Ancient Ruins

 Ancient Delphi....

Where Oracle Pythia sat and under the influence of volcanic vapours gave enigmatic answers to questions  from Alexander the Great, Socrates, the King of Sparta, the Greeks who fought the Trojan war. 

Roman ruins

The 'actual' omfalos or tummy button

Greeks considered Delphi the centre of the world, the omfalos

Ancient theatre

Temple ruins

Polyganic walls

Made from odd shaped stones fitted closely together

With nubs

Pointed out by Paul and Karen

What are nubs? 

These things sticking out from stone blocks

They are found all over the world, on walls in ancient Peru, Japan, Malta and Egypt. No-one is yet sure what their use was

We stayed in the village of Delphi, walking distance to the ruins. There were the usual lines of tourist buses but we got there before the main crowds arrived.  It's a huge area and we didn't go right to the top to see the stadium. There were steps going up and up and up. A guard with a whistle stood watching all the visitors, blowing her whistle at those who dared touch the ancient rocks. 

The whole area is spectacular surrounded by sheer mountain walls, high above acres of olive groves and the harbour below. 

Taverna with a view

After all the exertion of scrambling over ruins we needed a good traditional Greek meal.

Rabbit with onions, giant beans, sardines and a Greek salad.

We judge each taverna by the price of a traditional Greek salad. The first night the Greek salad cost 13 euros and it was not traditional. It had chunks of hard rusk, Greek croutons?  The taverna was full of tourists and attentive, scurrying waiters. Also they had run out of Ks favourite greens and herb pie. We won't be going back there. 

The following night the taverna had salad in a large bowl, no rusks, 9 euros. A more traditional Greek experience.

We did a tour of the tourist shops. Every where they asked where we came from . Australia, NZ via Poros.

The owner of one shop knew Poros well and mentioned a name. A name I knew well. She turned out to be a cousin of one of our sons in law. 

As the saying goes

'It's a small world'.

Next day we were off again, further north, to Meteora , with it's 'Monasteries in the air'.