The Arcadian Mountains are Spectacular!

[Delphi]

Sorry for the long entry -- its been two action-packed days.

Yesterday was Joe and Suzy's last day in Greece. We took a rental car with them to (what I'm told is) one of the most beautiful monasteries in Greece: Osious Loukas, and then on to Delphi. The trip was nice -- our first trip outside of Athens. There were wildflowers along the road and we passed through many little towns that felt like more work-a-day Greece.


The whole monastery complex was quite pretty. There's a sort of stone-and-brick-church style in Greece that I haven't seen before and quite like. The 11th century mosaics were amazing -- some of the nicest mosaics I've ever seen. And there was something about the architecture of ascending domes that I really liked. We were there between buses of school children, which made the whole thing feel a bit more alive and like a slice of Greek life.



Delphi was pretty, but there were some problems. We had a pleasant, relaxed lunch there and then went over to the archeological site, only to find out that it closed in 40 minutes, at 3 PM! All of our guidebooks said 8 -- for some reason the site hadn't switched over to summer hours, although supposedly that started in April. Also, soon after getting to the site we hit a storm. We've had a decent amount of rain while we've been here, although happily the temperature has been great: in the 70's and low 80's.

We did get to see the temple of Apollo, where the Oracle was located (next picture).




[Temple to Athena]

Today was absolutely incredible. We left Athens for good, driving out to a mountain village (Dimitsana), to a cliff-side monastery (Moni Philosophou!) and on to Olympia -- all in the Mountains of Arcadia. The wildflowers were spectacular. We passed through olive groves, pine forests, villages on the spines of mountain ridges, meadows, and sheer-rock cliffs. We got lost at least three times, passing through villages where everyone was dressed in traditional black garb, sitting out on their porches, and surprised to see us.





After having lunch in Dimitsana, we drove down a tiny one-lane mountain road down the side of Lousios gorge and then back up it to get to the New Philosophou Monastery (1691). There were only two other cars there. From the car park, you hike 5 minutes down to the New Monastery, where we were greeted by an incredibly friendly giant beared monk. He told us to go tour the church, which was small and beautiful, with 17th and 18th century murals. Then he took us into a room, poured us each a glass of water, gave us a piece of candy and told us about the monastery. He took our water bottle and ran outside to fill it for us. He had a small collection of very reasonably priced reproduction paintings (4 & 10 Euros) -- but nowhere for donations. I left a donation, after asking if I could.



From the New Philosophou monastery, we hiked down for around 20 minutes to the ruined Old Philosophou, from the 10th century -- built into the side of a cliff, nowhere more than 12 feet wide, and often more like 5 feet. Absolutely amazing.


(Look closely on the left -- the monastery runs much the length of the visible cliff.)

And across the gorge you could see another cliff-side monastery. Magical.



One thing I like about ruins is that I feel like I really am having an adventure, rediscovering something that's been lost. Nowhere have I felt that more than when we were the only people at the ruined cliff-side monastery.

We got to Olympia around 6:15, and went straight to the ancient site, which was open until 8. I had read that this was the best time to go, and we had a wonderful time. There were less than a dozen tourists there (along with a dozen guards), exploring a giant, beautiful place right before sunset. Evidently, earlier in the day it is overrun with tour buses.


The last picture and the next one are from the main temple at Olympia: the Temple of Zeus, which has fallen down, but you can see many of the columns on the ground right beside it.