No riding today and I feel much restored. Hopefully it will last for a few days. Somehow I had forgotten just how great Greek food is. I am not a foodie so this will be my only comment about food but last night I went out for some dinner and our street has many little restaurants along it. I stopped a one at random and ordered their fresh bream. I was served, toasted bread with tzatziki, Greek salad, fresh bream, and for desert, orange slices soaked in honey with yogurt. Pictures are below and that’s it for food commentary except that the fish reminded me of something that happened when we spent the winter in Crete in the mid 80’s. Each week we would drive from the south side of Crete where our apartment was to the north side where there was a post office that had phones where we could call home and check on how things were going. Each time we were there we would generally stop at a restaurant for a meal and typically is was something simple like a gyro sandwich. One time we went to a fish restaurant and like many Greek restaurants it had a counter with a glass front where they showed you what was available. In this case the catch of the day was displayed on a bed of ice. I pointed to a fish and it was soon served. I ate the fish and as I was getting ready to go the owner came out and chastised me for being so wasteful. Fish were somewhat scarce back then due in part to their practice of fishing with dynamite. In any case, he sat down next to me a we shared the remaining portions of the fish as he demonstrated how to first break open the spine and suck out the marrow and open the head for the brains and the eyeballs. With the help of some beer I was able to enjoy the experience.
I walked up to the ruins and museum of the Temple for the oracle of Delphi. It is a nice museum and the ruins are up on the mountain above at multiple levels so it is a good climb to get to the top. I have added some pictures from the museum and the ruins below.
As I was walking back I was reminded of the wild flowers that are everywhere here. All day as we ride there are fields of flowers in every direction and in every color. In particular there is an intense red flower and in the fields there are large swaths of them where they are very striking. I think it is a poppy. Picture below.
Tomorrow we start climbing again mostly through fields and small villages. As we go through these areas the older women, all dressed in black, laugh and wave and throw kisses and yell kalimera.
