Day Seven: Delphi & Athens at night

So we finished our cruise, and returned to Athens. We jumped on a bus and headed toward Delphi. This was about a 3.5 hour drive. It is the home of the Temple of Apollo, and where the Oracle of Delphi made her predictions. (Btw, the Greeks pronounce this "Del-FEE.")

Delphi is way up in the top of the mountains. It was strange going up into an alpine area after being on the islands for the past few days. The temple was originally looking out over the Aegean Sea, but over the past 3,000 years it has filled in with silt, dirt...etc. You can catch a slight glimpse of the sea through a couple of the mountains. It was very far from where we were.

It was amazing once we got there. The temple and the grounds surrounding it are pretty extensive, and they are only 15% of the total place back when it was in it's heyday. It was a good hike, up to the amphitheater and then up to the race track, but well worth it. The views were outstanding.

On the way back to Athens we stopped in this small little ski resort town, and got out of the bus for a few minutes, because the one road through the town was blocked by a cement truck. So we jumped off and walked through the town. On the other side of the town we met up with the bus and drove out of town just a little bit, and stopped again to take a group photo in the mountains.
We then drove a few more miles and had lunch at yet another fantastic place. The food there was outstanding, and of course was more than we could eat. The guys running this place were really delightful and everyone enjoyed it.

We headed back to Athens, almost everyone was asleep on the drive. It has been a long trip.
We return, check in to our new hotel, and rest up for a couple of hours. We then meet Shemy our tour director and she takes us on an evening walk through Athens to see the Acropolis lit up at night...etc. We also ended up walking right in front of the Parliament building and right through the middle of the protests that have been going on there. It was very crowded, but everything was very peaceful. When we returned to the hotel, a handful of us went to the roof of the hotel and took in the view of the Acropolis from there. It was outstanding.