Remembering Greece

 Remember when my 'recent' trip was the highlight of my year?

How long ago that seems now
and how much the world has changed.

I haven't heard much about Covid 19 impacting Greece,
but if it hasn't yet, it surely will.
I don't think any country is going to escape it.

So excuse me if I harken back to a time,
just a few months ago,
when life seemed easier and less threatening.

Furlough is a perfect time to travel again ,
without a mask,
from the safety of my chair.

As I was going through my images recently,
I realized there's still more I'd love to share
of that gorgeous part of the world...
even as memory dims about the particulars of each day.




We spent a morning on Delos,

reputed birthplace of Apollo, the god of sun, music and the arts.

 It has a strange, other-worldly quality to it now, 

although at one time, it offered shelter to ships of early sailors,

attracted rich merchants to build their villas close by

and was an important commercial crossroad in the eastern Mediterranean.

 The remains of the amphiteater (above)
and a residence (below)

 It is uninhabited now, 

with the exception of a few archaeological students

 who live in small yellow buildings at the port.

Over the centuries, 

as temples and holy buildings on other islands were ransacked

and destroyed, 

pieces of those building were transported to Delos 

and deposited there for safe keeping.

How they keep track of the centuries and the origins of these pieces is beyond me.

Not a bad way to spend the morning of my 70th birthday, though.

Then, onward to Paros.