Delphi - Oracle, Museum, Etc

Got up early and went to the Oracle of Delphi. We didn't quite manage to be there at opening time and we already behind a couple buses of tour groups.

There was a lot less left than we expected, and after reading in our guidebook about the reconstruction of what little is left (the Treasury of Athens, the Temple of Apollo), it was more than a little disappointing. Here is a set of monuments that didn't even begin to withstand the test of time. We decided at this point to do Crete instead of the Peloponnese. Anyway, the initial enthusiasm about the Peloponnese had involved a plan to rent a car, which we cannot do because we didn't get an international drivers license before leaving home.

From Delphi

From Delphi

From Delphi

From Delphi

From Delphi

The Delphi Museum was much better. They still have a bunch of the friezes and pediment statues from the major buildings. The Treasury of Athens even originally had a pair of statue pillars like the Caryatid!

From Delphi

Also, the Dancing Pillar and pillar-topping Sphinx were fantastic.

From Delphi

From Delphi

There was also an impressive life-size bronze chariot driver, but they never found his horses. A person might suppose that he might go with the horses atop San Marco in Venice (which are thought to have originally come from Greece by way of Turkey)... but probably if that was possible the caption would have said so.

From Delphi

In the small section of ruins across the road, we found the iconic round temple that you always see in photos, which rescued the outdoor experience for Mary.

From Delphi

From Delphi

Also, there were kittens. Greece has cats like India has cows.

From Delphi

From Delphi

Next we had a disappointing lunch at a cafe with free wifi, trying to book ferry tickets to Crete from Athens with no luck. Then we picked up our bags from our hotel to move on. By the way, this was our view last night...

From Delphi

We took the bus to Athens and were able to buy our ferry tickets near the port. Two bunks in gender-segregated 4-bed dorms for 49 Euros each. Not too bad. A good night's sleep was had. For 29 Euros each we could have had reclining deck chairs, which sound sketchy, but upon real life inspection proved to be indoors and looked far more comfortable than airline seats. This is THE way to travel to the far islands. We talked to other travelers who took high speed boats to Crete which cost more, took up 3 hours of prime daylight sightseeing time, and made them very seasick due to the motion of the boat.

It was a proper cruise ship with bars, swimming pool (not filled), and dance club, but the journey was barely 8 hours, so we went to bed before departure.

Athens - Assorted Ruins, Acropolis Museum

In the morning we went to a few minor sights around the acropolis, including Hadrian's Library, the Roman Forum, and the Ancient Agora. There wasn't much to see at Hadrian's Library, though it looks like they have just started rebuilding it from virtually nothing.

From Athens

The Roman Forum included the Tower of Wind, which used to have a weather vane on top, a few sun dials, and a water clock inside for rainy days.

From Athens

The Ancient Agora was actually a big site with lots of old foundations and a temple that they claim is the best preserved Ancient Greek Temple anywhere. It was small, and in slightly better shape than the ones in Paestum. It was really nice.

From Athens

In the same area we dropped into an old little church with great acoustics.

Then we moved on to the shiny new Acropolis Museum, where we saw what's left of the statuary and friezes from the Parthenon. Unfortunately, there's not a lot left. And a lot of what is left is in the British Museum. The highlight here was the recreated model of the pediment statuary based on sketches from around 1900. The new display for the original statuary is at either end of the top floor arranged as it was originally, with views of the Acropolis in the background. The stated goal is to give a better sense of the original feel. However, disembodied without their building, along with so many pieces missing, it seems like it mostly emphasizes what has been lost. More like a memorial with a collection of empty chairs.

From Athens

After the museum we stopped for lunch then picked up our stuff from our hotel and hopped the bus for Delphi just in time for it to start raining. We got to Delphi around 7pm and checked into a cheap hotel (25 Euros) with a fantastic view. Then we out for a huge dinner of gyro, souvlaki, and Greek salad for under 10 Euros. The days of Greece being fantastically cheap may be over, but after a few weeks in well-to-do places like Austria and Germany, the prices are seeming pretty fantastic to us. Maybe we'll end this trip less over budget than expected.

From Athens

Athens - Arrival, Archeology Museum, Parthenon

"I think that one is our hotel." "Which one?" "That one, with the two prostitutes out front."

We arrived late at night in a somewhat seedy part of town. Our hotel seemed nice enough at first, but there was only one electrical outlet that we had to climb on the nightstand to reach. And the AC hummed incessantly. Eventually (at like 3am) we went down to reception to have it turned off. Ugh.

So it was a slow start in the morning, made slower by discussion of moving and laundry.

In the early afternoon we went to the Archeology Museum, which was great. They had wonderful statuaries ranging from the most ancient which looked very Egyptian, up through Roman. There was also a gallery with the very impressive finds from Mycenae, starting with the Mask of Agamemnon, which I'm sure you will all recognize, along with a wonderful collection of jewelry and gold leaf. Upstairs was a wonderful array of pottery, and at the back was a bronze collection including pieces of what seems to have once been a geared astronomical clock, a good 1500 years ahead of anything else similar.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

We took so long at the museum that we found ourselves in a big rush to get to the acropolis, since we thought we wanted at least 3-4 hours there before closing time at 7pm. Well, it was a bit of a let down after Paestum. As promised, there were cranes and a lot of scaffolding, though less than there might have been. The Parthenon is in pretty bad shape. The Caryatid porch was smaller than it seemed in class, and they are doing work in the ceiling, so it wasn't that picturesque. The temple of Athena Nike was completely scaffolded-in. The entry gate, the one building up there you get to go into, however, was pretty amazing.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

The day really made me think of my high school Humanities teacher, Mrs. Mortland. I'd like to tell her about visiting the wonderful places I learned about in her class. She asked us to keep in touch and gave us her email address right before graduation, but it was her address at the school and she has moved on to somewhere else. Even google doesn't know how to find her.

On the way down the hill we stopped to see a variety of minor ruins.

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

From Athens

We could see this temple in the distance. Should try to go over to it tomorrow.

From Athens

In the evening we walked through the districts of Plaka and Monastiraki, which are supposed to be some of the nicest in Athens. This strikes us as not a great sign for the city. They weren't that nice.

Vienna - Schloss Schlonbrunn

Thanks to staying up for the opera, it was another difficult morning dragging ourselves out of bed in time for breakfast. After booking a room in Athens, we moved on to Schloss Schlonbrunn the iconic Viennese summer residence of the Hapsburgs. It was a lot like the winter residence, with certain sections of the audio guide seeming to have been copied verbatim from one to the other, reflecting very similar setups between Franz-Josef's and Sisi's apartments in each location. However, Schlonbrunn had many rooms on display from other members of the dynasty, and the rooms were more impressive, but in exchange it didn't make as nice a story or give as good an impression of the people who lived there.

After, we braved the dreary cold weather to explore the grounds. We found three lovely Romantic-era fountains.

From Vienna

From Vienna

From Vienna

From Vienna

Then climbed the hill for some lovely views of Vienna.

From Vienna

On our way to the exit, we ran across some birds that looked like finches, but with different coloring than we see in the States. They were lovely and seemed quite tame, so we just couldn't resist getting out a little oatmeal we had with us to feed to them. They were extremely bold, landing on our fingertips to eat from our palms. And to try to eat Mary's thumb nail, which they seemed to find a good bit more interesting than the oatmeal. They also hovered impressively in midair to check out the goods before landing. They were amazingly light and delicate.

From Vienna

From Vienna

From Vienna

At this point we went back to our hostel for a little bit of last minute planning before hopping our flight to Athens.