Day 11 - Olympia to Delphi

Espresso Freddo: 0

Today was mostly a travelling day as we left the Peloponnese to travel to Delphi.  We mainly made a number of brief stops along the way, rather than visiting any major sites.  For a wonder, today's itinerary matched what was on the website!

First stop was a slow drive through the Foloi Forest which is essentially a national forest of oak trees.  Apparently this region, and the Balkans in general, were once covered by oak forests.  The current landscape of olive trees as far as the eye can see, is essentially man-made.  There are roughly 4 olive trees for every Greek citizen.  Olive trees give New Zealand's sheep a run for their money.

We started the drive through the forest slowly but some sheep were being pastured there.  Their sheep dogs took offence to us and tried to bite our tyres off so we had to pick up the pace.

Next stop was to view Pausanias' grape vine.  This is supposedly 2,000 or 3,000 years old depending on which source you read.  It is also supposedly 150m long.  It is considered so important some poor sod from the fire brigade sits parked in a fire truck next to it every day, just in case.  I wonder if this duty is a privilege or a punishment.

Next stop was the village of Divri for lunch.  The speciality of the region is trout so we had the usual entrees (Good) followed by a smoked trout each.  If you liked trout I think you would rate them as Good too.  For dessert we were given orange pie and spoon sweets - both Good too.

After lunch we visited a memorial at the village of Kalavryta.  During WW2 the Nazi murdered all the men and boys in this village in reprisal for actions by the partisans.  The youngest was only 13.  Out of 800 men and boys only 13 survived.  The Nazis meant to kill all the women and younger children too.  They'd locked them in the church and set fire to it.  However, one soldier couldn't stomach this and opened a back door so they could escape.  There was a very moving memorial above the village on the site where the murders took place.  In spite of this history, some people in the village voted for the neo-Nazi party in the last election.  I cannot understand people sometimes.

The next stop was the Vouraikos Gorge.  There is a hiking trail along this gorge and also a cog railway.  It is popular to hike the trail from the village of Zachlorou to the end of the gorge (about 5-7 hours) and then ride the cog railway back.  We were supposed to ride it too but it broke down in April and hasn't been fixed yet so we just drove along to the end and took photos.

Our final stop was the Monastery of Mega Spileon which is the oldest monastery in Greece and the 2nd oldest in the world.  The actual buildings are modern as it has been destroyed, for one reason or another, many times.  A rather grumpy priest let us in and grudgingly opened the museum for us.  Mary and I claimed to be Greek-Australians so we didn't have to pay an entrance fee but Rina & David did.

We then were driven to Delphi.  This took the best part of 3 hours, so we didn't arrive until 7:30pm.  Our hotel is in a great location and our rooms have views out over the valley below, all the way out to sea.  I'll take a photo tomorrow in daylight.

For dinner we went to the nearby Taverna Vahkos.  We were asked if we had a reservation.  When we said "No" we were shown to one of the best tables in the house!  It was on the balcony with great views.  Somebody must have just left.  We had eggplant salad (Absolutely Delicious), dolmades (Good), green beans in tomato sauce (Good) and "village" sausage (Good).  We splashed out a bought name brand wine by the glass (also Good).  It was expensive at 8 euro a glass, when the house red could be had for only 3!  The service was excellent too, we were warned we had originally ordered too much food and advised on what would be sensible to drop.  Then the waitress automatically selected the No Tip option when Mary went to pay, which was awkward as we wanted to give her a tip.  

Tomorrow we actually get to visit Delphi but I don't think I'll ask the oracle for advice.