Saturday 9th May – Delphi and Arahova

09.05.2009 - 09.05.2009

After a very late night (for us, but not the locals) at a modern, fun and friendly (and more expensive, as is most of this village) taverna where we were plied with extra free food (lemon yoghurt dessert as good as Dave’s version) and drink (the fiery spirit – tsipouro) we still managed to get up ealryish to get to Delphi, one of Greece’s main tourist spots. Being such a good and famous site relatively close to Athens it has a reputation for being very crowded, esp with busloads of tourists. We managed to do this, and not a lot of tourists were ahead of us into the main part of the site (it is spread over a large area on the side of a mountain).

It was a beautiful day, mild and sunny, and we enjoyed seeing the site and its marvelous position. Doesn’t have the intimacy and wonder of somewhere like Messini (which maybe has spoilt us) but it is dramatic and grand, as some of the photos will show. And the museum, whilst rather crowded (tourist bus people had caught up with us by then), was well set out with good information and a number of highlights – the amazing use early on of bronze for decorations and for utensils (and armour) and for sculpture and a range of original stone sculptures and friezes, including some with painted sections.