Visiting Delphi

While back in Greece for Easter, we were meant to go to the pretty Cycladic island of Andros to get our first rays of summer. But the weather was really bad that week - it was pouring with rain and cold and so we opted for the mountain instead. Colin had never been to Delphi and so that was it!

We stayed in a hotel closer to Kellaria, the Parnassos ski resort, and as soon as we got there the hotel owner said to us: "Are you here for the skiing?"! Turned out the ski resort was open, with fresh snow and about to host some races that weekend! Talk about summer approaching! Pity we did not have our ski gear with us, but just being there reminded me how much I love mountains!

Visiting Delphi, the archaeological site and museum, was a revelation to me. I think I hadn't been since primary school and it was not at all as I remembered. The new museum is great - small, compact and informative. We toured all of the site, it took us nearly three hours, maybe even more. All the temples, the stadium, the gymnasium, the theatre - you name it. Maybe it was the spring, the wild flowers, the threatening cloud touching the slope, maybe the special aura of Delphi as a place of oracles and future telling - it was a unique experience.

Driving down to the village from our hotel, I remembered running on those curvy and uphill roads last time we were here with my friend Angel to do a review of local hotels for U.S. travel guide Fodor's. Running in a place makes it really come alive to the mind of a runner - I could even remember how exhausted I was after doing a set of uphill strides! And  having been here with my friend, who is now living on the other side of the Atlantic, -seeing the hotels we visited and the tavernas we ate in - made me feel so much closer to her.

I took some pictures from those few days, including some at the Osios Loukas monastery nearby (we had also edited that sub-chapter for Fodor's, but I had never been!). So here they are.