BEAUTIFUL DELPHI, GREECE
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
189
320
Trip End
Sep 02, 2009
Delphi, Greece
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The ride was very enjoyable and beautiful countryside. We are way up in the mountains. The roads are narrow and going through the towns with their twisty streets was unbelievable, especially when 2 busses passed on a curve.
Delphi is built on the mountain side. There are 2 main one way streets. All the buildings along the streets are either a hotel, restaurant or souvenir shop. The ruins are just outside of the town, we passed them coming in. We checked out a few hotels on our way to the one we found on the internet. They are asking 50 euros and will negotiate. One we passed by told us his price was 40 euros. The hotel we went to was clean, included a small bottle of local wine and breakfast. The room was on the back side of the hotel and our balcony looks out across the valley and down to the small town on the Caspian Sea where a cruise ship is docked. How lucky we are to be here.
Out for lunch first and then we walk along the rim to the ruins entrance. This is the sanctuary of Apollo, this was the religious and spiritual centre of the ancient Greek world and thought to be the centre (navel) of the earth. The first settlement here was from the 14th to the 11th c. BC. The walls and foundations are very ornate, some of the foundation and wall patterns we hadn't seen before. There is a theatre and a very impressive stadium with seats still in place. The previous stadiums we seen were just empty fields so this was very special. Len noticed the seats here have an overhang so you could put your feet under close to the back. There were 4 different treasuries over the years, only one building is standing. We came across a water trough of overlapping stones. We are still astounded at how they did things so very well such a long time ago.
We walked back into town, had our dinner and then sat out on the balcony with a Bailey's and watched the sun go down. It is so beautiful and peaceful here. Now we really wished we would have bought everything with us to stay longer and even go on to the next town or two. Oh, well we will save it for the next trip through this area.
