Ancient greece - myths or reality?

Wednesday 5th July 

This morning we visited the museum at Delphi. It was a great museum with a lot of information - too much to remember. Our guide had all the stories about all the gods and kings - too much to take in. There were so many different tour groups at the museum (and the site), from small groups of 4 or 5 people with a tour guide, to coach loads. This is one aspect of our tour that we have not enjoyed - the crowds, combined with the heat, makes for some uncomfortable times. After the museum it was a visit to the archaeological site. This involved a lot of steps and uphill walking. Amazing to see what they have unearthed and that they can work out the various structures on the site. Archaeology really is pretty fascinating!

Lunch today was a beautiful grilled fish - sea bream from the fish farms nearby. Lovely lunch - but Rob left his prescription sunnies at the restaurant, never to be seen again.

A visit to Thermopyles, the site of a battle between the Persians and Greeks in 480 BC. Apparently about 7000 Greeks, well outnumbered by maybe 300,000 Persians (though some stories say more than a million). There were many battles at Thermopyles including one in 1941 when the Germans invaded Greece and the pass was held by the Anzacs long enough to allow the British forces to evacuate to Crete.

A long drive then to our overnight stop at Meteora, ready to visit the monasteries in the morning.

Thursday 6th July 

Lucky I packed a dress - dress code for the monastery ix long pants for the men and skirts yo at least the knees, and shoulders covered, for the women.

First we visited a place where they make the religious icons, for an explanation of the process.

 

The landscape here is just stunning. These huge rock pillars, just in the small area surrounding this town. There have been monasteries in some shape or form on some of these pillars since the 12th century. You can hike in the area and climb the zillions of steps to many of the monasteries, or take the tour like us and visit one monastery with no steps and another with only 150 steps (glad it wasn't the one with 300 steps). One monastery I think the only way to get to it is via the cable car across from one rock pillar to the monastery on the next. 

No photos allowed inside the monasteries but the icons, frescoes, gold work really are something to be seen. 

One good thing about this visit - it was lovely and cool. First time I've felt cool since we've been in Greece. Mind you, we had to hang on to our hats and our skirts as it was pretty breezy up there. 

Finally a long drive back to Athens,  thankfully freeway most of the way, and not hilly and winding. Getting back into Athens was very slow - peak hour, and the traffic just wasn't moving on the main highway in to town. Now we are back at the hotel and have a free day tomorrow to do the washing and try to get some sort of sunnies for Rob, before boarding our cruise on Saturday.