Even older history in Greece

We are sitting tonight in the Doha, Qatar airport (huge, beautiful) on our way from Athens, Greece to Cape Town, South Africa. Last night while checking in we discovered our flight departure time had been moved up by eight hours, leaving at noon instead of 8 pm, which inspired us to get all our laundry and packing done expediently. We had opted to pay for lounge passes before we left, and we are taking advantage of them now as we have a 7-hour layover. We were feeling really organized when we arrived at the airport this morning, all bags strapped, and when they informed us we needed to show birth certificates for our kids in order to get into South Africa (!) I produced the certified copies I had acquired this summer. Whew.
Our time in Greece flew by, and we had the opportunity to see a great many UNESCO heritage sites. We landed in Athens last Friday and picked up our rental car: on the website an international driver's license is required, and Scott dutifully acquired one while we were in Austria, but never needed to flash it. The driving in Athens (actually the motorcycles in Athens that create their own lane, often, by riding the lane markers) required all concentration--and bravery. Kudos to my husband, who navigated the traffic calmly. We all heaved a sigh of relief at the end of the week when we arrived safely at the airport with merely a scratch on a hubcap. After one night in Athens to recharge we headed out to the archaeological site of Delphi. Again, I really need to write a thank you note to Rick Riordian: without the Percy Jackson books my kids would probably be nonplussed at the 5th century BC ruins of the Temple of Apollo and Athena. Delphi is located in the mountains (I didn't know this before coming here, but 80% of Greece is mountainous) and is the largest outdoor site for stone tablets: block after block with Greek writing, dating from 480 BC or so. I am no expert in ancient European history, so I am just learning the mythology surrounding each of these sites, but I can surely appreciate the architectural structures. The town of Delphi, approximately 3,000 residents, was a pleasant change from the large cities we had been visiting. There were also a number of adorable stray cats in the town and my family was quite enthralled--and gratified to see that residents were feeding the cats. There were only a few tourists staying in any of the small hotels located in the town.

Our next destination was Olympia, site of the ancient Olympics and where the modern-day Olympic torch is lit and begins its journey every four years, and the drive along the Ionian coast and into the Peloponnese region was beautiful. Olympia was another small town, and as it was about 2 pm on Sunday when we arrived we were the only tourists in town. We walked around the town and found the one restaurant open. The sequence of photos below I am titling "Ode to Ouzu..." a black licorice liquor that smelled good but really is an acquired taste. The next morning we awoke to the tour buses arriving at the site from afar, and we walked around the temple of Zeus, gymnasiums, practice arenas for wrestling, the temple of Hera where the flame is lit every four years by a sun's rays on a parabolic mirror reflecting on flammable material, and Harley and Scott raced down the official stadium. It was really kind of Harley to allow Scott a victory...the kids and Scott also visited the Archimedes (a Greek mathematician)museum and saw all sorts of cool inventions.

From inland Olympia we traveled to Nafplio on the coast of the Mediterrean. We toured the Palamidi Fortress, which was originally built by the Venetians in the 1700s, then captured by the Turks before finally being owned by the newly-independent Greeks in the 1820s. We also strolled along a beach nearby and searched for sea glass...we also found sea brick bits, not something observed on the NC beaches. Continuing on our drive, we stopped at Ancient Corinth...where Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians. By this time we are experts in identifying Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian columns, and thinking about the Greek age of prominence from 5th century BC to 2nd century AD, before becoming part of the Roman Empire. We also saw the Corinth Canal, which allows small ships to save a sailing day around the peninsula of the Peloponnese. We passed groves and groves of oranges, and the fresh orange juice we drank here was fantastic.

We made it back to Athens on Tuesday night and settled in to our Booking.com apartment. Our chief concern was getting all the laundry done before our travels to Africa; and while many places might have a washer, dryers are scarce. So we were surrounded by clotheslines and wishing Athens had lower humidity.
Wednesday we finally made it to the Acropolis, including the Parthenon! Truly a marvel, and we appreciated the subtleties of the architecture even more by surreptitiously joining a college group getting the tour (they were from Napierville, IL and very friendly). The nine-year old Parthenon Museum is gorgeous, and here we saw a few more tourists than the small town sites, but it wasn't packed. Scott found it a bit more pleasant to be in Athens in late November than the August visit he did 20 years ago with his dad--apparently high humidity and intense sun makes for a different experience altogether.

Greece overall is suffering economically much more than any of the other places we've visited this fall, and I didn't feel quite the safety of walking around at night that I had experienced many other places (perhaps because there just weren't as many women out, or the lack of streetlights). The food was great, though: this was the first time I had eaten truly Greek yogurt and it was superb.
This represents the halfway point of our trip! So far we've had a terrific time, logistics have worked out largely as planned, and I am grateful we are all in good health, a few colds notwithstanding. We are heading into accommodations without daily internet connections, so we will be wishing you all a happy December.