Go west

Not the most beautiful of sites to sleep, a left over bit of road, now redundant once the new one had been constructed.

But it had served it purpose and was far enough away from the traffic to deaden the noise. After our walk yesterday, we had wanted to put in some distance from Athens, break down todays journey a little.

We have a few days of driving ahead of us, we are heading west before eventually going north towards the border with Albania and some interesting landscapes we have  heard of. Around here the views were not so inspiring.

So we pass through quickly.

Mile after mile.

A fairly overcast day.

With barely any traffic on the road.

Gradually the landscape changes, becomes a little more dramatic.

We pass through numerous small towns, hardly anyone is around, pretty much dead.

The blossom is in full swing, bright against the rocky backdrop.

Eventually we arrive at our objective for the day, Delphi.

Delphi is different from the ruins we have seen so far. They are set within a mountainous backdrop, high in the hills with glorious views over the valley.

This we approve of.

So we wind our way up the path passing the various temples that have been faithfully restored

Temple after temple, but there is very little evidence of how they really used to live.

What their homes were like, what they used to eat, this is a shame.

All we get to see is what they used to worship and we are really not that interested in that.

We trek higher.

And come across a theatre, full of the flowers of spring.

In amazing condition.

What an incredible backdrop for a performance, the only problem being I would be looking beyond the actors to the backdrop beyond.

This was used in back in the forties of fifties for a festival. A stage was built and they put on Greek performances.

I cannot see this happening again, the site seems to precious to allow it. What a shame. Surely they can find ways to bring it back to life again for a few days each year, without causing too much damage. It seems slightly sad that it is now just a tourist attraction, never used for what it was originally intended for.

And right at the top, the stadium, where running events used to take place. These Greeks surely knew how to entertain themselves, but other than this no evidence of how they used to live.

Although quite small, it must have sat several thousand people. We never did find out where all these people actually lived. Maybe these ruins have not been found, never survived, or archaeologists are more interested in the temples, theatres and stadiums.

Back down the hill and more temples, this time circular.

Once again, amazing restoration. Why don’t the Italians follow this lead?

We like these pencil thin trees, it wasn’t at this silly angle, just could not fit it in the shot!

We start to head back down the path, retracing our steps.

The theatre is now clear of all the students that had been languishing around.

They must be having lunch, which is what we intend now to do, the only problem is that we forgot to buy the bread this morning.

It may be a sad lunch for us!

We cannot find a bakery that is open, Susu has yogurt and I have cheese.

After lunch we head for the museum which has an interesting collection of small items, these incredibly intricate figures made out of some base metal, looks almost like tin foil, incredibly three dimensional.

And also lots of gold, really thin gold, almost like gold leaf

You often forget how close, almost overlapping the Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations were. How they influenced and copied from one another. It is still quite a shock to see this sphinx like sculpture in Greece

This weird depiction of three girls sat on top of a large column and held up an urn.

Another really successful renovation where they have filled in the gaps.

And I am always a sucker for a good model, especially a white one.

Is there a better way to show what it might have been like to be there. These days you could to visualisations and animations, but this is nearly as good. Might have been nice to see a few little white plastic people around though, maybe they were all up at the stadium watching the athletics!

This was my favourite piece and one that stood at the end of the exhibit, pride of place, you might say. A larger than life bronze charioteer. Really loved the flowing nature of the horses reins. Unfortunately a lot of the rest of the sculpture had been lost, or only pieces remained.

This hadn’t worried the curators of this museum however. They had hung these pieces from thin thread in space, behind a sketch of the complete sculpture, once again filling in the gaps and giving you a hint of what it would have been like. Really successful.

An interesting afternoon, but after a while you do get a bit of ruin overload, but we are now heading back to our favourite activity, trekking.

The only problem is it is quite a long way away, in the north west of the country. The area is called Zagori and so we have a lot of driving to get there.

Maybe we can put in a few miles this afternoon and get away from Delphi, away from the coast.

We head north, although the roads are in good condition, they are also pretty windy and therefore a bit slow going.

But the landscape is still wonderful, so we don’t complain.

And the weather is beautifully clear, a warm, spring Greek day.

We pass many small villages before eventually getting to a small town, Lamia. Our stopping point for the night, if the young boy racers let us, and another not so salubrious place to stop, one of those cafe restaurants where the coachloads tend to offload to let there customers use the toilets. Not to worry, we will be in the wilds of mainland Greece soon.

GDR