# Delphi & Olympia?



## hibbeln (Mar 24, 2009)

Help me!
We're going to Greece over Easter.  Part of the time we will be staying in Nauplion.  We'll have a car.  We arrive in Nauplion/Nafplion on Monday and leave the next Friday.  That gives us 3 full days in the area.

Here's my question.  So many people have said YOU MUST SEE DELPHI!  So I'm wondering if we should leave Nauplion on Thursday, drive to Olympia and see the ancient Olympic sites (we'll have our 14 & 11 year old sons in tow), then drive up to Delphi on Friday via "the bridge" before heading to Athens that day.

It sounds like a lot of driving to me, so I'm a little hesitant to do it.  But then again, if we're there, why not?  Or we could just keep our hotel as planned and spend a day daytripping to Olympia?

I also wonder if we will be on Ancient Ruins Overload by that point after seeing Mycenai, Tiryns, Epidavros, Corinth....etc etc.

Any thoughts?


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## Carolinian (Mar 24, 2009)

I have been to Delphi and it is worth seeing.  I stopped there driving between Athens and Corfu, but my stop on the way back, I found even more interesting, the perched monasteries of Meteora.  One of them was used for some scenes in a James Bond movie.  These medieval monasteries which are still in active use are a very different experience from the usual ancient Greek ruins.


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## MULTIZ321 (Mar 24, 2009)

Here's a link that has useful information about the Meteora Monastaries - Visitor's Guide to Meteora Greece

Ever since I've seen pictures of the monastaries, they've been on my to visit list when I'm able to visit Greece.

Have a good trip.


Richard


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## hibbeln (Mar 24, 2009)

Meteora is on my list of places to see, also!  But it will have to wait for "next" time as they are just too far north out of the way to drive to on this trip.

I'm so torn about Olympia & Delphi.  One?  Both?


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## hibbeln (Mar 25, 2009)

Bump!!!!


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## nonutrix (Mar 25, 2009)

About 5 years ago, we drove from Napilon (sp) to Olympia on route 55.  It was not an easy drive!  Lots of one track, mountain hugging roads with steep drop-offs on one side and a rock wall on the other.  It was not a road I would want to drive on a short time schedule or in bad weather.  I just looked up the road on google maps and it looks like it is the same road we were on.  Don't plan on doing this road round-trip in a day.  However, Olympia is worth seeing.  As for the choice between Olympia or Delphi, it would be close, but I think I would give a slight edge to Delphi.

On another note, a very easy drive from Napilon is Corinth.  Be sure to see the midieval Corinth one top of the mountain, as well as the Roman town next to the modern town.  If you are interested in the New Testament, you can see exactly where Paul stood when he preached to the Corinthians.  You will find that the sites within an easy drive of Napilion are numerous.

I hope this helps.

nonutrix


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## hibbeln (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks for the info!  
We are scheduled for 3 full days in Nauplion.  We will catch Corinth and Acrocorinth and the canal on the drive out from Athens on the day we arrive so that won't count as one of the full days.  We plan to "do" Nemea, Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidavros, Argos, etc on another day.  Nauplion and it's immediate environs will probably take up another day.  
So then the question is whether we: 

Try to do a daytrip to Olympia, realizing what you said (doesn't sound so great)
Take a daytrip to the Sparta & Mistras area.
Blow it off and just explore wherever looks good with our car.
Change our hotel reservations and leave a day earlier than planned, drive to Olympia and see that site, spend the night there or someone further up the road toward Delphi, then hit Delphi before heading back to Athens.


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## nonutrix (Mar 26, 2009)

hibbeln said:


> Thanks for the info!
> We are scheduled for 3 full days in Nauplion.  We will catch Corinth and Acrocorinth and the canal on the drive out from Athens on the day we arrive so that won't count as one of the full days.  We plan to "do" Nemea, Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidavros, Argos, etc on another day.  Nauplion and it's immediate environs will probably take up another day.
> So then the question is whether we:
> 
> ...



If I were you, I would get some opinionated guidebooks - Rick Steves comes to mind - Read them carefully to decide what is a hit or a miss.  Most guides will be totally neutral in describing the sites.  That is not what you want when you have to work in a tight time frame.  We had the luxury of lots of time and were there at Christmas which is very, very low season in Greece.  Many of the sites didn't have ticket takers and in some of our hotels we were the only guests!  It was wonderful!

Anyway, I hope you love Greece as much as we did!

nonutrix

ps.  BTW, except for the scary mountain road (which looked perfectly ok on the map) driving in Greece was easy!


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## nerodog (Mar 27, 2009)

*delphi and olympia*

Hi, yes I think Delphi is well worth it.. its a great place with magnificent scenery and history,.. Olympia personally did not thrill me as much.. one other place I found impressive was Cape Sounion (sp) Poseidens temple I think and I cant remember how I got there..( it was 30 yrs ago!)  but knew I took public transport from Athens maybe ? Help for those who have been there.. its right on a cliff with the ruins overlooking the Aegean sea.. breathtaking ! So, YES on Delphi...  really found it to be a highlight with the   ruins !I think I saw mountain goats up on the cliffs around there too .


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## hibbeln (Mar 27, 2009)

Yes, I know where Cape Sounion is.  It's supposed to be a great place to watch the sunset!

Would you believe that Rick Steve's (who we LOVE) does not have a Greece guidebook?!  He has one for Turkey now, but hasn't done a Greek one yet.  It drives me crazy!  We're addicted to Rick Steve's phrasebooks too because they always give you the translations for things you really want to say, but he doesn't have one of those either.  So now I have a Berlitz phrasebook of which maybe 1/1,000th is anything useful at all to us.  Grrrrrrr!   

I'm going to go and check the Rick Steve's website.  I know he does have some Greece info on there, though not terribly comprehensive....


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## hibbeln (Mar 27, 2009)

I've heard mixed reviews on Olympia.  Apparently since the big redo of the museum and the site for 2004, it is much better. With our 2 boys along, it just seems like a place they should see.  If they go back to school and say "I went to Tiryns and Mycenae!" everyone will give them a blank look.  But if they add "And Olympia!" people will understand that at least.

 The mountain roads you describe actually sound very intriguing and scenic!  The sort of thing you remember forever afterwards.


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## hibbeln (Mar 27, 2009)

Ohmigosh.  Rick Steve's has an "Athens & Pelopponese" guidebook coming out......May 2009.  Within weeks of our *return!*


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## MULTIZ321 (Mar 27, 2009)

Debi,

I would write to Steve and ask if it's possible to get a draft copy.


Richard


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## nonutrix (Mar 27, 2009)

hibbeln said:


> I've heard mixed reviews on Olympia.  Apparently since the big redo of the museum and the site for 2004, it is much better. With our 2 boys along, it just seems like a place they should see.  If they go back to school and say "I went to Tiryns and Mycenae!" everyone will give them a blank look.  But if they add "And Olympia!" people will understand that at least.
> 
> The mountain roads you describe actually sound very intriguing and scenic!  The sort of thing you remember forever afterwards.



Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't suggest you avoid the scary mountain road completely, just that you might not want to make it a round trip in one day.  There's always the possibility that the road has been improved in the last couple of years.

I think the idea of contacting Rick about a draft copy is a great idea.  If he is as nice as he seems, I bet he'll help you out.

As far a Olympia goes, our son, even though very young at the time, understood the significance of the place.  We took a picture of him standing on the starting line which is laid out in stone at the beginning of the race track.  He was very interested in the fact that the athletes wore no clothing.  So I agree with you that kids can really identify with Olympia.

nonutrix


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## KDD (Mar 27, 2009)

The old town of Nauplio is charming town, there are quaint streets leading to the port, where small boats are tied up and lights reflect on the water.... The intricate Venitian fortress is lit at night and well preserved and interesting to walk around during the day.  Too bad you wont be there Saturday night at midnight when Easter is celebrated.  It is one of our fondest memories.

The byzantine city of Mistras sits above Sparta and is an easy day trip,and may be different than what you will have already seen. The ruins are well preserved buildings, not 2-3 foot walls and is an easy day trip 1.5-2 hours from Nauplio.  

Olympia is wonderful, but on the opposite side of the peloponese from Nauplio, connected by the hair raising NARROW road already described, that I will never drive again and hope to never see its equal.   Given it will take two hours to walk through, and feel the history, has a small museum too, to do the site justice, how can you travel there without staying the night?  If you do, we recommend the Best Western Hotel as do many others.  It has a pool and good ambience.

The Peloponese is a smorgasbord and you dont have much time.  I dont think you can do all without making yourself crazy and slighting some pretty historical places.  Tough choices , but you cant go wrong with any of them.  

We like Rick Steves, but for Greece, read Matt Barretts writings on line, he's married to a Greek, has raised kids there and we agree a lot with him.


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## MULTIZ321 (Mar 27, 2009)

Matt Barrett's - A Travel Guide to Greece


Richard


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## hibbeln (Mar 28, 2009)

THANK YOU for the Matt Barrett link.  I'm going to scope it out next.

We will be in Athens for Good Friday and the Saturday night before Easter.  I have some excellent suggestions from some Athenians on where to go each of those nights.  We actually meant to come home Saturday, but switched to Sunday just so we could be there for Saturday night of Easter!

I think we will keep our Nafplion 4th night reservation and play it by ear what we want to do.  Just kind of see which way the wind blows us that last day.  We might be on ancient Greek ruins overload and so Mistra might be a welcome respite.  Our two sons will be along (ages 14 & 11).  *Do you think Mistra would be of interest to them? * They are huge history fans and love hiking outdoors.  Have to admit we don't know much about the Byzantines (yet!).  Is the drive to Mistra a beautiful drive?  Other things to see in the area?  My 14 year old is a big Sparta fan, but I know there isn't much left there to see.

The windy mountain road actually sounds like fun, though my husband (he drives I navigate) rolled his eyes at me when I told him about it.


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## Carolinian (Mar 28, 2009)

For Athens, I suggest you look at _Athens in Your Pocket_, part of the In Your Pocket series of guidebooks.  This series is franchised to local people so it has a lot of the local flavor you do not get in most of the guidebooks.  You can download it at www.inyourpocket.com


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## nonutrix (Mar 28, 2009)

hibbeln said:


> The windy mountain road actually sounds like fun, though my husband (he drives I navigate) rolled his eyes at me when I told him about it.



I forgot to mention, that not only was the road itself wild and crazy, two other elements added to the excitement.  First since, it is the only road directly across the Pelopenese, it is the one that the trucks take.  There were a number of blind curves on one stetch of the road in the mountains where we were face to face with a truck going in the opposite direction.  Since the road was barely wide enough for one car, one of us would have to back up to wider place in the road so that the other could continue on - yikes!  The other element was, that due to the altitude, the weather would change quickly from bright and sunny to a thick fog and then a heavy rain - double yikes.  All of this is slowly coming back to me...I guess I was blocking out some of the memories.

If you are the navigator, one good thing I need to mention about the road, there's no way to get lost on it, since it is the only road.  

nonutrix


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## hibbeln (Mar 28, 2009)

Your description of "The Road" is making me laugh!  :hysterical: 
But my husband and I just talked it over and we're going to probably drop the last night in Nafplion, rebook in Olympia and plan to leave Nafplion right after breakfast so there's no rush to get to Olympia.

Can I navigate with my eyes closed on the curves??!?!?  

This will be my husband driving with only one hand on the wheel   
This will be me cheering him around every curve   
My oldest son in the back seat   
My youngest (and easily carsick) son in the backseat  :ignore:


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## KDD (Mar 28, 2009)

Mistras: When my husband and I visited, there were several classes of Greek children of elementary school and Jr high age touring too.  I bet you will see them there also.  Your sons can read up some info on line ahead of time, but there were booklets available for purchase there.  My husband is a history buff and says anyone who likes history would like it - many old rock byzantine buildings, structures, everything photogenic, many winding paths.   Any photo on line will give you a sense of the whole site.  There are two churches that can be viewed, I remember bullet marks from WWII in one of them.  

Sparta is not really a tourist destination in itself, but I remember the town for the friendly fellow who started a conversation with us when we stopped to buy sandwhiches in the center of town in one of their pastry/bakery shopes.  Just take it as an example of a typical Greek town where people live and work, now on the site of ancient Sparta.  Its possible there is more, but we just stopped there on the way to Mistras for lunch.


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## hibbeln (Mar 28, 2009)

Ohmigosh.  That Matt Barrett guy is SO FUNNY!  Thank you so much for the link to his website.  I have already printed out about a ream of paper with his articles.  He fills the Rick Steve's gap we were looking for.


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## rosebud5 (Mar 28, 2009)

When we went to Athens, we took a guided bus trip to Delphi. Really worth it. If you get the chance, you can take a ferry from Port Pireus (??) to any of the islands. We went to Santorini, the crown jewel of our trip, although I must also say, the Parthenon along with the view was beyond words or anything I could possibly write in a discussion forum.


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## nonutrix (Mar 28, 2009)

hibbeln said:


> Your description of "The Road" is making me laugh!  :hysterical:
> But my husband and I just talked it over and we're going to probably drop the last night in Nafplion, rebook in Olympia and plan to leave Nafplion right after breakfast so there's no rush to get to Olympia.
> 
> Can I navigate with my eyes closed on the curves??!?!?
> ...



I think you have the right idea...having plenty of time, without crunch is the way to enjoy "The Road".  Please let us know if it has been improved since the rest of us have traveled on it.  In a way it would be shame, think of all of the future tourist who would miss the experience!  

Maybe you could take blinders for your husband, so he won't drive off a cliff looking at the sites.  I remember constantly telling my husband, "don't look, don't look!  I'll TELL you about it!"

Be sure to snag an airsick bag on your flight over for your son.

The amazing thing about the roads in Greece was that this road was the only one that was even close to crazy.  Once we got out of Athens, the highways were better than most US highways, with much less traffic.

Good luck.  I know you will have fun!

nonutrix


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## hibbeln (Mar 29, 2009)

Rosebud, *we're going to Santorini, too!*  We fly in and arrive on Thursday (before USA Easter) and fly out immediately to Santorini.  

On Santorini until Monday (we booked the traditional cave house in Oia...check out this view where we're at.....   www.ariscave.com  or maybe it's www.ariscaves.gr ).

Monday we fly back, pick up a car at the Athens airport and drive to Nafplion, stopping at the canal, Corinth and Acrocorinth on the way.

Thursday morning we plan to be up bright and early and head out on *THE ROAD* to Olympia.  There's a gorge along the way that looks interesting, so we'll mosey along and take however much time it takes.  If we don't get to see the Olympia site on Thursday, then we'll catch it Friday morning before heading back to Athens.

Sunday morning we fly out of Athens and home!

The suggestion of an airsick bag from the plane for Son #2 is EXCELLENT!  I never would have thought of that, but it's so obvious and better than throwing up in Grandma's purse!   I might need to grab an extra one for Grandma....


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## nonutrix (Mar 29, 2009)

hibbeln said:


> Rosebud, *we're going to Santorini, too!*  We fly in and arrive on Thursday (before USA Easter) and fly out immediately to Santorini.
> 
> On Santorini until Monday (we booked the traditional cave house in Oia...check out this view where we're at.....   www.ariscave.com  or maybe it's www.ariscaves.gr ).
> 
> ...



Sounds like you have an excellent itinerary!

As for the airsick bag, I learned about that the hard way with my son.  For several years in a row I never got on a plane without collecting them from our seats to keep in my purse for the duration of the trip.  I found out it was either the airsick bag or my lap - guess what, I voted for the airsick bag!  

Another thing that I found very handy for sickness, as well as a variety of other uses, is wet wipes.  After all, when a kid is sick he needs a clean up.  They are also better than nothing to use on hands before meals and any other time a fresh-up is needed, but running water is not available.  There are even sterile ones available in individual packets, but I find those too hard to use easily...and I probably don't need to be that clean.

nonutrix


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## hibbeln (Mar 30, 2009)

Good idea on the wet wipes!  "That" son is now 11, and only seems to get carsick in European countries on windy mountain roads (maybe it's the smaller cars?) but he has been sick now in Sicily and Spain, and I just know that Greek road is going to do it to him too.


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## hibbeln (Apr 24, 2009)

We're back!  I just wanted to post on here what we finally ended up doing so you all (that have been so helpful) would know!

On the drive from Athens to Nafplio, we somehow totally missed the canal at Corinth!  We also didn't see the turn off to Acrocorinth and Ancient Corinth from the highway, so we just figured we were too brain dead and continued on to Nafplio.  We could clearly see the ruins from the freeway, so that was enough for us at that point.  I know, we're terrible!   

Thoroughly enjoyed Nafplio.  Spent our first day there exploring the Palamidi fortress and town.  Spent the second day going to Tiryns, Mycenae and Epidauros.  

Third day we pushed out at 10 a.m. and drove to Olympia.  We drive around the top of the bay and to Tripoli, then headed STRAIGHT west out of Tripoli on "the old road" through Stemnitsa, Dmitsana, etc to final join back up with the main road and go to Olympia.  WHOA!  The old road (it looks very small on the map) is indeed THE OLD ROAD!  Twisty and turny up and down mountains like you wouldn't believe (well, some of you WOULD believe!).  I don't think my husband hardly got out of 2nd gear the whole way.  For at least the first 90 minutes we didn't see another car.  Obviously this road is no longer used much.  Many sections of it were crumbling BADLY at the edges from being washed out.  But it was an ADVENTURE and we made it and it went through very pretty countryside.  Looking back, we should have stuck to the more main road as this route was slow.  We left Nafplio at 10 and pulled into Olympia at 3.  Whoa, 5 hours!  The kids were good, no one threw-up  :whoopie:   but I was a nervous wreck worrying we wouldn't get to Olympia in time to see the sights.

I was also REALLY worried that Olympia would be a dud and everyone would be mad at me for driving them 5 hours across the Peloponnese for nothing.  AND I was worried exactly how long it would take us to drive back to Athens if it took us 5 hours from Nafplio!

I needn't have worried.  The sites and museums were open until 8 p.m.  Olympia was INCREDIBLE.  We had it almost to ourselves and there were redbud trees and wild flowers blooming everywhere.  It's one of the prettiest places we've ever seen.  And SO interesting.  And the museums were phenomenal.  Even my boys really liked both the archeological museum at the site and the Museum of the Ancient Olympic Games (which we finally got kicked out of at 8:02 p.m.).  So it was WELL worth the drive and one of our favorite spots on the trip and easily our favorite archeological site.

For the drive to Athens, we drove north to Patras and then east along the coast to Athens.  It took us only 3.5 hours.  The scenery along the coast was BEAUTIFUL.   Traffic was heavy always in the opposite lanes with people flowing south out of Patras (it was Good Friday) and then people from Athens fleeing westward.  We were very happy to not be driving in the same direction they were!

Other stops on our trip were Oia on Santorini (LOVED it!) and then Athens ("Yuck" as far as cities go, but you have to see the Acropolis and related sites).

THANK YOU everyone!  I'm glad you convinced us the drive to Olympia was OK!


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## nonutrix (Apr 24, 2009)

Thanks for the trip report...I was hoping that you would post when you returned.  I'm glad the hear that my memory had not blown THE ROAD into something worse than it was.  Lots of the road was crumbly and dropping off the cliff several years ago, so I guess it hasn't been repaired.  You were probably lucky that you were on it during a holiday so there was no traffic, because I remember meeting several trucks going in the opposite direction.    It also took us forever to get to Olympia on THAT ROAD.  We ended up taking the coastal road back to our hotel in Nafpilon (sp) and getting back late at night, because there was no way we were going to take a chance on driving THE ROAD after dark!

Anyway, I'm glad you survived to tell about it!

Thanks again for a great report!

nonutrix


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## hibbeln (Apr 24, 2009)

That's funny because the whole time we were driving it, I was thinking "There is NO way I would ever drive this road in the dark or in the rain!"  Seriously, we would have careened right off a cliff!
There is a "more" main road from Tripoli to Olympia that skirts just north of Dmitsana, Semitsana (I know I'm spelling those wrong) and I think everyone else was on that road.  That's the one we joined up with just north of those towns, but it was just as twisty & turny.....just in a better state of repair.


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