Blogs from Delphi, Central Greece, Greece, Europe - page 2

Sunday: John was up early to say goodbye to Aggie and Roger as they took off for Iran and the Society of Asian Arts tour. Then we hung out at the hotel early morning with Memhet the owner, chatting about the states and his view of the economy. He very generously gave us presents as we departed for the airport. What a wonderful host and we look forward to hosting him in San Francisco later in the year. After some difficulties with getting through the airport we boarded our plane and were whisked 536 km to Athens where we were met by Spiros, our driver and guide for the next few days. Full of information and energized at every turn, we drove the two hours to Delphi and our hotel, the Nidimos. John took a walk ... read more

DELPHI, TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY, 4/5 November,2014. Today we travelled by public bus three hours north to Deplhi, the centre of the ancient world. It was founded in 560BC. Difficult to comprehend a place so old. Delphi is high in the mountains and quite cold at night, although both days have been sunny and warmish! Another town closing for the Winter. We found the only hotel, shared with four Estonian Harley Davidson Riders on their annual European tour. Looked great! The town is full of jewellery and tourist shops and hotels, most of which are shut. The summer crowd must be awful, if you are a tourist, great if you are a business person. The GC businesses would be in awe I think! Today we visited the Archeological Museum and ruins. Both exceptional. Not one for museums generally, but ... read more

Ce matin, Delphes ! La ville est charmante, les commerçants super sympathiques. Le site archéologique est ici aussi impressionnant. Selon la légende, lorsque Zeus lâche deux aigles aux deux extrémités du monde, leurs trajectoires se croisèrent au dessus de Delphes, marquant ainsi le centre du monde. C’est à cet endroit que fût construit le sanctuaire d’Apollon qui devint le siège d’oracles que les pèlerins vinrent consulter pendant près de 1000 ans. Ici aussi plusieurs édifices ont été très bien restaurés. Nous poursuivons notre chemin vers un arrêt obligatoire pour Pascale : les Thermopyles, site de la célèbre bataille du même nom où, en 491 av JC, Léonidas et ses 300 hommes affrontèrent 200 000 turcs durant 5 jours. Malgré la défaite à la suite d’une trahison, cette bataille est vue comme l’emblème de la résistance grecque ... read more

what our future?... read more

Thessaloniki to Delphi - Day 13 Friday 20th September Thessaloniki is knee deep in cars. If ever you have been to Amsterdam and seen how the bikes are joined 10 deep from a fence and you wonder how the owner of bike number 1 can retrieve it... then imagine the same with cars. They are parked everywhere and never seem to move. People park at 90 degrees to the pavement with half the car on the pavement. Any bit of vacant road is parked upon. Areas with wide angles and spare bits of concrete are chocker full of cars. When you get to a junction, you don't know which lanes are waiting for traffic lights or just parked. People just give up on the rigid traffic and leave their cars at the point of just having ... read more