Category: Odyssey

What creative crowded lives the Ancient Greeks seemed to lead. And in 2019 the signs state with certainty the dates of every event. All of which reinforces the perspective of time compression and longevity. How much of today’s infrastructure will be around in 2500 years to be admired and catalogued?

All of which is to say the ruins at Delphi are stunning in scale, detail and timespan. Apollo must be happy, though he probably predicted it.

Equally impressive are the insects Manning whoopee in the spring flowers and sunshine, particularly the purple thistles. The town of Delphi is ticking over before the main season rush. There’s not much info on the olive valley below the city, stretching down to Corinth Bay, with the occasional glimpse of an irrigation canal.

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So batteries charged, is back up the hills tomorrow!

Today’s navigation was straightforward. Turn left, stay on road until destination. Apart from the deviation to find a castle in a town which saw us meandering among cobbled streets passing water features (a tourist attraction around here, note opportunity to sell Welsh weather).

From a flat plateau it didn’t take a genius to work out that the hills ahead were en route, and so it proved. Which made the coffees and pancake near the top very welcome. Before then, and again it might have been the rain, we’d had the harrowing experience of cycling over frogs, well baby frogs, that appeared at the road side in a multitude. Later on it was snails: the main concert there was punctures.

Local hospitality was found in a road side cafe….all for £2.50 and a warm welcome when they weren’t really set up for us. Dogs are more prominent in their groups compared with cats in the city: both lazybones in the heat.

BP Greece (which with Shell dominate petrol stations, many others closed), needs to work on their bilingual signs – to add Greek that is. The other surprise was to see signs for ski lifts and snow boarding. We gave that a miss this year.

A photoshoot at Hadrian’s Arch to show our best sides, followed by a convoy out of Athens. Final thoughts of Athens prompted by someone saying “it’s a poor city”. How to define poor or rich? Economic, appearance, social, cultural, health outcomes, happiness? How easy to draw conclusions from a slither of experiences. It felt safe, litter free. We’ve seen multicultural districts, rough at edges and posh places. So poor? It felt good to us.

After only 10km our so we we’d left Athens and fairly into sparsely populated countryside. First good ascent and descent is a portent of things to come. Time to get into a rhythm. But first to enjoy the spring flowers and surprisingly arable landscape. Then to check what is written on the election poster a friendly local insisted I took at a cafe stop…..