Delphi and Meteora

Monday June 11 and Tuesday June 12

We were waiting outside the tourist agency at 7:30 for our trip up into the northern part of Athens. And there began an hour and a half of complete chaos!! For anyone reading this with a view to taking this trip, the one we went on, although booked through a travel agency, was a Go-Tour. Avoid!!! 

We were picked up in a beautiful 55 seater luxury coach, which took us around the narrow streets of the centre of Athens picking up other members for the trip. When the bus was full, or almost, we discovered that some of the others on the bus were doing a one day tour and we were doing a two day tour! We stopped on a busy 4 lane divided highway, still in Athens…..along with about 3 other buses! So, now imagine a cacophony of 150 humans!!! It was crazy!! Now also imagine the busy highway with trucks, cars, motorbikes, buses, etc. flying along!!! The noise pollution was high!! Two guides were rushing around trying to get the right people in the right bus! Both the one day tour and the 2 day tour were going to Delphi. There was no common explanation of the tours.  You could hardly hear the guides. And there was luggage as well. Our minds were becoming discombobulated!! There is also a 2 day tour to only Meteora. Well, finally, somehow, the two “organisers” managed to get everyone off the road and into the buses. A final check of names, and we took off….but we still had people to pick up. So, around 9:15/9:30 we eventually headed out of town on our way to Delphi. We had a beautiful drive through the hills and mountains which helped to regenerate the soul.

The guide we had in our bus was extremely knowledgeable, but she was obviously feeling the same way many of the passengers were feeling. Completely frazzled. We arrived in Delphi….along with another myriad of tour buses. It was frenetic. The tour guide had no “sign” to carry,  and the 55 of us had to try and follow her up the steps and slopes to see the ruins. When she stopped, you had to try and hear her, but there was another tour guide close by, so you couldn’t…also there were 55 of us. By this time, the guide was panting, droplets trickled down her face, she was talking a million words a minute.  She had carried Ray and I along when at the point I was about to explode, everything changed, my mind went quiet, my heart stopped racing; I said to Ray “Look around you. This sight is absolutely beautiful. Look at the view over the valley, see the Cyprus trees. We should leave the group, and appreciate the history and beauty of what we are seeing." And that is what we did. We left the group and plowed our way on up the steps. We had an hour total at the sight. We didn’t make it to the top, but almost. We didn’t hear any of the explanations. But we did appreciate the absolute beauty of the site, the amphitheatre, and the antiquity.

After visiting Delphi, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch.  It was at this point that I confirmed my thoughts that I am just not the “bus tour” sort of person. The restaurant was huge, lacking in any apparent character, feeling, or anything other than large, presumptous, and impersonal! Despite all the other dishes being pushed at us, we ordered a Greek salad and enjoyed sharing the fresh tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese! Then we set off on our 4 hour drive to Kalambata.

The hotel in Kalambata was more of the same “bus tour” feel. However, it was clean, as I must add most of the hotels, washrooms, and restaurants that we have frequented have been. Bonus!!

We were subjected to bus-tour food, in a bus-tour type dining room in the hotel! The food looked quite mangy but tasted very homely. The effect it had on the stomach was not so “homely!!”

On Tuesday we started out early on our tour of the amazing rock pinnacle monasteries in the area of the “Meteora.” They are undisputably an amazing site. Perched atop a “pinnacle” of rock, these monasteries were built in the 1300/1400s. Around 1970 they were revived due to tourism. There are certainly some things good created by tourism. Today, there are 6 monasteries of which only There were originally 24. However, the monasteries fell into decline after the Greco/Turkish war, and by 1950 there were 4 left. Today there are 6. Two of these monasteries function with a primarily religious purpose. The other 4 are more “museum” than religious. We visited one of each: first Ayiou Stefanou, which is run by nuns, and second “Varlaam” which is the oldest monastery. Some of you may remember the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only”. This was filmed at the Holy Trinity (Ayias Triadhos) Monastery. The area is stunning, the monasteries beautiful, and they are a “must see” on any trip to Greece. Our tour guide on this portion of the trip was amazing. She was extremely informative, organized, professional, and had a lovely sense of humour. She helped make the day quite magical.

We traveled back to Athens over the last part of the route of our journey into Athens on the 8^th and arrived back just after 6.00 p.m. We met up with the remaining member of our Intrepid tour, Bruce, whom we had met periodically throughout our 2 day trip. He was on a 4-day trip and seemed to have much better luck with logistics!!

Despite our feelings about a 55 person bus tour, both of the sites we saw, Delphi and Meteora were amazing, and I would highly recommend visiting them if you are in Greece.