Bus Tour to Delphi (Sunday)

Sunday morning rolls around and we're whisked off from our hotel in Athens to the where the tour buses await us. It's a gray day; gloomy and somewhat wet from a gentle rain, but I thought I saw on the weather report that things were supposed to clear up. I remember yesterday started the same way and we ended up have pretty good weather by about mid-morning. Foolishly, I decided not to go prepared and I left my umbrella at home.

Once on the tour bus (we sat in the last row), we started out to Delphi. As you can see, Delphi is located to the northwest of Athens and we had a bit of a trip ahead of us:

We stopped for a coffee break about an hour and a half into our trip. It was refreshing to get off the bus and we were greeted by a cute dog and a very friendly and cute cat who were a both a bit wet from the rain. Yes...Yener couldn't help himself and he pet the cat. After some oregano flavored potato chips (which, incidentally, weren't bad!) and some drinks, we were off again.

All along the way, our tour guide assured us that "Apollo, the God of the Sun will make sure that there is no rain for us in Delphi". Sure enough, as we approached Delphi, the rain let up. We started our visit to Delphi in the museum. I'm not sure why...it wasn't raining and we probably should have taken advantage of that time outside, but we were treated to a guided tour of the museum and the "heart" of the museum, the bronze chariot driver shown here:

This statue was found in nearly perfect condition. It was an impressive piece of work, especially given the time in which it was made. Once we were done with the museum, we started up the mountain towards the entrance to the site.

Here you see us as we gather at the beginning of the site. It was here that our tour guide went on a seemingly endless tirade about how the Oracle was used, constructed, legends, etc. Looking up at the sky and seeing clouds moving our way, Yener and I decided that it was wise to break from the group and explore on our own while the weather was still bearable.
This is Yener in front of one of the Treasury buildings on the lower level of the site. Right next to it was a big column that probably had something perched on top of it at one time. We made another turn up the mountain. and arrived at the site of Apollo's temple. You can see some of the columns that once held the thing up right there behind me.
I'm tired...with all these stairs all over the place, it's not wonder these ancient Greeks had such nice bodies! At this point, I figured it would be cool to get a shot with the valley in the background. can you see the winding roads? Kinda scary.	Check it out...the clouds are moving in...literally. Seems Apollo dropped the ball on keeping the rain away! A light rain began to fall, so we decided we better hurry up.
The theatre seating...not terribly comfortable, but I'm sure they were functional. It's too wet to stay, so off we went further up.	Here's a view of the theatre as we're going up. At this point, I notice that we seem to be the only member of our group visible. It's raining pretty steadily now, but we want to get to the stadium.
ah HA! We made it! You can see how wet it is. The stadium is HUGE, so I'm glad we got all the way up to see it. We stood under a tree to wait for the rain to let up and while we were waiting, the Chinese Lara Croft comes jogging up the mountain, snaps a photo, then goes jogging back down in the rain.	On our way down, Yener posed for this picture by Apollo's Temple. This is his "Hurry it up and take the picture already!" face.
After visiting the site, we went to a hotel nearby where we were provided with lunch. Refreshed, we went out to the hotel's lovely balcony where a fellow tour group member snapped this photo of us. After lunch, we did some shopping in the quaint little down that we drove through on our way back. We didn't buy anything, but we did get out to go peruse the goods. By the time we got back to the hotel, both of us were aching to hit the steam room and relax a bit. It was a wet, but fun Saturday! Back to the Itinerary