2018 Eastern Mediterranean Trip - Day 29, de-I And The Temple of Apollo Epicurius!

Of course, you say, OF COURSE!

Why wouldn't our intrepid gastronome, the inimitable de-Intimidator find the only ancient Greek temple dedication to gastronomy?

Well the reality is that the word Epicurius in this sense did not refer to the joys of eating other than avoiding starvation. But we will get to that later.

Today we are driving in a Northwesterly direction into the heart of the mountainous Peloponnese Peninsula, the region in the Ancient Greek days called Arcadia. This is the area where Olympia is located. However, we have given our guide instructions that we don't want to see a single tour bus today. So he has selected the Temple of Apollo Epicurius as a site worthy of great hype yet relatively ever visited by the tourist hordes.

As we drove north we passed a lake that is known for its scenic attraction (and photo ops). Unfortunately for some unknown reason, the gates to it our locked. Our guide has figured out Wife and I need our photo op time, so we stopped numerous times along the way. I AM TRYING OUT A NEW LENS! Shocker. This is the first time since I started using the Olympus camera that I've used a lens other than the one it had on it. It does not have the zoom capability the lens I started with has but it goes to a much lower f stop which means a wider field of vision and more detail (hopefully). It took a little getting used to but I started to warm up to it fast.

Our guide Ioannis, has two history degrees and is without doubt the most informed and communicative guide we've ever had. As a confirmed history geek, this has been heaven for me. I just need to remember to bring a pillow for Wife to sleep with when she gets bored by all the history babble.

The short story of the temple is it was originally dedicated to Apollo in the form of a war god in around the 7th century BC. Then there was great famine all through the Peloponnese but this area was spared. They attributed this to intervention on the part of the God Apollo. Hence the change in the name.

Photos

It was a couple of hours out to where we were going so we stopped for some coffee

I put my new lens to work on some very attractive snacks and sandwiches I saw

That in fact got me hungry so I bought what I thought was a bread but turned out to be a cheese filled bread

Wife got something too

Then on to the lake that was not open

Still got some interesting shots

On our way to the Temple there was lovely, photogenic town that we would return to for lunch

Unfortunately the best places for taking pictures had no places where we could pull off the road

And the air quality has been horrible

According to our guide there has been a long term pattern of dust and sand blowing over the Mediterranean making the sky far from clear

Then on to the Temple

An artist rendition of what it looks like in its partially restored state

One of the fascinating things about this site is they have the entire structure covered!

It's high up in the mountains and subject to high winds and moisture

It is kind of an engineering feat unto itself the covering which has been in place for decades

Let's go in and explore the Temple itself

Then it was back to the town for lunch

We are back on our preferred late lunch/major meal of the day

This version of Greek Salad was 80% tomato, 10% feta cheese and the balance everything else

Wife's souvlaki

My mass 'o' lamb chops

And yes wine is de riguer at lunch since I don't have to drive LOL

This is the restaurant dog

I wasn't even sure it was alive...until our guide threw a small piece of meat to one of the cats around

Then the dog leapt to action with a growl and intercepted it!

Clearly the restaurant was its territory

We tried some landscape shots but the air quality was terrible even trying to use our Vassilis dark, brooding technique...so I just Photoshopped the hell out of it :)

A few scenes from the town where we had lunch

A library that has 40,000 books according to our guide

And a house where it was rug cleaning day

And for those who have been suffering withdrawal from its absence...

...SIGNS OF THE WORLD

No disposal of cigarettes even if done daintily

Please dispose of your rubbish with a jaunty air