A Day trip to Delphi

 We decided to take a bus tour day trip from Athens to Delphi. We happened to book it through Viator and the actual tour group was called "Key Tours".  We met at the tour office at 8:20am and our coach bus of 44 people pulled out at 8:27am. The tour guide started talking on the microphone shortly after we left, and barely stopped talking until we left the bus at about 7pm. 

It takes about 2.5 hours to drive from Athens to Delphi, depending on Athens traffic. So we heard a lot about the history of Delphi on our way to the ancient site. There was a brief stop for coffee and restrooms on the way.

Delphi is the site of the Temple of Apollo, and Apollo was a god of prophecy. People from all over Greece would travel to Delphi to see the oracle, who was a person through which Apollo would communicate the future. The ancient Greek culture took prophecy very seriously, and would often communicate with the oracle on major decisions in life. People brought offerings to the god of Apollo from all over. Delphi itself was said to be the 'belly button / navel / center' of the world. The site is on a beautiful hillside at the base of a mountain, overlooking the hills and olive trees and the sea / port of Delphi. The site includes the ruins of many statues and carvings, treasury buildings, the Temple of Apollo, the oracle's underground rooms/caverns, a theatre, and an athletic stadium. The museum next door hosts many of the finer and more important sculptures and art features.

We arrived close to 11am, listened to our guide for about an hour and then had some free time to explore. Then we went through the museum with the guide before the tour bus went to a restaurant for a late lunch. (It's typical to eat lunch at 3pm in Greece.)

This was apparently the belly button

Restored treasury building

The pillars of the Temple of Apollo

Polyagonal wall (no mortar between these rocks)

The caverns of the oracle were below the pillars

The Athletic stadium, up high

Athletic stadium

Looking down at the Theatre, above the Temple

Theatre

Frieze depicting the story of the Trojan War

Greek sphynx

If you choose to do this tour, you can pay for lunch with your tour or you can pay for lunch on your own. We chose to pay ourselves so we could choose what we wanted, but you still go to the same restaurant. The food was good but the value and the service was so-so.

After lunch, as we were leaving the restaurant to board the bus, Grandma took a tumble down a step and landed on her left knee and hand. She was a bit shaken up, but was able to get up and, after settling a bit, got back on the bus for our drive home. Unfortunately her left hand is quite sore/swollen/bruised, but she is tough and the girls are doing a great job of helping her.

Our bus ride back to Athens felt really long, but we did have a beautiful sunset to enjoy.

So a summary of our trip to Delphi - a beautiful and interesting site, with lovely mountain scenery around, but a long bus ride to get there and get back!