Athens day 5, 2006-01-13
Touristday, Delphi

min (Delphi) 1°

max 10°

We were advised by our friend Anna-Clara who has lived in Greece to go to Delphi and today we set the alarm to 6.30 and took off by bus to Delphi at 7.30. It was a very good choice to follow her advise because it was a fantastic experience. Delphi is 180 km north of Athens so we spent many hours in the bus and unfortunately it is also reflected in our photos of today because many of them are taken through the window. I ran out of batteries in the camera and went in to a supermarket in Delphi to buy two new sets just in case. They were probably older than the Oracle in Delphi because each set only lasted for three photos. What a photoday..

On our way we passed the Athens Olympic Arenas (2004)


At a coffee-break we got the first glimpse of snow

Delphi The temple for Apollo in Delphi was a very important place in ancient history. It was so important that it was said to be the navel of the world. To this temple statesmen and ordinary people from all over the world came to get advice from the Oracle. The Oracle spoke in riddles so it was very difficult to tell whether her prophecy happened or not. She gave advise from 600BC until a competitor, the new modern religion Christianity, diminished her and Apollos power around 200AC. When they started to excavate the temple in 1892 the village Delphi lay on top of the ruins and some villagers had even used the stones from the ruins to build their own houses. The village was moved 500 meters to it's present location and below you can see the villagers' old and new view from their windows.

Old view


New view with the Corint-bay at the bottom of the valley


This is a model of how the temple looked in it's days of glory.


These are parts and a sketch of the statue marking "the navel of the world".



This is the "crownjewel" in the collection of the Delphi Museum



Here you can see the development in sculpture from 600BC to 400BC.
In 200 years time the Greeks adopted a more roman style in their
sculpures, more refined and detailed.






Here are some pictures from the ruin.



Some outstanding items from the museum






This is the small village of Arachova on an altitude of 950 m
where we stopped on our way home for some souvernir shopping.


This bus took 2 guides, 1 driver and 5 tourists 380 km during one day.
You can't say it's peak tourist season...

Here is a movie (40s 1.9Mb) that shows the much unexpected snowy roads.

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