Vacation 2013 - Egypt & Greece, Day 9 "No Better Place to Have Greek Yogurt"

Thursday, May 2, 2013 – Day 9

Breakfast with a fabulous view just tastes better, right?!  Especially when you're in Greece digging into some fresh Greek yogurt!

After breakfast, we headed over to the Delphi Archaeological Site and Museum.  Walking up, we were already greeted with some amazing scenery. 

Inside the museum, there were so many neat sculptures to take in. Such magnificent works of art!

Middle-row, 1st picture: Large Sphinx of Naxos sitting on an Ionic column; Bottom row: Treasury of Siphnos Relief representing the Battle of Troy.

Middle row, 1st picture: Kouros Statues of the Archaic Period, known as Kleovis and Biton. The two boys who heroically pulled their mother on her chariot to the sanctuary where she was to worship. They pulled the chariot for a distance of about 8km. They died the same night peacefully in their sleep according to Herodotus.; Bottow row, 2nd picture: Statue of philosopher.; Final picture: The "Charioteer of Delphi" is one of the best known ancient Greek statues.
The sculpture depicts the driver of the chariot race at the moment when he presents his chariot and horses to the spectators in recognition of his victory.

But I thought the real marvels were outside as we wandered around the Archaeological Site. Here is where the oracle of Apollo spoke, and this area became the religious center and symbol of unity of the ancient Greek world. Athletes would come here from all over the Greek world to compete in the Pythian Games, one of the four panhellenic games, precursors of the modern Olympics.  

Treasury of Athens at Delphi

The remaining columns of the Temple of Apollo

The theater at Delphi

Delphi Stadium

It was a very hot day - I think it was hotter here than it was the whole time we were in Egypt - and there was a lot of uphill climbing involved to see everything, so we were pretty exhausted and starving by the time we finished. We went to a nearby restaurant, and here our tour group split. We were doing the four-day trip that included Meteora, but a few members of our group were only doing the three-day, plus we had a bunch of tourists joining us just for the Meteora leg.    

Lunch - I don't remember exactly what it was.

Along the drive, we stopped at this '300' monument.  

We drove on to Kalambaka, a small at the foot of Meteora, and got settled into our hotel room.  

As the sun set, we dug into some dinner and dessert. Greek salad is another food that tastes so much better in its home country!