Day Eleven: Delphi, The Overnight Ferry and Farewell to Greece

Carol greeted us with "Kalimera" for the last day!  It was time for us to leave Athens and head for our next destination...Italy.  But first, a couple more stops!!

After breakfast we loaded the bus and headed to Delphi, a UNESCO world heritage site.  It was about 2 1/2 hours from Athens and is located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.  Many Greek children and adults travel to Mount Parnassus to ski in the winter.  The road were winding and narrow but the scenery was beautiful.  We stopped for coffee and a snack along the way.  Tanya ordered a Greek coffee and when she was finished Carol read her coffee cup.  That was very interesting!!!  We also saw one of the new bright pink EF buses.

Mount Parnassus

Barbie Bus

Reading Tanya's coffee cup

We stopped along the way to take a photo with the beautiful mountain in the background.  And then we drove through the resort town of Arachova.  It was a special day in Arachova as all the people named George were celebrating their Name Day.  As we drove through the village we saw groups of men roasting lambs over coals outdoors.  There would be many parties later in the day to help all the Georges celebrate their special day.  Carol gave all of our group Greek names so in the future we can also celebrate our Name Days!!

Arachova

Roadside stop for group photo

The Georges roasting many lambs

The main street in Arachova

When we arrived in Delphi we visited the Delphi  Archeological Museum.  There were many ancient artifacts that were found in Delphi.  The first museum was built in 1903, the one we visited was refurbished in 1999.  Most impressive was the Sphinx of Naxos. There were so many artifacts and so little time to see them.

Beautiful frieze

Sphinx of Naxos

In the Museum

Our guide Penny met us and took us to the site of Delphi.  She told us about the Oracle of Delphi which was believed to have the power to predict the future. Delphi was dedicated to the God Apollo and a sacred sport for the people of Greece.  

 Penny, our Guide

Our group listening to Penny tell us about Delphi

Ancient writing on stones

Polygonal  Wall from 548 BC

The Treasury of Athens  was built around 500 BC and was designed to store treasure from the battle of Marathon. 

Treasury of Athens

Overlooking the Temple

Temple of Apollo

Columns from the Temple of Apollo

  Some of our group continued to the top to see the stadium and gymnasium. 

Theatre at Delphi

Mountain top Stadium

From where we were standing we could also see the  sanctuary of Athena in the distance.  The Tholos at the sanctuary is a circular  building with corinthian columns.

Sanctuary of Athena

When we left Delphi we went for our last lunch in Greece.  We ate at a restaurant with a small gift shop so last minute shoppers could buy their last souvenirs from Greece.

After lunch we drove to Patras where we caught the overnight ferry to Italy.  We crossed the Rio-Antirrio Bridge (officially called the Charilaos  Trikoupis Bridge) which is the longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge in the world.  it crossed the Gulf of Corinth,linking the town of Rio on the Pelopponnese to Antirrio on the mainland of Greece.

Rio-Antirrio Bridge

The  staterooms were very small on the ferry and all the students were in quad rooms with bunk beds.  They were a bit crowded but had all the necessary conveniences. Dinner and breakfast were served in the lounge.  Fortunately the ferry was not at full capacity so there was plenty of room for us to relax and spread out. We spent most of our time visiting and playing cards and chess in the lounge.  We had an early night and some of us felt like we were being rocked to sleep by the gentle swaying of the boat.  

Doug and Landon playing chess

Wade and Jack playing chess

Visiting

And more visiting

Where were we and where are we going??

The overnight ferry