Day 12 - Delphi and Meteora

Espresso Freddo: 1

As promised a view from my hotel balcony in daylight.  The sea of green is Greece's largest olive grove, with over 1,000 trees.

I think I like this hotel the best of all we've stayed in so far.  The coffee at breakfast was dreadful and the shower was interesting but it had the most character and the best views.  

After breakfast Mary and I went for a amble around modern Delphi as we were having a relatively late start to allow our poor driver to get plenty of rest after yesterday.  I bought a serpent ring that the shop owner swore was sterling silver. Given the absence of a hallmark and the low price have my doubts but I do like it.

We then were driven to the site of historic Delphi.  Many busloads of tourists had the same idea so the site was unpleasantly crowded but interesting all the same.  I only climbed as high as the theatre and temple of Apollo but Mary went all the way to the stadium at the top.

After an hour or so we left the site and headed to the museum where we were greeted not just by the museum cats but by several very unbothered dogs.

The museum was very interesting as they had moved most of the best pieces off the site to protect them from the elements.  My favourite was the sphinx.

After this we went back to modern Delphi for lunch.  This time it was a "light" lunch of many vegetable or cheese dishes - baked, fried or in salads.  Greek cuisine does a great variety of tasty fresh dishes.  It would have been a light meal if we'd had half the number of dishes.  We were given a free dessert of orange pie - aka orange semolina cake.  Some of us had 1 piece, others had none, so I had 2 pieces.

After lunch we were driven to Thermopylae.  When Mary was here last there was nothing but a statue on the flat below the hill were the battle is believed to have taken place.  Now there is a museum where we watched a 10 minute 3D video describing the battle.  There were also several interactive displays to play with.  They've done a great job of this site.  You could also walk up into the hills to see the actual battle site - or a least a plaque where it is believed to have been.  We passed on this, settling for taking photos of yet another statue of the Spartan king Leonidas.

We then were driven to our final hotel for this part of the tour in the town of Kalambaka below the monasteries of Meteora.  The rock formations here are amazing.  The mind boggles at who thought it was a bright idea to build monasteries on the top of these outcrops.

After a rest and a wash at our hotel, we piled back into the van to drive up into the hills above the town to watch the sunset, along with several hundred other people.  

The view was worth it.

Our driver, Anastasis, is amazing.  We stopped about 4 times and he always managed to find a place to park our minivan, even parallel parking into the tiniest of places.

Finally we headed back into town for one final dinner as a group.  We had lamb chops, as they are the speciality of the region.  They were very tasty, Good even, but they were an interesting shape.  Instead of even cuts it looked like they'd let a butcher loose with a pair of cleavers and he just hacked madly at the carcase.

Tomorrow is our last day on the mainland.  It's been a great tour.  We've not spent very long anywhere but have been given a taste of so many interesting things to see in Greece.  A very successful tour.