One more day

Belinda was off early tgis morning, I spent a couple more hours in bed. A light breakfast and a couple cups of coffee and I'm off to explore the city. No definite plans for the day.  Walk the streets of the plaka and do a little shopping.

After a few  hours I find myself heading back towards my neighbourhood, decide to stop for lunch. A cheese sandwich and salad does the trick.

After lunch head back to the hotel to drop off my shopping.  After a little nap, I head to the local square. It's Friday night so lots of activity, great place for people watching.

Early morning, so I make it an early night.
What a great trip.

Meteora draft

Today we woke up in Kalambaka, where we spent the night in a brand new 5 star hotel. Very nice accommodation,  unfortunately the food was a huge disappointment. But the sights today are spectacular. 

Six of the original twenty four Eastern Orthodox monasteries remain. We will be visiting two: monastery of St. Stephen and monastery of Ronsanou.

Zindros Icons, creators of Byzantine icons

After a stop for lunch, thank goodness our last buffet lunch, we head back to Athens.  They play 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' on the way back.

Luckily we are the third stop in Athens. We are staying in a different hotel for the next two nights. I get my bearings and head to our hotel, the tour bus cannot navigate he narrow streets. The reviews of the hotel did say that the streets you have to walk down to reach the hotel look a little dodgy.  And they were correct, but completely safe. Check in to the hotel fast and efficient, the room is fine. We then get directions to find dinner. Hard to decide on a restaurant,  as we are early for dinner and none are busy. Eventually we choose one. Mainly because the serve Fix beer. In the end they don't serve Fix dark, but he has another Greek dark beer, which turns out to be very good.

We start with baked feta again, this time with honey and sesame, and anchovies. 

I go with kabobs for dinner. Yummy.

We then ask for our bill, but instead of brining our bill they bring us a little dessert and a digestivo, like a cool mulled wine.

We had already eaten the dessert bite before we thought to take a pic. A stop by the local pastry shop for baklava and we head home, Belinda leaves early in the morning.

Delphi

Today we are visiting Delphi,  dedicated to Apollo,  and famous for the seat of Pythia the Oracle. Delphi was considered to be the centre of the world.

Layout of Delphi

Navel Stone

Treasury of Athens

Greek lesson today. Due to the donation made by the island of Chíos, the inscription reads that they shall take the oricale before all others.

Visit to the museum.

Sphinx 

Charioteer of Delphi

Twins

Thomas at the Sanctuary of Athena 

Short stop to see the monument to the battle of 300 Spartans.

Monument of Leonides

Olympia

Sanctuaries contained four elements: the altar, temple, stadium and the theatre. Yesterday we saw the best preserved theatre, today we are at Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic games. The temple is dedicated to Zeus.

Temple of Hera,  wife of Zeus

Events held at the Olympic games included wrestling, discus, javelin and running. The length of the running race was a stade, so the place where the race was held was called a stadium. The tour guide arranged a little foot race for us in the stadium. We all got a chance to wear the olive wreath.

After the race in the stadium

We then made a visit to the museum. Original sculptures from the temple.

Now time for sightseeing...,

Up early again today, we have enough time to get a little walk in around our neighbourhood before we are picked up for our tour.

After rounding up the remaining group around Athens our first stop is  the Corinth Canal. Built between 1881-1893, opened to traffic October 28, 1893. Cut between the mainland and the Peloponnese it reduced the distance between the ports of te Aegean and the Adriatic seas by 131 nautical miles.

Basic data:

Length 6 343 m

Depth 8.0 m

Height 79 m

Transits annually 12 500

Our next stop is Epidaurus. The theatre is the best preserved monument at the Sanctuary of Asklepios, erected at the end of the 4th century B.C., seats 12,000 spectators.

Next on the agenda, Mycenae

Citadel of Mycenae dominates the Plain of Argos. 

According to myth, Mycenae was founded by Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danae, and employed the Cyclopes for the construction. 

The entrance to the citadel is marked by the Lion Gate, 1250 B.C.

Mycenae, was home to The Comannder-in-Chief of the Trojan Campaign, Agamemnon, King of Mycenae.

The wealthiest Mycenaeans were buried in behive-shaped tombs,

The entrance to the Treasury of Attreus 

One final stop at a local potter for a quick explanation of the creation of Mycenaean pottery, before we end the day in Olympia.