Oracle of Rhodes

The bus ride from Athens to Delphi (which Greeks said as "Delfee") was just over three hours. The first hour is dreary commercial, industrial & bad planning landscape. Then the high mountains are all around & as we approached Mt. Parnassus - the highest mount in Greece at 8,500 ft.) there were mostly mountains & little agriculture except for some large groves of olive trees occasionally. One can easily see why Greece is poor; agriculture has never been highly profitable on a national scale and their cotton (which was being harvested as I was there), grapes and olives are no different. But the tiny alpine town that serves the Delphi site is perched on the side of a mountain as tho we were in No. Italy or Austria. It is really a beautiful 1.5 street town with a great view. Much to my amazement, I found a small hotel for 30 Euros ($42-48 depending on U.S. or Cdn. currency). It has French doors leading to a little balcony with a grand and sweeping view of the mountains & valley. I was amazed to discover that the water I saw at the end of the valley and end of a massive forest of olive trees, was the ocean. Not only that, but behind the highest mountains in my photo here, there are two other high ridges of mountains the furtherest of which is actually the Peloponnesus. The street of the little town is so narrow that these huge Mercedes & Volvo busses can barely squeeze through, and if another vehicle comes opposite them, somebody will back up a long way - and it is never the busses. All thru Greece you will see many cars (oten rental cars) with missing side mirrors and long scratches down the side of the vehicle. This happens when they park on a sidewalk, or curve & busses & trucks can neither pass nor find the driver, so they scrape on by. There is a provision for this in the insurance - that if it is your fault, you must pay up to some limit like 300E or 500 etc.

The site of Delphi is one of the most thrilling in all of Greece's many ruins. I suppose the altitude is about 4,500 ft and you must walk up stairs another 600 or so feet to see the whole site, and you are constantly looking over one of the world's great valleys and display of mountains. One can imagine creating a site there for worship or authority & the excitement and anticipation of the adherents walking thru the great forests & climbing from sea level to reach the great place. We might find it a little disappointment as the Oracle was said to usually be a woman over 50 years sitting on a tripod - so you went thru all that exercise to see Mom - who predicted things.
The museum there is a treasure. I loved its contents more than any other I saw this trip.