Delphi

The morning of the tour I woke up much reenergized thankfully after the exhaustion of Athens. We went by bus up to the ancient oracle of Delphi, passing by the site of the battle of Marathon and the city of Thebes along the way. Mt Parnassos was impressively large and picturesque. We wound up the steep hillside past little red roofed villages with streets so narrow the bus almost couldn’t pass.

 

This is what remains of the original temple of Apollo where the oracle came up with her cryptic "prophesies".

The whole hillside is a switchback trail of rock up to the pilgrimage site. The views make it easy to see why people felt this place was holy. It is extremely impressive.

Once in Delphi we got an in depth tour from our very knowledgeable Greek guide and hiked up to the top overlook where we found the remains of a stadium for ancient foot races.

 

    The museum held a lot of the more valuable antiquities from the site, my favorite highlight being the Antinous of Delphi. That one’s a particular favorite for me because I’ve always thought most of the sculptures of Antinous, especially the one at Delphi, resemble my little brother Kade. The original actually has a broken off nose, but the reconstruction looks way more like Kade after the nose is fixed.

 

This is the reconstructed nose version.

The one at Delphi is in exceptionally good condition as well and is very impressive to see in real life. 

  After we went into Delphi village and got some delicious lunch at a quaint little family run restaurant on the hillside. The chicken I got was so good that I asked about the sauce and the woman who runs the restaurant gave me the whole recipe! The food tasted so good. I hope it's not where we got food poisoning from.. there are a few different suspect restaurants.

 

On the drive down the mountainside our bus stopped for a break at this little town called Arachova that really just begged to be photographed.

We spent the rest of the evening back in Athens shopping little shops, and enjoying the ambiance of the night. It was a great finish to the trip until Garrett woke up in the night violently sick. I was worried in the morning he would be too weak to catch our flight but after a little medicine he rallied and we caught our long flight home. What a death march. Poor guy. It reminded me of the time I got salmonella on my way home from Bangkok. Worst experience of my life. 

   Anyways we’ve made it so far as Atlanta and I’m so relieved to be heading back to my babies I’ve missed so much. I think this trip as satisfied my need to leave them for many years to come haha. It was the longest and most difficult distance I’ve ever had away from them. I'm so glad I went, and I'm so glad I'm coming home:)

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Athens

   

Athens was a new level of exhaustion for this trip. Garrett’s watch counted over 30,000 steps, or over 13 miles for the day. We packed in so many things I was amazed at what we were able to do. Originally I had those stops planned over 2 days, but we had the time and ended up just plowing through the whole day so we could spend the last day just relaxing.

                                                                    Hadrian's arch

Agios Eleftherios, a small but significant byzantine church right next to the city's main cathedral-- a good example of how the early Christian church would scavenge stone from pagan sites and repurpose the meaning of the carvings. This one had a lot of strange zodiac looking reliefs on the outside.

The front doors of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.

We happened to fly in on a Sunday, and when we stepped in to see the interior of the Cathedral, we were pleasantly surprised to step into a Greek orthodox church meeting. We stayed for a while to take note of the layout and process of the meeting, even though we didn't understand the Greek chanting. I noted that there are a lot of interesting unexpected similarities with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The seating arrangements you notice in the picture, the iconostasis separating the worshippers from the sanctuary where only holy men may enter, the altar at the center of the apse up front, and a few other parallels caught my attention and had an interesting feeling of familiarity I didn't expect to find in orthodoxy. 

Panagia Kapnikarea byzantine church. They were also doing a very small service here as well and it was interesting to see the consistencies between orthodox churches. The size varied a lot but the main set up of St John on the left and the Virgin Mary on the right with Christ on the center ceiling is pretty consistent.

The changing of the guards outside the Parliament building in Syntagma Square.

   We debarked from the ship at 7 am and didn’t stop walking except for an hour lunch break all day. We started with a the Rick Steves walking tour (never disappoints) and got a feel for the city before getting some really good souvlaki at Monastiraki square.

Monastiraki flea market was in full swing on our first day there with some genuinely cool old stuff, but our suitcases were full so we didn't stop to shop too hard.

Stoa of Attalos that was faithfully reconstructed in the 1950s. It now houses the museum for the Agora stie.

To my right is the Parthenon atop the acropolis. To the left is the Stoa of Attalos. 

It was difficult to get good pictures capturing the Agora since most of the remains are pretty close to the floor. There is little left of standing structures.

    After we did the agora tour, we avoided the scorching heat of the day by following it with a tour of the National Archeological museum. Highlights were the mask of Agamemnon and the antikythera shipwreck finds, as well as the antikythera itself. I am so confused how the archaeologists were able to divine what the thing actually did by how little of it actually remains.

Kouroi and Korai statues. Lots of them.

A rare Roman copy of the Athena statue that stood in the Parthenon, the original is forever gone.

The Antikythera

Another one of Hadrian's Antinous statues. I like to collect pictures of the many different versions around antiquity.

An Artemision shipwreck find, the "Jockey of Artemision". The bronze cast statues made you realize just how incredibly defined and skilled the sculptors were. It's easy to lose the full effect when the marble statues have worn so much over the years.

    It was neat to find a lot of the world famous pieces that I read about before the trip. After that museum we went and did the Acropolis in the slightly cooler evening as well as the Acropolis museum. Highlights there were the original reliefs from the Parthenon building, and Garrett’s favorite, the Lego Acropolis.

Views over Athens

The Erechtheon

The Caryatides, or "women of Caryae" a city in Sparta

And the actual original Caryatides up close in the Acropolis museum. Unfortunately they were very well preserved until the early 20th century when pollution saw them lose their arms and the definition of their facial features.

Parthenon up close

The top friezes have been removed and we saw them up close in the Acropolis Museum. It depicted the Panathenaic procession or "parade" of Athenians in the Panathenaic religious festival.

That rocky crag in the background next to the pillar is Mars hill, where Paul preached to the Athenians.

Temple of Athena Nike

Odeon of Herodotus, a Roman era addition to the hill.

The evening was much more relaxing with some time on the hotel balcony overlooking the Acropolis and some dinner across the street from the hotel. We were so tired I seriously considered canceling our plans for Delphi the next day, but last minute Garrett booked a day tour so we wouldn’t have to worry about buses and logistics. It turned out to be the right decision. 

Putting our feet up and catching a rest and a drink after a very, very exhausting day.

Out after dinner during sunset.

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