Even the most hardened museum-hater would surely be seduced by Athen's Archaeological Museum, crammed with the best finds from the best centuries of Greek civilization. I have two museum speeds: dead slow, which means I look at just about everything and read all the labels; and super fast, when I stand in the middle of the rooms and do a 360 before moving on, stopping only if something really catches my attention. This was my twelfth Greek museum, but if I hadn't been following our tour guide around, I'd have been doing it dead slow.
Fani was guiding us again, and she took us through the sculpture galleries in chronological order, saving the showpiece gold from Mycenae for dessert. We were seeing some of the most photographed sculptures around, but they really are even more impressive up close and personal.
We started with the stiff kouroi (male and naked) and korai (female and clothed), showing clear Egyptian influence, which had featured in the art history lectures I had attended a year earlier. Moving on to the elegant realism of the Classical Age, the huge bronze statue of Poseidon reminded me of the temple I had just visited at Cape Sounion. By the time we reached the more dramatic and elaborate Hellenic era I was starting to think I might overdose on the formal statues, however beautiful, and was happy to find some quirkier pieces in among the gods and goddesses and perfect people. (The gold funeral masks from Mycenae were as impressive as you might expect, but I'll save those photos for day 10, when we visited the site.)
"Today we drive north, into the rugged heart of Greece." Day 3 began with our introduction to Spiros and his big purple bus, as we loaded our packs into the cavernous hold for the first time and chose seats for the ride to the Archaeological Museum. After saying goodbye to Fani and the museum, we got properly settled in for the ride to Delphi, not quite a double seat each, but close. I had eaten a cheese pie before we left the museum, but still found room for some anchovies (good) and roast potatoes (limp) when we stopped for lunch.
"A local guide will lead us through the mystical ruins of Delphi." When I planned my trip to Greece, Delphi topped my must-see list, and while I felt disappointed that our late start from Athens meant that we couldn't visit the museum, the site itself was more important to me. Once again, we had a thorough briefing from our local guide. I was sorry to learn that the actual place where the priestess breathed in the oracular fumes and spoke Apollo's words hadn't been located, and saddened that she was the only female allowed into the sacred precinct. The ancient Greeks had a very low opinion of women!
Delphi must have been a remarkable sight, back in the day, with petitioners wending their way between the buildings where the various city states stored their offerings, or heading for one of the temples. And every four years the Pythian Games, nearly as important a pan-Hellenic event as the Olympic Games, would have filled the theater and the stadium with spectators and competitors.
Up in the stadium, standing with my eyes shut, I could almost hear the audience cheering on the athletes, but my favorite place was the Temple of Athena, at the bottom of the site. Among the all-too-human Greek Olympians, Athena is easily my favorite, and I poured a libation to her. Only water, admittedly, but the thought was there.
"We'll dine and sleep well tonight." Not long after Byzantium, the last remnant of the Roman Empire, which had supplanted the Greeks, was itself supplanted by the Ottoman Turks, and long after the temples were abandoned for the churches of Greek Orthodox Christianity, a group of Albanians settled at Delphi, finding the marble a useful building material. When archaeologists rediscovered the ancient site in the late 1800s, the villagers were moved to what is now modern Delphi, easy walking distance west. The new site had the same stellar view of the Gulf of Corinth, and the same steep hillside location - pedestrians connect its two main streets by climbing stairs.
We stayed at the Acropole, where I shared a room for the first time on the tour. I've shared with a number of people on tours over the last few years, and only once had a roommate who was less than considerate. As usual, on this tour I enjoyed the companionship of the other solo women. That's two of them, Chris and Kate, over on the right.
The Acropole was on the lower street. We climbed the steps to the upper street for our second group dinner, where I enjoyed the specialty, rooster in red wine, and some lively "getting to know you" conversation. Delphi is a tourist town, and alongside the souvenir shops I was happy to find an Internet cafe. But I didn't stay long - David had announced an early start the next day.
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