many people tell me to be sure to go there and now I know why.







(This photo is our first--taken from our parking spot on the road, looking down at another temple area but I can't remember its name.)


After we enter, we start upwards on the "Sacred Way" and walk by all of the "treasuries" for the different Greek cities...the Treasury of the Athenians and so on. When they came, they would make "offerings" which were left at their city's treasury.



(The Treasury of the Athenians)




Looking down at the Temple, where the Oracle did her thing.






It's a little confusing because during the Byzantine era--Delphi was taken over by Christians and so there are leftover Christian symbols mixed in with the ancient Greek ruins.







The Amphitheater. Elena is doing her tour guide thing.






Elena had been a little nervous about me being able to handle Delphi, because you are basically walking up the side of a mountain.





We found a nice shady spot just above the temple and so we sat there to rest and cool off while Mike continued up to see the stadium.


When he returned, we started back down and then went over to the museum which is important to see because that is where all the artifacts are!

But I had hit a wall of some sort and decided I was too tired to do the museum so I went over to get something to drink and go to the gift shop. I bought a postcard to mail to Tom because he was probably the most persuasive about the need to come here—however the gift shop didn’t have stamps so after we left, we stopped in the village of Delphi—stopped at internet café and ate a snack and addressed the postcard—then down street to post it. We really would have liked to hang around some more, but it looked like a storm was coming and we left to go “home” to Glyfada.

We reversed our route, leaving the village of Delphi, driving past the site, back through Arahova, down into the valley and back toward Athens. We stopped along the way in the valley for a snack.



(The very narrow street in Delphi. Looking west between buildings.)










We got back to Glyfada around 7:30 and we stopped along the water across the road from the hotel. The beach is very rocky, with lots of broken shells, but Elena stuck her feet in the water. We just sat there for awhile, watching the sunset.

Had to go to Vodaphone store so Elena could add minutes to her phone card and I went to ATM for Euros and then we went back to the hotel to wait for Lilly and Laki—for very late dinner—maybe even late by Greek standards.


We finally walked a few streets over and ate at a gyro place. George zoomed up on his motorcycle and met us. It was so amazing to me that I recognized them both immediately! They are both a little shy about their English and so Lilly did alot of translating. She is quite good at it. We talked about all of our Greek-American relatives and tried to bring them up to date on everyone. We made arrangements for George to meet us in Tripoli and take us to Episkopi on Saturday---he will attempt to translate for us at Georgia and Soterios' house!


Tomorrow, Acropolis. Then across at Corinth to Nauplion and Tolo and Mycenae and Sparta and then Tripoli and Kerasitsa/Episkopi.