The rocky road to Delfi

Today I picked up my freedom/rental car. By god it feels good to be able to go where you want when you want!
My day started this morning at 7. I had ordered a rental car through a German agency for the next five days, as I travel around the Greek mainland with Jan. The spot where I was to pick it up was just outside the airport, so again I had to take the crowded train in that direction. Second time in three days, and I haven't even caught a plane.
Anyway, the rental car is perfect. Small little Japanese thing, but it has air-con so I was happy. Mind you, even with air con, the Greek sun shining directly onto you through the window makes you sweat like a pig. So the first thing we did after picking the car up was to stop at a nearby Lidl (Lidl is like Aldi for those of you who don't know) for supplies - bread, cheese, water that sort of thing. Of course I expected that in an air-conditioned car the butter would be reasonably alright, but of course it melted a couple of hours in all over the luggage compartment. Oh well.

Poseidon temple at Sounion

The final destination today was the little town of Delfi, but along the way we had the chance to see a number of other interesting sights. First was Sounion, the site of a spectacular temple to Poseidon on a rock jutting out of the southernmost part of Attica, the part of the country surrounding Athens. It was a marvelous site, but as with so much ancient stuff in Greece it was a ruin and not much can be said about it.
Next, on the way to Delfi, was Eleusia, the site of the Eleusian Mysteries - cult ceremonies to Demeter and Persephone. The temple complex would have looked breath-taking when it was built, but right now it looks like God forgot to put his lego-blocks away.


The final stop of course was Delfi. This place holds a lot of significance. While the town that belonged to the holy spot was never very big, the temples built into the dramatic mountains were always places of incredible significance, and the Delphic Oracle apparently held a lot of clout in all matters national and international.
Like so many temple complexes, built around it were also an amphitheatre and treasury, which, looking at the reconstructions, would have originally looked remarkably like a modern bank. Hardly surprising actually, considering that's more or less what it was.

Temple at Delfi

Theatre at Delfi

But there was also a Stadium where events second in importance only to the Olympic games were held (that site is for tomorrow by the way) and a Gymnasium.

Not enough space for all these pictures!

One thing that is always painfully obvious when looking at ancient Greek buildings is how little people in the last twenty odd centuries cared for them. Even though the ancient Greek ability to build probably far surpassed their own, the Romans and later the Christians positively delighted in ripping down Greek temples and pillars and putting up their own ugly buildings.