Athens to Delphi (192km, by van): we booked a day trip to Delphi with Alternative Athens, who provisioned a van, a driver, and a great guide, Antonia, who talked us through what we were seeing with anecdotes from her experience as an archaeologist. After grabbing breakfast, we met the van and headed straight to the Delphi museum and archaeological site.
i went back to Coltivos for coffee, and also got this very dill-tasting spinach and feta tart slice |
in our van to Delphi, we immediately pass the changing of the guard ceremony at Syntagma |
passing a church on the way out of Athens |
sky and clouds |
mountains outside of Athens (these are famous mountains with names you've heard of, but i don't know what they are) |
our guide told us a lot of industry moved about an hour outside of Athens |
graffitied building in front of mountains |
Beth contemplates the view |
truck parking, contains trucks |
this mountain is probably famous. it has that look |
on the road to Lamia |
another very distinctive-looking mountain |
grain storage! |
a winding road up to a mountaintop |
another rock situation |
obligatory windmill content! |
obligatory solar panel content! |
greenhouses by the roadside |
fields in front of mountains with mild creeping fog |
there are windmills in that there fog |
sky, mountains, and fog |
i'm just going to keep saying 'fog' |
what you see is fog, but this is a major reservoir serving Athens |
a lot of fog |
fog and mountains |
hill and quarry |
we finally see Lake Yliki, though there is still some fog |
we are going neither to the Gla archaeological site nor to Parnassos, but it's nice to know about our options |
the town of Kastro, visible from the road |
some sort of hilltop fort |
a city in the fog |
we stopped at this rest stop for coffee (the fog continues) |
the first thing we noticed at the rest stop was cats |
a lot of cats |
Greek potato chips |
exterior of rest stop |
one more cat for the road |
back to the valley filled with fog we go |
the windmills are next to the transmission lines to remind us that electrification is good |
mountaintop dotted with trees |
approaching Arachova |
this slightly blurry shot is nonetheless required to show you Arachova on its mountainside overlooking a valley |
driving through Arachova |
clocktower at the edge of the cliff |
town street |
we continue to drive next to the valley which leads to Delphi |
after this turn, it's a straight shot to the archaeological site |
hillside, and the top of the tholos in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia |
mountains and a glimpse of the river in the valley |
looking back along the valley |
we've reached Delphi! |
around Delphi (1.6km, on foot): Antonia guided us through the museum and the archaeological site.
so, the deal with Delphi is that it's at a high elevation looking over a long valley |
a closer view of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia |
so, yes, great place to hang out and watch for visitors to your oracle |
lots of handy nearby stone to loom menacingly at your visitors (and build things from) |
entrance to the museum |
an interesting plant |
a number of cats |
our friend the tall cypress |
the road we came in on |
there's quite a crowd waiting to enter the archaeological museum (represented here by their umbrellas) |
an artist's rendition of the row of treasuries setup by various city-states on the path up to the oracle |
bronze figurines from the 7th-8th century BCE |
figurines of women from the second millennium BCE |
a tripod of the geometric period |
a figurehead |
your souvenir for flying on Archaic Air |
this map is really backlit, but it shows how everyone was running around the Mediterranean Sea doing Ancient Near East things |
this frieze decorated the Siphnian Treasury |
these people are participating in the Trojan War |
the textures are pretty neat, right? |
you can tell this is Athena because of the holes. Athena is associated with snakes, you see, but the snakes were lost over time, and now we just have the holes where the snakes would have been attached |
this is a fantastic beast. you can tell because it's fantastic |
SPHINX TIME |
one of the korae, the statues that stood in as columns of the treasury |
little animules |
this was a giant metal animal that was destroyed in a fire, and the archaeologists restored its shape from the pieces of crumpled metal |
fragments of a chryselephantine sculpture, a long word for 'made of gold and ivory' |
ivory toes |
close-up of the sculpture's face |
ivory feet and hands |
column decorations |
some horses that are here |
some additional animals |
part of the Delphic Hymns, sheet music from the second century BCE |
metopes are architectural elements that went between columns; these are from the Treasury of the Athenians |
the Amazons didn't fare very well in this art, but at least they are in it |
a statue with a bowl or torch |
a statue with a wind instrument |
this serpent was the decorative element of a 5th century BCE candelabrum (just as well, when the serpent is the functional element of your candelabrum, you know you're in trouble) |
what a nice lion |
pieces of sculptures from the tholos of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia (you know, the one we drove by on the way in) |
column with sculptures of women |
impressive sandals |
an impressive column base |
while we're being impressed by the texture on these sculptures, let's take a closer look at that column too |
in case you were ever like, 'what even is an omphalos?', it is this |
the holes are for metal rods, which are for stability like you'd think |
more metope-like things |
circular altar from the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia |
Antinous (the one who was Hadrian's lover) |
the Charioteer of Delphi, 475 BCE (you've probably seen this too, it's pretty famous) |
leaving the museum, and checking out the view again as we head to the archaeological site |
the most small cat |
approaching the archaeological site |
walls in the Lesbian style, we learned |
more stairs (hopefully not too many stairs) |
overview of the sacred precinct: we're going to walk back and forth along the path of the treasuries, and eventually wind up at the Temple of Apollo |
stone with inscription |
restored walls of the treasuries, which city-states built to thank the oracle and to show off |
columns in front of treasuries |
the view! now with fog and cypresses |
alcove in a treasury |
path left, wall right, giant tour group of schoolchildren ahead |
a small bird |
hillside of archaeological site |
wall of the reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians: you can see the mortarless wall style, and the spaces at the top for the metopes (all reconstructions as well) |
a classy stone sign announcing the Treasury of the Athenians in three languages, presumably not a reconstruction |
the front of the reconstructed Treasury; it was originally built around 500 BCE to comemorate Athens's victory at the Battle of Marathon |
every time you turn around, you see this view |
the Rock of the Sibyl, on the hillside below the Temple of Apollo |
the Temple of Apollo is made of local stone |
you can tell because the columns are the same color as the mountain. apparently |
wall below the temple |
cypress, mountain, fog |
manumission inscriptions dating back to 200 BCE |
there are a lot of them |
the hillside above the temple (spot the fog) |
temple against sky |
an artist's rendition of the thing, next to the thing |
the thing, in front of cypress trees and a view |
Beth and Ashley in front of the Temple of Apollo |
looking down past some buildings to the valley |
a notched stone |
the site keeps going up |
the floor of the temple, under which the oracles apparently hid for atmosphere reasons |
the footprint of the temple |
the valley is so good |
overview of Temple of Apollo |
Gina and Ashley climbing against a wave of other tourists |
the valley floor |
amphitheatre |
an impressive site |
Gina and i at Delphi |
Ashley's bag, which she made at least one Ukrainian friend while carrying around (google 'Russian warship, go fuck yourself' for context) |
more Lesbian walls |
subwoofer (600 BCE) |
the Temple of Apollo from slightly above |
walls in the upper part of the site |
a semicircle |
Delphi to Amfissa (21.5km, by van): there were two primary approaches to the oracle at Delphi, from the east the way we came from Athens, and from the nearby coast and other points west. The tour showed this by driving us west after our Delphi tour, past the coast view and to the historic town of Amfissa.
back in the van, driving past the line of people heading towards the museum |
last Delphi valley shot, focus on sky and clouds |
view down to the inlet south of Delphi |
mountains southwest of Delphi |
the town of Itea |
these hairpin turns are making us excited for bicycling |
i think we were told this is the largest olive grove in Greece; anyway it is pretty large |
entering the town of Amfissa |
roadside shrine |
roadside graffiti mural in Amfissa |
around Amfissa (0.4km, on foot): we walked around the Harmaina neighborhood of Amfissa, then had lunch at a traditional tavern, followed by a tour of a tannery, with the tanner speaking Greek and Antonia translating for us
residential street in Amfissa |
we park near this large tree, then get a guided walk through the town |
roof tiles |
Harmaina, the historic neighborhood of Amfissa, has a rule that houses cannot be updated, and must be maintained using traditional materials. This is apparently pretty expensive and difficult in practice, and leads to houses with stones on the roof to prevent the tiles from blowing away. |
a gated area of the town with stream access and some interesting statuary |
a mask |
heading into the restaurant where the tour arranged for us to have lunch |
i had an enormous dreidel, i made it out of stone |
interior of restaurant Polychoros Xarmaina |
roasted vegetable slices |
the rest of our first course: tzatziki, feta, bread, cucumber salad, spinach pie, potato salad |
ceiling of restaurant |
pineapple, apple, pomegranate boat |
this espresso was very nice |
walls of Amfissa |
cat of Amfissa |
a dirt wall |
look at this nice snail |
a very large mask |
close-up of wall of traditionally-maintained building |
street with anti-slip brackets |
the rest of our trip to Amfissa was a tour of Merinopoulos Spyridon, a traditional tannery |
partial view down towards the rest of Amfissa, from the tannery yard |
inside the tannery: the drum where the hides are cleaned, and then later tanned by tumbling them with acorns and mimosa flowers to soften them |
then they dry them by hanging them outside, then press them, dye them, and sandpaper them to remove imperfections (not shown) |
a building undergoing a process of change |
Ashley making friends with the cats of Amfissa |
kitchen back at our lunch restaurant |
a very exciting iron |
close-up of wall with tiles in it |
Amfissa to Athens (215km, by van): then we rode back to Athens
i was on the road to Athens |
i saw a sign to ancient Delphi |
i slipped into a valley with mountains and trees and neat clouds, and perhaps you saw what i did there, but i have stopped doing it |
many pointy cypresses |
driving by a mountainside with ruins |
we stopped in Arachova to check out a rug shop |
colorful moss on a wall |
roofs of Arachova |
storefront in Arachova |
a building with character |
hillside with bonus windmills |
last rest stop before Athens |
around Athens (1.5km, on foot): after finishing the tour, our last stop was dinner, in the next neighborhood to the south, an easy walk from our hotel
based on a recommendation from our hotel's bellhop, we walked to Kalyvas to get dinner at a pleasant outdoor table |
my dinner, a pork souvlaki pita |
Ashley's fried zucchini and cabbage salad, and the first melitzatosalata of the trip |
24-hour vending machine kiosk |
Gina and i stopped for gelato on the way back; half cream/fig/pistachio and half smoked hazelnut |
interior of Django Gelato |