Dispatches From Greece
Reported by Mark and Stephanie Shattuck

After we got out of Athens, we went to the ruins at Delphi...

The town of Delphi is tiny and mostly geared for tourists. The ruins and the museum were spectacular. There was a large temple of Apollo and a huge sphinx and a smaller temple to Athena, all on a hillside overlooking a gorgeous valley. Completing the ruins were a theatre and a stadium.

Tres cool!

There are flowers everywhere, wild orchids and chamomile making the air so fragrant. We went to a tiny village called Arahova for May Day. There were tons of Athenians who had driven out to the countryside for the holiday. Everyone picked flowers and adorned their cars and their homes with bouquets and wreaths... It was a lovely day.

Now we are in a small seaside town called Nafplio. Because the Italians were here in the 1700's, the town is very Venetian. We feel as if we are in Italy. We saw the ruins of Edidaurus and Aesclepion today. Epidaurus is one of the few theatres that the Romans didn't alter, so it was really great. You could hear a coin drop from the very back row of the house.

Mark sang Oh What A Beautiful Morning to all the tourists seated in the seats and got many bravos. I recited Shakespeare from center stage and was amazed by the sound waves reflected back. Awesome!

We are getting a lot better at reading Greek letters now that we are out of Athens and the road signs are often in Greek only. We finally found a map that has both Greek and English, so now we know we are looking for triangle, a, p, bottomless box, upside down v, etc. It has certainly been an adventure to have a car in Greece. Mark is very proud that he was able get us out of Athens in one piece. The Greek drivers are nuts. Passing on blind curves is normal at 120 kph. I was not a religious woman until we started driving here!

Tomorrow we are going to Mycenae where there are, yes, you guessed it, more ruins to see. Then Saturday we will explore more of Nafplio, which has three Venetian forts and some beaches. Then we have to return the rental car to Athens Sunday and we hope to be able to go to Crete for at least a week.