Ali and Deborah journey to the navel of the Earth: Introduction

 

“According to an ancient myth, Zeus sent out two eagles in opposite directions from Mount Olympus, and these two instruments of augury met over Delphi, which was regarded thereafter as the Earth's navel"




Anyone contemplating travelling without flying should acquaint themselves with The Man in Seat 61. Run by Mark Smith, started as a hobby but now very much a full time job, the site was set up to “inspire people to do something more rewarding with their travel opportunities than schlepping to an airport, getting on a soulless airliner and missing all the world has to offer.” As regular travellers to Crete, we had wondered how to get there without flying. Reading his description of the arrival by boat into Patras “Strolling the decks in the morning sun as the ship cruises past the islands of Cephalonia and Ithaca is ...... a wonderful way to arrive in Greece”, was the inspiration that started the planning for this whole journey. Thank you, Man in Seat 61.

Ali has always wanted to go to Delphi, which the ancient Greeks considered to be the centre of the world. Not far from Patras, this became the furthest part of our journey.

We planned the trip ourselves, combining train and boat travel with hotel stays.This gave us the flexibility to alter our itinerary as we considered the trip further. A late change was to swap the apartment we had booked in Bari for the Masseria in the hills when we realised that we would need relaxing downtime, and that there would be little to do in Bari once we had wandered the streets of the Old Town. This proved to be a very good change.

Handy tip: Useful resources included: Seat61,  booking.com (very useful for hotels with free cancellation), the New York Times travel pages, upmarket travel blogs and posh travel agencies tour descriptions provide useful ideas. Avoid TripAdvisor and Google Reviews.

This has proved a wonderful way to travel. We have seen so much more than we could have done travelling by plane. We have marvelled at how long we seem to have been away, when in fact it has only been a few days, as time has taken on a different dimension. We have encountered different cultures, people, cuisines, landscapes, histories.

We haven’t finished this one yet and we are already planning our next train adventure!



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