Delphi

After loading the car, we had breakfast omelettes and Greek breakfast at nearby Apollon Restaurant. We then headed to the Delphi Archaeological Museum to meet our guide, Georgia who I booked through Athens Walking Tours. Most folks come up from Athens for a day trip with transportation, but we just needed a local guide which was surprisingly a little hard to find that didn’t charge outrageous prices.

As we reminisced about what we learned about Delphi in school, we explained to my mom the famous Oracle and this was considered the center of the world.

Despite it being the center, once Christianity spread and landslides covered the area, a town was built over the ground. Only after paying the villagers to relocate, did they start excavating in 1892. The museum houses artifacts as well as photos of the excavation.

Here’s the Sphinx of Naxos, that stood on a column in front of the Temple of Apollo:



Fragments of reliefs from the Siphnian Treasury - treasury houses lined the Sacred Way to the temple storing offerings from different cities:





Excavated Kouros of two brothers:



A bowl showing Apollo with a lyre as he was the God of Music:



The Charioteer made of bronze - there were very few bronze statues left as they had been melted and taken away:



A model of the site:



We then transitioned to the site itself. Here’s the Agora or marketplace:



The Sacred Way:



The only reconstructed Treasury House which was for the city of Athens:



The actual Temple of Apollo and where the Sphinx column was:













Here’s a stone with holes that laid on the temple floor - the various gases wafted through which led the Oracle to get high and make her “predictions”:



Nearby, was the replica of the Serpent Column which was originally part of a victory tripod, dedicated to the Sanctuary after the Greek victory over the Persians in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. The original which we saw in Istanbul was taken by Constantine the Great in 324:



While Mama Kim rested and after saying our goodbyes to Georgia, Justin and I climbed the hill to see the theater…







We also made it up to see the gymnasium which you couldn’t actually enter, but was a relatively newer area to visit as they built steps to make it more accessible - there were a lot of steps!



We descended and met Mama Kim and climbed into our rental car. We drove through a cute town called Arachova and it took us about 2.5 hours to Athens. A photo of snow capped mountains and the road:



We checked into our hotel, Moxy Athens City. Normally, we would drop off luggage and my mom and return the rental car together. But instead, we did a quick pit stop and then headed south to the edge of the mainland peninsula to Sounion which takes about 90 minutes.

As part of our canceled Greek cruise, when we returned to Athens there was an excursion to visit the Temple of Poseidon as it is near the southern cruise terminal of Lavrion. (FYI - There’s also another terminal west of Athens called Piraeus). Since we were no longer cruising, figured we could take advantage of the rental car and see the temple ourselves.

The Ancient Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion is dedicated to the god of the sea and looks over the Aegean. When we arrived, it was super windy, so we only took a few snaps and enjoyed some hot drinks in the cafeteria.







We essentially made a big U when we drove down to the Cape and back to Athens. My mom likened it to us going out to Montauk, but I said it reminded me of squeezing in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa with Amanda - as they are both peninsulas and taking advantage of the car rental. Here’s Justin driving on the western part of the peninsula:



We did the usual when returning the rental car - Justin pays for gas, I sweep the car for stuff, and my mom cleans the windows with the gas station squeegee. I don’t know why, but I burst out laughing while she was trying to clean the windows.

We successfully returned the car to a center city Hertz and ordered an Uber which called a city taxi to a restaurant called Pharaoh. Originally, I booked for Saturday, but our Acropolis tour got moved to the afternoon and the restaurant has no reasonable availability tomorrow. Apparently, the Acropolis has a free morning and our tour company advised it would be insanely crowded.

In my rebooking, we got shifted to kitchen counter seating which was fun but also warm. The restaurant is known for charcoal cooking and organic and natural foods highlighting traditional Greek cuisine. It was really engaging chatting with the cook who gave us tips on how and what to eat and the service was great!



For our “poly nostimo” meal which means “very tasty”, we ordered signature dishes like the Grilled Wild Greens with Manouri cheese, Dolmades, Red Snapper, beef steak, and for dessert - Galaktoboureko or a Greek custard pie. The cook explained that Phaorah’s pie is made with clarified butter and you know it’s good when after a bite, Justin just says “good cake”. We were also comped bread with bottarga and crème caramel with lemon salt. They seemed to like us!



We conked out early from the long day after our short walk back to the hotel. We are very excited for our Athenian Adventures!