Athens (Piraeus), Greece – Tuesday, December 21
December 21, 2021
Day 4: After breakfast, you will head to Delphi for the day. You will visit the Archaeological Museum of Delphi and see the Temple of Apollo, the circular Tholos, and more. After time to explore the site on your own, you will stop at the mountain town of Arachova for lunch, then return to the hotel for an evening at your leisure. (Breakfast, Lunch)
Today we traveled to central Greece near Mount Parnassus, about a 2 ½ hour drive northwest of Athens to see the Delphi ruins of the Temple of Apollo. The drive was very scenic, the mountains dusted with snow. Our guide had prepared us for colder temperatures so we dressed in layers with winter coats, gloves and ear muffs. As we started out it was cloudy, but the sky gradually cleared as we drove.
Delphi (Delfoi), pronounced by our guide as “del-fee” was the sanctuary of Apollo during the Iron Age, beginning at the end of the 8th century BC, continued in political popularity through the 6th century BC, and was used for the Pythian Games until the Romans came in 191 BC. The Oracle was abolished in AD 391 with the banning of all vestiges of paganism in the Byzantine Empire by Theodosius I.
Apollo was a god revered by the people. The Oracle was the means through which worshippers could hear the words of the god Apollo, spoken through an older priestess, or Pythia. Questioners paid a levy and sacrificed an animal on the altar. The question was then put to the Pythia by a male priest. She would answer in a trance, perhaps induced by ethylene vapours from a crack in the ground over which she sat on a tripod.
The ruins are quite extensive, built into the side of a hill at an elevation of about 2000 ft. We made the relatively steep climb on new and old stone paths and steps. The first area was a marketplace where religious objects could be purchased. As you walked up the walkway toward the Temple of Apollo, there were the remains of what had been around 3000 treasuries and statues built by the city-states to house their peoples’ offerings. The temple was massive with large columns and statues, multiple floors and a basement, which few other temples had. Past the temple was a theatre, seating around 5,000. All this on the side of a mountain with gorgeous views of the mountains and acres and acres of olive trees covering the sides and floor of the valleys below. Our guide told us that there were millions of olive trees there, ‘blessed by the presence of Apollo’, which produced the best and most desired olive oil in the world. Walking up was strenuous, and walking down was more difficult on Joyce’s old knees. We were both very glad to have our hiking poles with slick, uneven steps. The weather at the ruins was sunny and beautiful. Joyce’s 3 three layers were more than enough and she didn’t need coat, gloves and ear muffs.
After walking down, we walked a path between the ruins and the archaeological museum. With the holiday, several school tours were also at the museum. Entrance to the museum was slow as each person had to have their vaccination card checked before admittance was allowed. In the museum we saw the remains of statues, columns, reliefs depicting battles between the gods, as well as pots and vessels unearthed from the site. While most historians believe there was a large amount of gold, silver and other precious metals on the statues, columns, etc., little has been recovered, due to looting and the numerous times the area was conquered. One exhibit contained the some of the gold that covered the wooden statues – we could see the wooden part of the statue with gold covering the hand and part of the headdress. Interestingly, the eyes in the heads were made of gemstones, were intact and looked very lifelike. Another interesting exhibit was a full bronze statue, The Charioteer, depicting the chariot winner of some of the games. In an exhibit in the wall is a drawing of his chariot and horses with the parts of the reins and chariot and horses places in the appropriate spots to give a somewhat total picture.
There were also numerous recovered statues of all sizes, depicting heroes, philosophers, and gods. Heroes, gods, and young attractive people were shown naked; philosophers were shown in robes. [Makes us want to work harder at being wise and less at being heroic, in case anyone wants to capture us in marble!]
After the museum, it was time for a late lunch. When Viking includes lunch as part of a tour, you can depend on the lunch being served in a locally owned restaurant, with wine and several courses. So far each one has been delicious and expertly served as soon as we arrived. Today we enjoyed appetizers of baked cheese, spinach pie and meat & rice wrapped in a grape leaf. Next was Greek lettuce salad with oranges, tomatoes, apples, walnuts and pomegranate, with a main dish of chicken on skewers and rice. For dessert we had orange cake with a scoop of gelato. After lunch we spent a few minutes souvenir shopping. Alan found a book of the Dephi ruins with ‘then and now’ pictures.
Both on our way up and down the mountain, we passed through the delightful little town of Archova with its very narrow streets and shops and restaurants all decked out for Christmas. Driving through the town in a large bus was slow and painstaking as our driver had to negotiate around curves in the street, double parked cars and 2nd story balconies. We did our window shopping from the bus, often close enough to reach out and grab items were it not for the bus and shop windows impeding us!
We headed back to Athens making good progress until we got to the edge of the city around 5:30 pm. From there we inched and sat in traffic for about an hour and a half before making it to our hotel in the south central part of the city, making the trip back over 4 hours, compared to the 2 1/2 hours to get to Delphi.
We finished the evening with blogging, picture unloading/uploading, and packing so that we can have our luggage ready for transfer to the boat before breakfast tomorrow morning.
