Central Greece

We returned from our brief stay in the islands to take a trip up north to visit Delphi and Meteora. On the ferry back to the mainland we discovered a great opportunity for quiet hours of homework, time to catch up! We did a quick turn-around in Athens and prepared for our 2-day 800 km trip to take in 2500 years of history. I was going to rent a car, but I thought it would be easier to relax on a bus and let someone else drive the maze of highways in and out of Athens. I'm glad we did because the tour guide was great and we learned so much. First stop was Delphi, temple of Apollo the God of Light, and started in the 6th century BC. Found out it's called Delphi because Apollo, after choosing this site on the hillside of Mt. Parnassus, needed some priests to take care of his temple. He set out after a ship he saw passing, turning himself into a dolphin. He evidently convinced the sailors to give up their life at sea to hang out in his temple, running the whole oracle thing along with the chanting and visioning priestesses, and since the Greek for dolphin is something like 'delphinus' the name stuck on the whole temple complex. Another interesting tidbit of information we learned was that inside the temple itself, in the priests' quarters they found writing on the wall that reads: 'nothing to excess' and 'kindness is rich' - advice still useful today. Anna and Michael particularly enjoyed playing in the ancient theatre, much to the other tourists' delight. There were, as usual, lots of cats roaming about the ruins so Anna and Michael were also interested in them; I swear there is every color, size, shape of cat here, so the two of them are constantly and happily engaged in cat classification schemes.

After a few hours at Apollo's sunny spot, we got back on the bus and drove four hours to Meteora. Along the way I was surprised to find Greece so mountainous a country, and snow-capped to boot! Obviously, my geographical knowledge really leaves much to be desired, we had to climb and descend quite a few passes, and drive through numerous fertile plains. This is such an incredibly beautiful place. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a professor from Spain whose speciality is olive growing - he was in Athens giving a lecture. He had taught at UC Davis and I had traveled in Cordoba where he's from, so we had a great time talking about the differences and similarities of Meditterean-type lands around the world. He was a friendly font of knowledge and I learned much about the flora of Spain, Greece, California, and a little about olives too.

We finally arrived in Meteora and reached our hotel. It was snowing gently, it was cold. But as we stepped off the bus and looked up, the cliffs of the Meteora were just above us, swirling in and out of view in the low clouds. Inside the hotel we found a roaring fire, comfy couches and time to do some homework before a delicious four course dinner. Early the next morning (a sunny one!) we were back on the bus ready to explore the Byzantine monastaries. Ascetics from northern Greece came here in the 13th century to live in the caves carved into these amazing columnar (is that a word?!) rock formations. 100 or so years later they decided to start building monasteries on the tops of the peaks, and no one is quite sure how they originally did it. For hundreds of years people and goods were pulled up to the top in net baskets - very scary prospect, we saw the winches and baskets... Nowadays some of the monasteries can be visited by stairs built in the 20th century. Inside we were shown 600 year old icons and intimate churches filled with the ornately decorated stories of Christ's life and the early church. Particularly engrossing were the narthexes where the non-baptized would have to wait, surrounded by the images of martyrs' deaths until they felt faithful enough to take on the Christian belief for themselves. While I was captivated by these images, I was wondering if they wouldn't actually scare a non-believer off; I mean being rolled over a series of spikes while being tied to a wagon wheel would not make me jump to join the group of the sufferers. Michael was thrilled to find his angel Michael all over the place, complete with wings, halo, sword and shield. And, or course, there were more cats, even on these craggy peaks 2045 ft. in the air.

On our 6 hour journey back to Athens three things of note happened. We ran out of money, well cash actually. And we weren't the only ones - cash machines are few and far between in the countryside, and I hadn't been able to get to a bank since before the trip to Santorini 6 days earlier. So it was a lunch of dry bread and bananas swiped from the breakfast buffet, with some sticks of gum thrown in for dessert. My kids are so great, no griping at all, just being the consummate travelers eating oddly and carrying heavy backpacks.

At one point we had to stop abruptly for a train passing the highway, you'd think there would be more warning. Luckily though, we stopped with a perfect view out of the bus window of a church with a stork nest on the top of the cupola! I've never seen one, and always wanted to! It was HUGE! Alas, no stork in sight.

And the other interesting thing was that I lost count of all the shepherds I saw. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen a real shepherd before, out with his dog, staff, and sheep. I started seeing them while driving around Naxos, and now all over Central Greece. I think it's so cool, one of the oldest jobs in the world; I keep getting all excited everytime I spot one and hit the kids to look, even waking them up. I then tell them all over again how cool it is, one of the oldest jobs in the world. And they groan, tell me they know, that I keep telling them, and now stop hitting them.

Well, they're pretty great, except they get mad at me when I get overly excited and try to give them a history lesson over and over again - especially when it's the same one over and over again.

Poll answer: It was the god Poseidon who fought with, and lost to, Athena on top of Athen's Acropolis.
And, if you're interested in getting another view of our trip you might like to read Anna's blog: www.AnnaWangstrip.blogspot.com It's fun to read; she's got a different take on things, not always in agreement with me and she's much more concise.