May 5 - 6, 2024 ---- Part II: Greece Trip - Days Three and Four

Sunday May 5th:

Bags out at 7:00 a.m., breakfast, and on the bus for a 2.5 hour drive to see the ruins at Delphi and a two-day stay in the town of Itea. On the way out of Athens we saw the Olympic Stadium built in 1886 on top of the original Olympic Games Stadium. It seats 60,000 people. Here is a picture with the winners podium and one showing where you are in relation to the Parthenon.

A stop on the way:

The Persians invaded Athens in 490 B.C. and stopped in Marathon to feed their troops. The Greeks attacked and drove them out. We stopped here to view the place where this major battle took place. Later was the Battle of Thermopylae, one of the most prominent battles in the second Persian invasion. It lasted three days. The Persians had around 300,000 troops. The Greek general, realizing they were overwhelmed, dismissed most of his troops. He, along with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians remained behind to guard the retreat. Most of the Thespians surrendered but the 300 Spartans fought to the death in one of history's most famous last stands. The Persians told them to throw down their weapons. They responded "Come and get them." After the Persians defeated the Greeks they destroyed all things Greek, as opposed to the Romans who invaded in 200 A.D. and embraced all things Greek. 

On the drive we learned that 80% of Greece is mountains. At all times you were either driving along the mountains or over them. There is only one highway from Southern Greece to Northern Greece. To give you an idea of the size of Greece. Missouri is 69,715 square miles. Greece is 81,994 square miles but that includes 6,000 islands. Only about 200 of the islands are inhabited. The islands are an integral part of Greece's culture and tradition. Crete is the largest island in size and population, Santorini is the most visited, and Mykonos is known for partying. We eventually visited all three.

We drove through a large flat area that was all water 4000 years ago with a few islands the people lived on. The people couldn't live on fish alone and needed cropland. They engineered canals to drain the water to the sea. This was four thousand years ago! It is a major crop growing area for the country now. 

Our next stop was at Arachova, a ski resort town 3000 feet above sea level. We stopped to take some pictures of the area before driving into the town.

Virtually all Greeks are Greek Orthodox and we arrived in Arachova on their Easter Sunday. At midnight on Holy Saturday they have a church service after which fireworks are shot off to celebrate the Resurrection. We experienced the fireworks in Athens before we left. After the church service and fireworks everyone goes home and celebrates the Resurrection enjoying a special soup made for the occasion. 

Their Easter tradition continues on Easter Sunday with the roasting of whole lambs over open pits. It takes four hours to roast the lambs and when they are done there is a big celebration meal with family. The Greek people are very family oriented. 

Once in town we walked around taking in their Easter festivities. In numerous places on the main street lambs were roasted on spits set up on the street, on the sidewalks, and off the street in plaza areas. The charcoal was just spread out and spits set up over the top. Folks took turns turning the spits for four hours. Men and women were sitting around turning, laughing, and drinking beer. It was really a delightful celebration. 

Here are two videos I took of the lambs being roasted in two different locations.

Such an interesting cultural celebration that we just happened to see because we were there on their Easter Sunday.

Here are some pictures from the main street in Arachova looking down the mountainside with apartments built in at various levels. Carrying groceries and other items to your apartment would be a workout. You certainly couldn't have bad knees.

We then left Arachova for a short bus ride to Delphi to visit the Delphi Museum, which displays many artifacts from the Apollo Temple area, the Apollo Temple, and the town of Delphi. The temple was built in 600 B.C. and detail in these carved items is astounding. Annie was soaking it all in.

After viewing the artifacts we hiked up to the Apollo Temple built in 600 B.C. in Delphi for the Oracle of Delphi. It is pronounced "Delphee". I had always heard it as "Delpheye". 

This is a picture of the market area. There would be venders many selling food and items for those who travelled great distances to offer a gift to Apollo. Our guide, Sofia, described it all to us.

The Oracle of Delphi was a woman - a vestal virgin - Pythia. Vestal Virgins guarded the site.  The first virgin was young and beautiful and soon became pregnant.  After that they chose older women to be the guardians of Delphi. An interesting bit of history is that the temple ended up being used by the priests to scam people out of their money. People would travel for many miles and pay to get a question answered by Apollo. Priests would use the path in this picture to reach a room under the temple floor and give believers obscure answers to their questions for a fee. 

Each major city had a treasury at the temple. It was where you stopped to leave your gifts and get directions on how to proceed. This one was the largest, it was for the City of Athens, the largest city in Greece at the time and now. 

Ancient Greeks installed ramps on temples to improve access for disabled people. This is so fascinating since one had to climb up the mountain to get to the temples we saw! There was no indication of how disabled people got to the temple area to make use of the ramp. 

 

Like all other major sites we visited in Greece, there was a stadium for all types of events, some informational, some for entertainment. This stadium held four thousand people. I couldn't believe how, in 600 B.C., the stones were cut in curves and with lips to tie one row to the next. Simply amazing.

This is a view of the entire temple site with the ramp entrance on the left.

From the site we were bused to the town of Delphi to look around and get lunch. For lunch we chose a family owned restaurant recommended by our tour guide where they served authentic Greek food. Here are a couple of pictures of the food, which was outstanding and reasonable in price.

This Baklava, given to us as compliments from the chef, is a very sweet and tasty dessert. You can't eat much. We also thought the shape of the forks was interesting but didn't learn why.

Afterwards Alexa and I posed outside waiving to Annie and Kelly across the street. We look pretty silly and soon learned that waiving is considered quite rude. Oops! Dumb Americans.  Separating your fingers and showing your palms is like giving the finger.  If you are really in a rage you show both palms with fingers separated.  A very dismissive act!!  

 

Monday May 6th:

We got on the bus and headed up the mountain to Galaxidi for an olive oil tasting at the store of an olive oil producer - “mer des oliviers of Delphes”. Even though it was Easter Sunday the owner provided us with an olive oil tasting and told us about olive oil production and his operation. Here is a picture of the tasting as we sat overlooking the valley below.

The darker the olive the later the harvest. Each has its own unique flavor.  We wll liked the late harvest olives and the late harvest tapanade, which is simply mashed olives in oil - delicious.  We learned that light is the enemy of oil olive. This company uses cans for the packaging of all of their olive oil. The cans protect the olive oil, are lighter to ship, there is no breakage, etc. Kelly and Annie each bought a can as well as jars of tapenade. We packed Kelly's olive oil can in her luggage. By the time we got home the can was all dented but it did not leak. Thank heavens. Can you imagine what type of mess that would have been? It also gives you an idea of how your luggage is handled at the airport.

This man's company owns 4,800 trees in the valley below his store. These trees are 400-500 years old and there are a couple trees that are 1,500 years old.  He said 50,000 families own olive trees in that valley. The trees are not planted in rows yet everyone knows their own trees. Amazing! This area became an olive producing area 3,000 years ago when the sea receded to the current town of Itea. After the ocean receded they realized that there was a water table under the surface. Olive tree roots grow down so they have done very well in this area. Here is a picture of the valley. All the green you see are olive trees. 

The older trees have to be picked by hand so as not to damage them or the olives as they drop. He said it is getting harder and harder to get pickers. No one wants to do the manual labor any more. (Sound familiar?) Most of his workers now come from Albania and they come back every year to pick. The trees were in bloom when we were there and the harvest starts in September. 

The owner and his family were preparing to enjoy their Easter feast as we were leaving. It was so kind of him to accommodate us on a major church holiday.

In the above picture you can see in the background a camper. He has built a campground next to his store with a nice shower house and swimming pool. Many retired folks come to the area in their RVs to take in the peaceful life and beautiful vistas. We saw license plates from France, Netherlands, and Greece. Here are a couple of pictures of the campground.

This is the shower house with rooftop water heaters which we saw all over Greece. They do a wonderful job of heating the water since there are three hundred days of sunshine per year and very hot summers.

Back on the bus we had a short ride to the town of Itea for a two day stay at our next hotel, Nafsika Palace. Itea is a small town on the Aegean Sea at the end of the olive tree valley. The hotel is a very nice boutique hotel just a block off the sea. After settling in, Alexa and Annie headed down to a bar on the nearby Kolpos Itea (Gulf of Itea) for a drink. 

The Aegean Sea is cobalt blue. I've never seen anything like it. The reason is that there is no algae in the water. Pictures do not do it justice.

The next evening we all sat at a cafe on the water enjoying a beer with this view in front of us. 

What a great way to end the day.