Published on Jun, 2024
My husband and I hired a driver through Olive Sea Travel and Viator to take us to Delphi. It took us 2.5 hours for Babis to drive the 121 miles from Athens to Delphi.
We had a wonderful day with our driver Babis. He is an interesting and knowledgeable Greek who speaks perfect English. He told us about the beautiful Greek countryside that we drove through.
Because Babis is not a licensed guide he could not accompany us inside the Delphi Archaeological Site or t
he Delphi Museum. Thankfully the signage was fairly good at both places, so we could understand a lot about what we were seeing. It was helpful that I read the Delphi section of Rick Steves’ Greece tour book. It would have been nice to have had a licensed guide, but we waited too long to request one.
Babis was an excellent guide for the part of the trip not inside the Delphi archaeological site and its museum. He is a safe and expert driver, which matters on mountainous roads.
The views at Delphi are spectacular and inspirational. It is easy to understand why the site had religious significance for so many years.
At Delphi’s Temple of Apollo supplicants asked questions of the priestess know as the Oracle or Pythia. The Oracle’s ambiguous prophesies were interpreted by the temple’s priests. The supplicants made donations which were stored on site in treasuries. The buildings date to 7th to 4th century BC.
Although the view from Delphi’s Temple of Apollo is fantastic, the remaining buildings at Delphi are more like structural shells. You see the footprint of the building, but almost nothing in the way of friezes or sculptures. (However, make sure you look for the replica of the Omphalos cone-shaped boulder (navel of Gaia) that marked the center of the universe. The original Omphalos is in the museum.)
All the valuable Delphi sculptures, friezes and wall paintings are displayed in the lovely adjoining Delphi museum. The indoor storage protects them from rain, snow, pollution and theft. There are some beautiful pieces of art. Because the museum signage was not exceptionally clear, I could not understand which frieze came from
which Delphi ancient building, although that probably doesn’t matter.
After we toured the Delphi site and museum, Babis took us to the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia a half mile (?) from the Delphi museum. The parking here is very limited so we were lucky to get a spot. (This stop is not on the official itinerary but we had time.) At this spot lay an older cult site, possibly dedicated to Gaia (the Earth). The site was quiet, with no employees or facilities and few visitors. The views of the mountains and valleys are similar to those at Delphi, but at a somewhat lower elevation.
The Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia has a spectacular circular-shaped monument that I found very unusual and beautiful. I did not see other circular ancient structures during our 18 day visit to Greece. This structure is called a Tholos. According to my Rick Steves tour book, many photographers like to photograph this temple/sanctuary.
Part of the described itinerary for our tour was to visit a monastery. We thought it might be skippable, except for a bathroom break. We did not know how long it would take us to visit the Delphi ancient site and museum, so we asked to visit the monastery on the way back to Athens.
It turned out that visiting the Monastery of Hosios Loukas was a wonderful experience. A month after our visit I still savor the memory of sitting on the patio under the shade of some huge trees, admiring the peace and tranquility of the surrounding agricultural fields and rolling hills and mountains. A monk sat nearby. It was idyllic. We enjoyed a cold cappuccino fredo, refreshing on a hot day.
The Byzantine Monastery of Hosio Loukas was founded in the early tenth century. Serving as a pilgrimage site, the monastery likely had a large number of monks in the past, but now has only six. Babis said several years ago a brush fire had approached the monastery but had been stopped just in time.
The monastery is a large graceful series of connected brick buildings. We toured the small museum.
We visited the monastery’s church. It had beautiful marble floors. Candles were lit. It was a nice experience. We are glad we visited.
We recommend this tour to Delphi and the monastery. Ask that Babis be your driver.
Free Cancellation
