I set my alarm early to have time to wake before having to get the girls moving. Around 6, I felt a “boom” like a cannon and figured it was just some military-type morning ceremony near the presidential palace. Later we learned that a car bomb had gone off a few blocks from our hotel. I prepared for the day, then go the girls moving. We went down for the buffet breakfast before heading out to a nearby hotel for the start of our day trip.
When the guide arrived, we said good-bye to Rob who was heading off to his meeting hotel while the girls and I took our day trip to Delphi. We walked up a block, got on a bus, got all settled. The bus drove two blocks and then we were told to get OFF the bus. We then walked a block more and got on another bus! At that point, we saw that there were some problems in the area (near where the bomb went off). I hope that the confusion for the tours was not a usual thing but caused by the special circumstances.
Because of the confusion and traffic, we were running behind for start of the tour, so the whole day was a bit rushed. We stopped at a cafe for a bathroom and snack break, then headed into the mountains. We arrived at Delphi and were led through the site by our guide. It alternated between raining and sweltering humidity. After the guided tour, we had about twenty minutes to explore and make our way to the museum – not nearly enough time. Then we had to wait twenty minutes at the museum for people who didn’t arrive on time. Ugh.
We ran through the museum and jumped not he bus. Camille and I were both disappointed to not see the Temple of Athena at Delphi furthering my annoyance with arranged tours such as this one. Lunch was at a hotel. The food was mediocre but plentiful. On the way back to Athens, we stopped in Arachova, a “ski resort” town – even though the ski resorts are on the other side of the mountain. We also stopped at a rest area on the highway – filled with very noisy teenagers.
Back in Athens, the tour bus drove by the place where the bomb had exploded. There were police all around The driver dropped us off in Syntagma Square. The girls and I tried to use the IKEA recycling machine. We have no idea if we used it properly of not, but we got rid of our tea bottles. The girls stopped to get ice cream at the bakery, then we made a quick stop in the hotel to drop off the bags and to arrange the taxi for the next morning. We then went out for a bit as it was a lovely evening – perfect temperature! We stopped at the Japanese store and talked with the owner for a while, then went to the mini-market for some snacks for the ferry trip.
Back in the room, we showered and packed and went to bed on the early side as the taxi was set to arrive at 6:15am.
