Delphi - the city, not the chocolate

Day 3 (11 Nov 2025)

 

Today, we visited Delphi which according to Greek mythology, is the centre of the universe. We went to the archaelogical site which is up on a hill.

 

 

The first building that greeted us at the site is the Athenian Treasury built from marble to contain all the spoils from wars and offerings to the god Apollo. 

 

  

The attraction here though is the Temple of Apollo. It was known for its oracles  so people would come here to seek prophecies from the god Apollo via an oracle who was a woman from the local area. Honestly, it doesn't sound very different from how people visit mediums and fortune tellers now to have their fortune told.

 

The tour guide explained that Greek temples are not like modern churches where services and ceremonies are held inside. All the important events like sacrifices are held outside on temples, so the external is where all the decorations are with statues and so on. Honestly, after a while, all the stories about Greek gods made our eyes glaze over so we started to clown around and spam goofy photos instead.

 

 

We also paid a visit to the Delphi Archaeological Museum. The highlight artifact is The Charioteer, created 26 centuries ago. It's one of the few metal statues in human size. It's incredibly difficult to sculpt anything in bronze, so it was pretty impressive to see how they sculpted all the details in the features and clothes. 

 

 

There were also Egyptian sculptures as this part of the world used to trade extensively with Egypt so they incorporate the art into their culture. The Sphinx was believed to provide protection so they built it in front of their temples.

This was what the town used to look like.

 

There are also some Greek statues but the Greeks are pretty miffed that many of their statues were stolen during the Middle Ages and sold to private collectors. Some of them are now in the British Museum (clearly the Greeks think they should be returned!)

 

We went for lunch at a very pretty place though after a while, the food starts to taste the same...

 

 

Hopeful feline

 

Spent the rest of the day driving to our next destination - Kalambaka. This is possibly the part I dislike most about package tours - the amount of time spent on the bus. I got a bit queasy on the bus ride. Think I don't travel as well with age. At each pit stop, people are so restless they end up just about buying anything. Simply out of boredom I think.

 

Winding roads

 

After what seems like forever, we reached out hotel, Divani Meteora Hotel. It wasn't so late but at this time of the year, the sun sets at 5.30pm so it felt really late.

 

 

But what a beautiful hotel! And had a HUGE room. Two beds for each of us and enough floor space to host a party (not that we did). We found out later that not everyone's room was so large, so we were blessed! Too bad we're only here for one night.