Day 26 Thessaloniki to Delphi

We would have liked to have left the car at Thessaloniki and continued travelling north but the exorbitant one way rental fee of over $800 means it's better to head back to Athens and pick up a $100-ish plane fare to our next destination, which we decide is the island of Corfu. We collected our car from the car park where the attendant seems to spend his day playing an advanced game of tetris with the cars in his care as he skillfully manipulates them around the tiny area to quickly return yours.

With a day of driving in front of us we are quickly reminded of how difficult it is to see when the traffic lights change to red as the only light is next to you and none further forward, in fact someone has a theory on the internet that that is why old Greek people are hunched over, because they have spent their lives hunched over their steering wheels trying to see the traffic lights. Most Greek drivers use what we would call the emergency lane by driving half in and half out and therefore creating enough room for faster drivers to pass.

As we need petrol we come across a large service stop complete with food that is more like the ones we have at home. K ordered what was called a sausage pie, it looked like a sausage roll but once she bit into it she realised it was a hot dog encased in pastry. We continue driving with the snowcapped Mt Olympus, the largest mountain in Greece in front of us and road signs warning us of bears in the area, which is as novel to us as kangaroo signs must be for overseas visitors in Australia.

We make it to Thermopylae where there is a little information and an impressive monument to commemorate the war between 100,000 Persians and 7,000 Greeks. Thermopylae, meaning Hot Gates is a large and very hot spring with a strong sulphur smell.

We made it to Delphi mid-afternoon so about 5pm we decided to visit the archaeological site and take advantage of the summer late closing time of 8pm and also hopefully miss the Athens day tour buses. When we went to pay the €12 per person entrance fee we were told it was free for the day as it was International Museum Day, we were glad we didn't put the visit off until the morning!.

It was a bit of a hike to the stadium at the top but well worth the effort and the crowds were very light. As beautiful as the Greek archaeological sites are its a shame there isn't more money spent on restoration as they don't measure up to other sites we've seen, such as Ephesus in Turkey.

We decide to stay the night in Delphi and enjoy the restaurants with the beautiful valley views, as well as the free desserts that are offered after every meal in Greece.