Our journey through Greece continues - Delphi - where man is closest to God

cone marking the centre of Delphi

We are following in the steps of St Paul on his second missionary journey through Greece. As we drive towards Athens from Thessaloniki we have some diversions from Paul's route along the way, one of which is Delphi. 

The reconstructed Athenian Treasury

Leaving the amazing Meteora Monasteries behind us we now have two mountains and many smaller roads to traverse before we reach Delphi so we settle for the long drive. There are really fabulous views now. The scenery is simply stunning up here. There are green meadow clearings far below us in the valley but not the lush rain drenched vegetation of say Austria or Georgia. These are of a more sombre hue.There is also plenty of mining activity, huge machines extracting the red sandstone for the road building going on around us. A small vineyard clings precariously to the side of the upper slopes on the other side of the valley. A small waterfall gushes out of the rocks by the side of the road. We see wind farms marching across the mountain peaks.

Delphi, we are told, unlike Olympia which was just for the Greeks, was there for everyone to get answers from their gods. Dating back into prehistory, and featuring prominently in the ancient Greek myths, here was for many centuries the cultural and religious centre of the Hellenic world. It is here that two eagles sent out in opposite directions by Zeus on a mission to find the centre of the world finally met. The site was sacred to Gaia or Mother Earth and guarded by Python, the terrible serpent. Apollo later killed Python and the Cretans, arriving at Kirrha, the port of Delphi, with Apollo disguised as a dolphin, built Apollo's Sanctuary. 

 

With 25 km to go to Delphi according to the signpost, we come down the last slopes of the Parnassos mountain range with small family Bed and Breakfasts all around us, catering for the skiing tourists who visit in winter - there are some very charming ski resorts here.  We descend into the massive olive groves now stretching into the distance on either side of the road, tall cypress trees standing out above the olive trees like dark sentinels. The olives are Amfisa - having a particular colour from the way they are cured. The Corinthian Sea can be glimpsed down to our right.

So we arrive at Delphi - seemingly clinging to the edge of the cliff on the lower slopes of Mount Parnassos. 

Delphi is a totally enchanting site and I am captivated. 

The fourth century theatre

No wonder it is one of the most popular places on the tourist trail in Greece and sometimes described as the most attractive Greek classical site. Delphi was regarded as the centre of the world by the ancient Greeks and is deeply engraved on the record of Greek history, being a place of incalculable religious and political importance, attracting pilgrims from all over the Hellenic world. Here the Oracle was consulted by both states and individuals. 

This was the religious background against which Paul was preaching the Christian gospel. 

After lunch in a local restaurant we head for the excellent museum where priceless artefacts from the site are preserved with excellent detailed explanations including English and French translations as well. We see the world famous bronze Charioteer, the wonderful frieze from the Siphnian Treasury, the larger than life-size statues of the Twins of Argos, beautiful gold and ivory jewellery and statuettes, and much, much more. The museum shop is sadly closed so those of us who still like to buy souvenirs and glossy booklets. 

Looking down onto the Apollo Temple and scenery beyond

There is so much to see here and we couldn't possibly see everything. There is an excellent write-up on Delphi here. I would love to come again on my own and take it all in at my own pace. Climbing down the path back to the coach I see a small group of visitors cross legged in the shade meditating - what a place for this - I would have loved to join them but our time table does not allow for any more time here and we are soon back in the coach settling down for the two and a half to three hours drive ahead to Athens. The coach is very quiet - we are all very weary and perhaps also in different ways touched by the atmosphere and the spirit of Delphi!

Doric columns of the Temple

We see glimpses of God everywhere - I certainly find God in all this great beauty - in the sunsets, the churches and their beautiful frescoes etc - but we have to surrender ourselves to feel in touch with the transcendent - Socrates was in touch with this all the time and Jesus himself was a mystic. 

Now driving Eastwards towards Athens, the Bay of Corinth far to our right, Mara tells us there are 9 million olive trees here in the vastest of olive groves imaginable, while Mark reminds us that Athens is of course the spiritual home of ancient philosophy - still so important in guiding the way we live and flourish, through rational argument and debate. We are reminded that Paul was born into this background and both he and Jesus were Hellenic Jews, influenced as much by that as by being Jewish. 

panoramic view of theatre

Travelling through Greece - in the Steps of St Paul - on our way to Athens

We are off to Delphi today. Before breakfast I stroll around the hotel garden and find some more of those curious cocoons in pine trees that I have spotted all along our route. Up until now I have not been able to get a decent photo. Now I have the photo I rather wish I hadn't tried to identify these online. It seems they are rather nasty and I am lucky to have escaped without an allergic reaction at worst and at best some pretty horrible itching!

There is lots more information here. It's rather creepy!

We retrace our steps from yesterday through Trikala driving through the plain of Thessaloniki with mountains in the distance on both sides. Many of the houses appear to be half finished. One could easily assume that this is because of the financial problems- used as we are to half built hotels and houses in tourist areas of Europe which have been started in better times and since abandoned. But no; much of this is apparently due to the traditional Greek family culture - as girls in the family marry another floor is completed and they live with the family as the aging parents move to the lower floor - seems to make a great deal of sense to me- and I understand that planning and tax implications are also a consideration.

We also see a huge gypsy camp - these people travel according to the seasons and the work thus offered. They are paid in cash and kind - fruit and vegetable which they can then sell for profit - always very fresh and cheap and a good buy. These Nomads have no negative association here, Mara tells us.

They have to serve their term in the army and pay their taxes just like any other Greek. It was, she tells us, the huge influx of gypsies from the Balkans in the 1990s that have given a bad name to all travellers here. The true nomads, we are told, are a fascinating people with a religion that is an amalgam from many different traditions.

a nomad camp

Now instead of driving back Eastwards to the main coastal road we cut south towards Lamia across a high plateau through the mountains. Unusually for this area I spy a field of sunflowers - amazing how they turn their heads around to follow the daily travel of the sun across the sky. It feels like Tuscany!

Another nomad settlement we pass is empty - they are all out of camp at present picking water melons. Four km from the ancient city of Lamia - originally dating back at least to the bronze Age - we see the Aegean sea again - twinkling brightly in strong sunshine - and the high mountain of Bralos ahead.

We stop at Thermopiles for a comfort break. I am lucky to be at the front of the queue for a cappuchino and donut for 5 euro. The toilets everywhere are very clean - even the fortunately rare squat type. We settle down for another 2 hour drive to Delphi - it doesn't look far on the map but we will go over two mountains and on smaller roads - so we look forward to a beautiful route.

And we are not disappointed. There is plenty of Cotinus - the lovely pink fluffy flowers on roadside shrubs - and trees with red/brown pods all over them - looking like dead leaves or branches. In fact these are seed pods, the tree I guess a legume judging by the leaves and pods - but I havn't identified this as yet. 

Delphi

And so we arrive in Delphi...

Travelling Through Greece - in the Steps of St Paul - via Mt Olympus

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that "Life is a journey, not a destination."

So today's post is about journey - before arriving at our next destination The Holy Monastery of St John the Forerunner. 

As we drive between points on our pilgrimage I love to just observe through the coach window. There's always so much to see and the potential to miss too much.

The paddy fields continue to stretch away on either side of the road. These seem to be fed by irrigation channels - some like wooden troughs - connected with deeper ditches between the fields tracing back to the wide river which we drove over just before the road forks - the river which is feeding the Aliakmon-Axios Delta.

Mt Olympus and raptor

must get that shot of Mt Olympus!

Soon we take the left fork on the road towards Katerini and Athina and settle for a long drive, absorbing the landscape through which we pass: always the white and pink Oleander brightening up the sides of the main road and sometimes the dazzling yellow of broom - this used to be gathered in some parts of the country by the ladies of the house to make the brooms for sweeping their houses and yards (after the broom had flowered the women came up the mountains for a few days, leaving the menfolk behind, to cut and dry the choicest branches); many sad roadside shrines continue to mark fatalities from road crashes; and there are so many of the curious glistening silvery "nests" hanging in the pine trees - I often wondered what these were - more about these later - and the bare red earth of fire breaks can be seen snaking down the forested mountainsides in the distance.  

There is some roadside litter here but nowhere near the problem we have in the UK - there is lighter traffic here certainly - but perhaps there is less eating "on the hoof", the drivers more willing to relax at service areas for refreshment? It is surely our "grab to go" culture with convenience and plastic-wrapped food which, alongside a lack of awareness of its costs and dangers, makes England worse for litter than most of Europe, North America and Japan. I am appalled that even hotels feel the need to offer "grab and go" breakfasts for drivers who can no longer apparently find time for that most important of meals to start the day.

Mount Olympus can now be seen in the far distance and the Aegean sea is twinkling to our left - as we hear stories from our guide of the origins of Delphi - including how Kronus ate a stone instead of eating baby Zeus - how he later regurgitated it and how this very rock was and still is at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. There are some great legends centred around Delphi. 

On longer sections of our journey our local guide Mara and Mark Vernon both take the opportunity to fill us in on history and philosophy respectively and how these interface with our Christian pilgrimage. It has been said that: "Myths are the mirrors in which we can study human life." (the late and eminent psychotherapist Petrusca Clarkson). More than that, myths are a way of understanding the interface between the divine and the human - thus Plato's ideas of the good, the beautiful and the true - echoes of the doctrine of the Trinity in the ideas of Known, Knower and Knowing - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - show how our understanding of God is a mixture of the philosophical and the Biblical. 

There is a buzz around me in the coach as this is discussed - Mark is right - there is some philosopher in all of us.

 

There is snow on the top of Mt Olympus - its ancient myths contrasting sharply with the very modern solar panel farm to our right taking full advantage of the south facing and sunny slope. We hear about the stories behind the images on all the Greek coins, all different, and Mara says the Greeks find our pound sterling coins very unimaginative - with the head of the Queen on them all!

Olympus is now displaying the green skirts of its foothills and we begin to climb - past the strategically placed 10th century AD Platamonas castle on our left onto the highway connecting the North and South of Greece - a new road being built - and sometimes we criss-cross an even older track - much deteriorated now. Then we are diverted on to new stretches alongside the existing road - this will improve the journeys of the many lorries and coaches that use the route. This is the first really busy traffic we have met and we find ourselves in a long convoy - but the views from the new road will surely not be so spectacular. At the moment we are treated to stunning mountain scenery, some of the most dramatic in Greece, with wonderful views down into deep gorges, as we make progress up the Tempi valley towards Larisa.

There are many of the wayside shrines here - some very old and rusty, some newer and ceramic - and litter bins in the lay-bys are clearly used and emptied - 6th and 7th millennium BC Neolithic settlements have been found near here.

34 km short of Larisa we stop for a comfort break and drink - "coffee in-coffee out" as our guide puts it! It is 34 degrees outside but it is a dry heat and I am loving it - some however find it trying and make a dash for the air-conditioned café. 

Now we are on the high plain - a huge crop growing area, with golden fields of corn and stubble.We are beginning to see much more mechanisation and long spray bars are evident - whether for irrigation or chemicals I cannot tell. Hay is being tossed mechanically to dry in the sun, and gets baled into the old small rectangular style bales of my Kent childhood - now rarely seen in England, or indeed much of the rest of Europe, where hay is made into huge round plastic wrapped bales, moveable only by machine.

We climb even higher -  above the largest and most fertile plain in Greece - where cotton is the main crop. But farmers are apparently exhausting natural resources leading to water shortage and mineral depletion - by lack of rotation and diversification. Now some are trying a three year rotation between cotton, maize and potato - cotton is very heavy on mineral use - but the temptation is to lower quality of crop for quantity. We negotiate huge hairpins - giant mullein with massive yellow flower spikes, and wild fig trees and tall yellow thistles - cling to the side of the road above steep drops - this drive is not for the faint hearted. Groups of beehives tucked into woodland clearings are a promise of the wonderful honey soaked desserts to come which I cannot resist. 

The colourful hives attract bees and identify their owners - and the hives are moved according to the season, taking advantage of pine trees, thyme or the abundant wild flowers (the best quality). What a wonderful drive ever upwards above the snow line (marked by road signs warning of slippery ice) and towards the total isolation of Anatoli village and a few tortuous miles beyond that the very modern monastery of TheHoly Monastery of St John the Forerunner, our next destination.