2018 Greece 03

Today we begin three days of coach tours to see three of the most important ancients sights in Greece. They’re actually bus tours but coach sounds fancier.  Our initial tour guide is Katarina, but she prefers to be called Momma.  The circular Temple to Athena, Zeus’ favorite daughter plus 2 treasury buildings, used to store offerings made by area residents.  A little down the road we come to the Delphi complex which includes the Temple of Apollo (who is Zeus’s son and Athena’s brother).  People came to Apollo’s Temple to petition the Oracle of  Apollo in Delphi.  Area priests would stand by to ‘interpret’ the Oracle’s pronouncements.  By the 6th c BC Delphi became so influential that no great leader would make a major decision without first sending emissaries to consult the Oracle.  We even pass through a ski town, Lamia,  with  narrow streets which looks like Switzerland. 

 

Re photo on the right above: see the irregular shaped stones in the retaining wall.  For this wall the stones were chiseled so they would nestle together and due to the weight of the stones they still stand.  These have no mortar and they’ve been standing for 25 centuries!  Plus, this type of construction makes them better able to withstand an earthquake.  This wall supports the ground on which the Temple of Apollo was built.  Notice the columns above the wall.  The people of Delphi would write their declarations on these walls.  Upon close inspections you can see the small Greek letters, seemingly written neatly, that might declare a slave to be free and given to Apollo, to declare a debt (new or paid off) or other governing comments.

This is the remains of the Temple of Apollo which was built in the Doric style.  The original structure was built in 7th C BC but was later destroyed by a fire about 100 years later.  The temple was rebuilt only to be destroyed in 3rd BC by an earthquake.  The temple was soon rebuilt and the remains are what we see today.

 

Re photo on the left above: “Ok fraternity and sorority people, you should be able to read this.” It says “DEPLHI”

 

Left photo above: We had lunch with Dr Shinsuke, Professor, school of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University (Japan) and his wife Mimi.  Delightful people. See the napkin: they’re trying to remember how to fold the “paper crane”. This is taught to all Japanese students and is part of the remembrance at Hiroshima. 

We’re spending the night in Kalambaka, a delightful town we’ve never heard of.  It’s at the base of the Meteora rocks, which we’ll have more on tomorrow. We walked around the town before dinner (7:00 pm) and were impressed with the hotels and shops.  Citizens were sitting at the street-side tables drinking espresso, beer, ouzo and who knows what. Again after dinner (10:00 pm) we’re walking around and there were many more people out and about. The weather and temperature are perfect and this town seems idyllic. In addition, our hotel is great.

Right photo above: We had dinner with Jim and Sandra from Adelaide, Australia.  We had a great discussion with them on everything from alcohol abuse (Australia’s problem) to lack of gun control (US’s problem). Jim has Greek heritage and speaks and understands the language pretty well.  They took us out for a special pastry after dinner.  The 2 desserts he ordered for us were Ekmek Kataifi (custard and whipped cream with a shredded filo dough crust) and Loukoumades (donuts with honey).  Loukoumades can also come in a savory form, usually filled with cheese.  Herb would have loved the donut based pastry with honey.