May 7 - Magnificent Delphi

It's our last day as a complete group. Sonia, George, Colleen & Tony have one more day after this to visit Meteora, so it's just Marie left with us after lunch.

Today we visit the main site of Delphi, the museum and the Temple of Apollo, and it is magnificent. Words cannot portray the magnitude of this place. Pictures do, and I have writer's cramp, so I must move on.

After a long climb, we reach the ancient stadium. You can feel this history, it is so well preserved.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

While there, the fun gang with us, we are swarmed by young Italian & Greek girls shouting "HELLO"! We aren't really sure what the heck is going on, but it is good for the ego. Nonetheless, we tell them George is a greek movie star, and scamper out of there quickly.

Stadium at Delphi. Site of the Pythian Games.

Many pictures later, it is time to leave Delphi, but in body only - never in mind. We head back to the hotel, after our last meal as a group, and board another bus for the return trip to Athens.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

We hope to meet up with our new friends in Athens on Sunday night for dinner. Bye guys, we miss you already. Our new bus is a one day tour group and it is dull in comparison. We immediatly take over our usual seats at the back, and take in the views.

Some of the amazing views at Delphi

On the way back to Athens, the bus stops in Arachova (coat town). We've been there and done that, so we (Jane, Marie, and myself), in the allotted 20 minutes, decide to "do" the famous 300 steps. Only one problem - it's at least half a mile away.

Rob gets the laurel leaves from Effie
and conquers the Arachova steps with time to spare

"Right", says the new tour guide, "only time to take a picture - if we hurry".

"Right", says I, "we'll see about that".

We speed walk to the steps, at which point Marie and I begin our ascent. I toss my smoke, and off we go. A (very long) short time later, Jane is a dot taking our picture from below. We conquer the final step together, turn, and run back down. We speed walk (read: hussle our butts) back to the bus, only to beat the tour guide by five minutes. I light a smoke and make her wait.

Museum at Delphi

Hours later, we're back in Athens. It's just us now, so we go for dinner. Due to a nasty storm, we are unable to book our planned one day island cruise. It's saved us about $200, so we go for a nice dinner where they cook Jane's fish at the table.

Two hours later, my hand is numb, Jane's in bed, and the bartender stops selling me ouzo. Goodnight.

Note: Best day so far, we've done so much in four days that it feels like we've been here for weeks. Our fun gang is the main reason that this tour was so great. Effie, our tour guide, told me that I was her favourite, so I planted a kiss on her cheek. I know what she will dream tonight!

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