Yesterday, we hired a car to visit Delphi which is only 32km from Galaxidi, a journey of approximately 35 minutes.
Delphi was an ancient religious sanctuary dedicated to the Greek god Apollo. Developed in the 8th Century BC, it was home to the Oracle of Delphi and the priestess Pythia, who was famed throughout the ancient world for divining the future and was consulted before all major undertakings. It was also the home of the Pythian games, the second most important games in Greece after the Olympics.
Here is the gymnasium which was used for sports, exercise and learning.
The central and most important part of Delphi was the Temple of Apollo where Pythia would deliver her prophetic words.
The Ancient Theatre of Delphi was built on the same hill at the Temple of Apollo but is located above it.
The 35 rows of the Theatre could seat nearly 5,000 people and its situation provided audiences with great views of the entire sanctuary.
The reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians (below) was built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon.
After visiting the archaeological site, we went on to the museum that housed many fascinating artefacts.
Back in Galaxidi, we explored the town, had some lunch then set about arranging our passage through the Corinth Canal for Saturday morning.
With the launch of the new online booking system, which can be found on the official Corinth Canal website, this was a very straightforward process involving submitting boat details, previous and subsequent ports and uploading the registration documentation. Soon, we received confirmation of our booking, a link to make advance payment and we were good to go.
We found an excellent restaurant, O Bebelis, for our supper, run by a charming family with mother and daughter looking after customers and the father cooking up a storm in the kitchen.
It was definitely one of the best meals of the trip so far with the mushrooms in red wine and local stuffed onions being particular highlights!
Then back to the boat for a relatively early night in readiness for the relatively long journey ahead.
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