Best Western Hotel Anemolia Arachova

... we got there (nearly 3:00), the ladies who worked there were about ready to start kicking people out. They hustled us through the entire museum in less than ten minutes. It was just enough time for us to see everything but read nothing. The only thing we read was from our guidebook (which, luckily, writes about the most important and famous artifacts). In all honesty, I think this was the first time I didn’t even have a hint of boredom while in a museum. We were ...

... then this lady was telling us Lamia was somewhere else. The train still happened to be sitting at the platform, stopping longer than normal, so we ran back onto the train. We asked some guy standing by the bathrooms where Lamia was and he said, “This is Lamia.” We had no idea what to do then so we ran back off the train right as it was about to pull away and went back inside the train station. We figured we had to be in Lamia and the train station ...

Up early to catch a tour to delightful Delphi. I had memories of it from last time I was here over 30 years ago and wanted H to see it. Our guide was a diminutive and very knowledgeable lady named Aspa, and I tried valiantly to note down much of what she said. She took us through the centre of Athens then on north through Thiva to Delphi.

There are several plains to the north and west of Athens separated by mountains and these seemed to be quite fertile ...

... of the Spartans. The head Athenian General Themisticlyes sent aprox 7000 personnel to fight the Persians along with 300 of the greatest Spartan warriors led by King Leonidas. When Xerxes approached the pass of Thermopalye he told Leonidas to give up their arms as they were greatly out numbered...Leonidas reply to Xerxes was to "Come and get them!" -----GAME ON!!!-----

so it begins.....the gates of fire

There are three key days ...

... a stadium where they held early competitions and explained how Apollo became a God.... too long to explain now but will cover that later. The countryside was beautiful and the town was very friendly. Everything in Arachova closes from 2pm until 6pm when everything starts to come back to life - stores and restaurants open and people start walking all over the town. Arachova is a ski resort - so there is not much to do there right now - but we all ...

... will have to wait for our return to learn of such things. You'll be happy to hear that I did remember how to drive a stick shift. Our rental is a nice little Ford Focus and I have only stalled it out 2 or 3 times . . . We have named the car "Colin" (Beth and Nancy will understand as it is a McElroy custom; my friends will just shake their heads). We'll write you after we have seen the oracle and gotten to our next destination: Napflion. -- Romy

... It was great wandering the streets (literally there are only two) of Delphi without any other tourists. This meant that we also got really good deals on a the little shops. The shop owners wanted to get rid of their stuff before the close for the winter. Unfortunately I didn't want anything, thankfully Braden did. We went back to our little italian restaurant for dinner and called it a night. We had to be up early to catch the bus back to Athens.

Today, we started our journey by joining a two day one night tour to Delphi and Meteora. This is the part which I like most, to actually have someone explain to us and drive us to the attractions. Ahh... time to relax and enjoy the journey.

We made a stop at the Delphi Musuem, aming them was this Sphinx ...

... looking at. Sometimes I think we loose sight of our surroundings because our eyes are always behind a lens. With that said, I did buy a disposable camera ... Hey I'm probably only here once! Your probably wondering why I would take a bus for 6 hours round tip to visit a single site. Well, let me tell you because you might not see the pictures for weeks or a couple months. Delphi, as I said before, is regarded as the center of the world. Built on the slopes of ...

... a book: the Dirty Girls Social Club! July 8, 2004 Delphi to Kalambaka Once again, I took a walk through the hilly town of Delphi. Later on, we drove over the foothills of Mount Parnassus taking the scenic route towards Lamia and onto Kalambaka.