Vertigo

looking down from our hotel near Delphi

I am not especially fond of heights (was never one to walk those glass floors in tall visitor attractions) but as a BC girl for many years I did grow to love the tingles that happened up and down Anarchist Summit (4892')  or the Allison Pass and Sunday Summit along the Hope-Princeton Highway (4403'.)  Nevertheless, my home and native flirtation with heights didn't

 prepare me for Greece.

looking down on the Bay of Itea

 

Had you asked I might have confessed my mental picture of Greece was beaches, picturesqe villages, the vista over the sparkling Mediterranean. No need to hold on tight, right?

But those myths, with Mount Olympus front and centre should have been a clue. But they were myths...

However, a  quick search yields the irrefutable fact. Greece is mountainous. Very mountainous. Eighty percent mountainous, in actual fact. And Mount Olympus towers a very real 9570 feet above sea level. I read it's the Pindus Mountains responsible for the terrain across the mainland and some of the islands. So I suppose it's the Pindus Mountains I can blame for the precarious, largely Armco-free switchbacks I enjoyed with 'bated breath', on the way up to Oia on the island of Santorini, and to and from ancient sites on the Peloponnese.   That the nerve and skill of our coach drivers is legendary is an understatement. To them we owe our lives.

Here are a couple shots from the coach window, along the climb from the Gult of Corinth across the Peloponnese toward Delphi.They don't half do it justice.

I'd just set out here to talk about the ancient site of Delphi, but on opening my photo folder I was struck by memories of getting there. The exquisite Amelia hotel, very near to the Delphi archeological site, clung to the mountainside, looking down on the village we passed through before beginning to climb Mount Parnassus. That was a sunset worth having.

the Athenian Treasury

We braved the final climb to the hotel along a good, if narrow paved road, switchbacks requiring lots of gear-grinding and occasional reversing to get round tight curves. Tough! 

Then I was reminded of the routes taken by pilgrims travelling enormous distances from throughout the ancient Greek world and as far away as Egypt coming to Mount Parnassus to consult the oracle. 

Weeks of travel by foot or donkey, winding paths through olive groves of the valley of the River Pleistos, uphill all the way. A vertical climb of more than 400 feet. A two to three day walk from Athens. Days or weeks from other regions, via sea and land. 

as mysterious as Pythia

All to arrive at the 'navel of the earth' as proscribed by Zeus, where the ancient oracle, the Pythia, received divinations and puzzled suppliants, pilgrims and ambassadors alike, with her cryptic messages. Heady stuff.

These photos capture the verticality of the place; a steady climb to the level of the Temple of Apollo from the parking lot and  the wonderful archeological museum we visited later. Like the pilgrims, we trudged up the Sacred Way to the sacred precinct. 

Unlike the pilgrims, we hadn't started at the port on the Gulf of Corinth, or further. Even so, by the time we reached the level of the temple, I forwent a further climb to the theatre of Delphi.

I learned so much from our guide, but I won't record it here. If you're curious, check out Wikipedia or the dozens and dozens of sources. This post was just about 'Being There.'