The Temple of Apollo at Delphi

This morning we saw a news broadcast.  Riots had broken out in Athens late last night, and a news broadcast van was set on fire.  We spent the morning at the Temple of Athena Pronaia and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.  I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the scenery: outstanding, breathtaking, magnificent, awesome, amazing, beautiful, spectacular.  Are you starting to get the idea?  It’s one of those places where you can really understand why it was chosen as a mystical and religious place.  It’s also really interesting to see the remains, and particularly the hole up through which would come the smoke that was part of the process of the Oracle making a pronouncement.  The other amazing thing was the inscriptions recording the rules and pronouncements and finances.  The contents may not be that interesting, but what was amazing was how well it had survived.

After lunch it was a longish drive up to Kalambaka, our overnight stop, which is near to the monasteries of Meteora  We made a quick stop on the way at the location of the Battle of Thermopylae, and saw the monument to the memorial, along with a monument to the Australians and New Zealanders who served in Crete in WWII.

This afternoon was the vote in the Greek Parliament about the reforms, and the Parliament voted in favour, so the violence erupted again.  Protesters set fire to the finance building, and the fire fighters couldn’t get there to put out the fire.