Central Greece

The weather was cloudy but fine and we set off intending to go north into the central mountain areas. However the GPS  decided that the area we wanted to reach was a black hole as far as predicting the route. Although getting around Athens was rather more circuitous than we planned we were on track until we reached a critical junction. Here the roadside directions were absolutely non existant but the map seemed fairly clear so we continued on. Surprise, surprise at 3-30 in the afternoon we found a road sign that informed us we were approaching Delphi which is west of where we were planning. Since it was on our itinarary anyway we cut our losses and found a lovely old hotel at very reasonable rates in Arahavo just 10 kms short of the archialogical site. We then went to the ancient Delphi ruins which are fortunately open till 6pm in summer with the on site museum open till 8pm. It is a beautiful place spreading up a steep hillside with some well preserved ruins. The museum houses the treasures which were found on site including a lot of marble decorations from the numerous "treasuries" that were built by towns celebrating the success of their battles. There were some wonderful statues and bronze , silver and gold work.
We had a delicious dinner at a small family restaurant and completed it with some local pistacio chocolate.
This morning it was raining steadily as we again set off north. We felt sorry for the locals as it is their National Day and there were obviously events planned. We found that it was impossible to go into the centre of a couple of towns as the rain had eased and people were gathering for parades. The scenery was stunning when we weren't driving through cloud. One mountain town recommended for a visit in Lonely Planet we gave up on when the narrow streets were blocked with traffic and the cold and damp weren't encouraging going on a hike to find out what the fuss was about. Instead we did the pragmatic thing, drove on to the next town , found a  comfy hotel in the centre of town and a good meal to follow. We decided on a coffee at one of the local hot spots and received very courteous service from the staff and many surrepticious glances from the young clientele.
Now it is onward to Thessaloniki. Caio, Gail