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Today we checked out of the Delphi hotel and packed our belongings into the car. Having done that we walked about half a kilometre out of town to the historical ruins and museum. These contains some of the oldest but best preserved artefacts from around 600 BC right through until about 1500AD
These ruins were very complete when discovered about 140 years ago so there is a lot of detail regarding Greek mythology dating back to the time of Christ and even earlier
The museum had a lot of these precious items in very good condition so we ended up spending about 3 hours going through the ruins then the museum. We then walked back to the car in town but were taken by the cafe that has tables that sit on a little island between both traffic lanes (very little traffic), shaded by an enormous tree. We sat down and ordered coffee, a carbonara for me and a Greek salad for Liz. The plan was to share both these meals and the quality of the food was absolutely excellent - as usual!
Leaving Delphi we set off for Kalambaka which was 3 and a half hours away. We knew this would take us further north and further into the middle of Greece but our good old GPS again decided to give us a diversion after about half an hour. We came to a large town and it directed us down narrow streets and back roads, finally sending us up a very steep one lane'd lane that we could hardly squeeze our car up... Finally we got onto a narrow road that led out of town and into the hills. The road looked like a small back street and it remained one lane wide as it took us up two or three mountain sides. The road had countless hairpin bends as we wound our way up and the view over the side (no barrier, just a huge drop) was frightening. This was about half an hour of pretty scary driving - especially when a truck came the other way and our side was the drop....
It was at this point that I got Liz to change the GPS to quickest route rather than shortest route... And we finally got back onto the highway!
Winding over mountain tops we saw beautiful valleys hundreds of kilometres long and wide, of lush and fertile plains where farming takes place and water is every where in abundance.
Close to 6.30pm we got to Kalambaka, an average town that lays at the foot of mountains of rock towering high above. What is special about this place is that there are four or five monastery's up above sitting on the columns of rock that are well worth visiting, so that's what we plan to do tomorrow, God willing. We checked into a lovely stone built guest house and after cleaning up headed two streets across to the town square for a meal. What a surprise we got! The only thing available here is cheap cafe's or pubs where all the men sit drinking together. We asked around for a place to eat good quality food but they couldn't offer anything!
After doing two laps of the town, we settled on a cafe that looked reasonable. This was the first disappointing meal we have had in Greece although the local cat was pleasantly surprised at the amount of food we fed it....
So, now it is in for an early night before a lot of climbing to see the monastery's if God is willing
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