Delphi

Pictures:

The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens....should have posted this earlier but the internet was not cooperating....You can't have a blog about Greece without a photo of this.

View from our hotel balcont in Delphi.

Here are the remains of the offeratory to Zues at Olympia...this is the location where the Olympic Flame for the Vancouver Olympics was lit the day before we arrived.

This is the sancutuary of Athena in Delphi...looks like a postcard.

Here are some picutures from inside a Greek costume museum we saw in Delphi.

This is the Rio bridge. It was built to link the Pelloponese to the rest of mainland Greece. The pillars in the see have circluar bottoms that have diameters the size of a soccer stadium.

This is a chandelier inside the Church of St. Andrew.

This is a Greek Orthadox Church dedicated to St. Andrew. The church was built on the spot that St. Andrew was crucified on an x shaped cross for preaching Christianity.

Here we are standing in front the Temple of Zeus at Olympia archeological site. This loan pillar was put back into place. All the other pillars are lying on the group. The whole area was flattened and covered with dirt for many years before it was excavated.

Here you can see the length of the ancient Olympic stadium grounds. The first Olympics consisted only of races. The laps were not on a circular track...instead the athletes ran back and forth.

Christina at the offical starting line of the ancient Olympic stadium....192.something metre race...disqualified in the end for wearing clothes! Remain of bronze statue of a bull in museum of Delphi....likely created as an offering to the God Apollo
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Hello again.

Today we were allowed to sleep in....only an 8:45 start!

We began the day in Delphi. We first visited the archeological site and then the museum. Unfortunately, some of the archeological site was closed down. The Hungarian ladies on our tour were disapplointed as they wanted to see the theatre and it was one of the closed off sections.

After Delphi we went for lunch....Greek salad and souvaki....I must say that the Greek food we have been enjoying has been awesome....too awesome over the past week and a half when we have been eating alot. We decided yesterday that the treadmill is really going to get a running when we get back....I am sure we have both gained weight!

Anyway....after lunch we said goodbye to three people from our tour which meant we were down to 8 people. However....that changed quite quickly when we picked up 30 other people who will join us for the remainder of the tour. The most interesting thing was that two of the new people sitting right behind us on the bus are from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. More interesting...the husband (Glenn Gillis??) knows mom. Does this name sound familiar, mom. I think he said that he works for SK water. His wife is from Tisdale and the other couple they are travelling with are from Nipawin. We have met very few Canadians during our time in Greece so this was very bizarre!

We then drove through the mountains, valleys, and olive groves to Kalambaka. There are impressive rock formations outside the small city (10 000 people). On the cliffs there are monastaries that we will visit tomorrow. Apparently there are strict dress codes in the monastaries. Woman must where long skirts or dresses. Since I have no skirt or dress in my backpack...I will be borrowing one from the monks! They apparently have skirts you can borrow.

We just finished having a great supper with an Australian couple we met on our bus tour. They are really great people and we have exchanged addresses so that we can look eachother up. who knows....maybe we will get to Australia some day. Wouldn't that be great!

Tomorrow evening we will arrive back in Athens. We plan on looking around a bit more...catching a later supper, and then catching the midnight metro to the airport. We will hang out there until our fight which will be at 6am. We then have 6 hours in Amsterdam which we will probably spend in the city. I think I will try to get Keith to conquer his fear of the Dutch Coquet....AKA Deep Fried Weirdness!

Once we leave Amsterdam, we will head to Minneapolis and then home.. We should arrive in Saskatoon around 11 pm. We plan on staying at Reg;s for the night. Keith has a meeting in Saskatoon the next day so we will just stay in the city until that is over.

I can't believe that we have spent over three weeks in Greece. It has definately been a trip of a lifetime. We have really enjoyed the bus tour we have been on. It was great to be with a small group for so long and we really like our guide. She gives great information and she is always looking out for the interestes of the group. She is not afraid to tell other guides and their groups to quiet down. Of course....this is all done in Greek!

We will have internet at the airport in Athens so we will give an update of our day tomorrow. For now....enjoy the pictures!