Greek Islands: Lefkada Day 5 and 6, and stopping in Delphi Greece!

Well, after exploring one of our favorite new Greek Islands, Lefkada and doing our own amazing swimming tour of some of Lefkada’s beaches, it was sadly time for Poops and Liz to leave us. Damian and I had planned another two days in Greece to relax and recuperate from the travel to Europe, and we made the most of it! Not only did we explore more of Lefkada, but we also made an awesome pit stop in Delphi Greece on our way out of Lefkada and to Athens.

Lefkada Day 5: Pefkoulia beach and Lefkada Town

After Poops and Liz left, I was feeling a bit down and exhausted, so we spent the morning sleeping in and relaxing. Luckily, since the sun sets in Greece at 8:45pm (which I loved), we had plenty of time for fun before it got dark!

We started by heading to a beach near our place (Liogerma Villas – which we also loved), called Pefkoulia. While it wasn’t supposed to be the best of the best in Lefkada, we wanted something local and easy, and this delivered. And, honestly, if this had been a beach almost anywhere besides Greece, it would have been considered amazing! We spent a couple hours here reading, talking and swimming. It was a nice way to spend a sad-ish afternoon.

After beach time we were both pretty hungry and we decided to head into Lefkada town, which is on the northwest of the island, very close to the small area of land connecting Lefkada to Greece’s mainland. A lot of guidebooks like to hate on Lefkada town (like they do on Vasiliki), and again I think the hate is unwarranted! It’s a super cute area and we enjoyed our dinner on the water (at Margarita) and then walking around in the cuteness. (and, how cute is that picture on the right below, with the old Italian man riding his bike down the alley?)

We were in Lefkada town during sunset and that made it extra beautiful! Most of the “hopping” restaurants and bars were along the water, and then there was a little pedestrian bridge that connected this area to a pedestrian walkway. A cup of gelato, a walk with my love and a beautiful sunset over the water made this a perfect end to this day!

Lefkada Day 6: Back to Porto Katsiki!

The next day was our last in Lefkada, and we knew we had to get our last fill of these amazing Greek islands by heading back to another one of its world famous beaches. So, we went back to Porto Katsiki, which we enjoyed so much with Poops and Liz. When we got there it was as gorgeous as we had remembered!

We relaxed on the beach, swam and just looked around at our beautiful surroundings. It was even hard to read our books because everything around us was so gorgeous and we wanted to soak it in!

Damian also swam out to one of the cliffs to jump and dive off again. I stayed on shore and we had some fun with burst mode on the iPhone camera. Can you find Damian in each of the below pictures? In the left one he is diving in and in the right one he is doing a split leg jump.

Later Lefkada! Stopping in Delphi Greece on our way to Athens

After Porto Katsiki we headed back to our villa, packed up and hit the sack for an early morning the next day. We were driving back to Athens to spend the night before we flew out to Italy the next morning, but we had a special stop planned on the way! We were heading to Delphi Greece! (and yes, I’m going to call it that throughout, instead of just Delphi, because that’s how I think of it in my head).

First off, the drive was super gorgeous! We were along the coastline the entire way and the water was a stunning blue. My favorite was when we drove by this little island with a single house on it. Don’t you want to live there?

After a long and windy drive up the mountains, we finally made it to Delphi Greece! To give you a little background, Delphi was considered the center of the Earth by ancient Greek gods (more on that later), and was settled as a religious sanctuary after that. The biggest part of sanctuary was the Temple of Apollo, which was created in 4^th century B.C. That is literally almost 2,500 years ago. I always find it crazy when stuff has been around for so long and that we are all still guessing as to what it all means.

We first went to the Delphi Greece museum, which is right next to the site, as we figured it was better to learn about what we were going to see before seeing it! I really liked how they put together the museum – it wasn’t too big or too small, and the information was laid out clearly and in multiple languages. I especially love when the curators mix the old with the new, so you can see where the fragments they found would have fit in in the old days. And that sassy little lady they made in bronze below? Love her and want to take her home.

Then it was time to head out to the actual ancient sanctuary! We walked over (it is only a few hundred meters from the museum) entered and head up the stairs. We passed a couple of the “treasury” buildings which were used to commemorate different things – battle victories, etc. Then we quickly were at the Temple of Apollo! Only a few of the columns remain, because of earthquakes, destruction by future settlers, looting and preservation. But, you can imagine its past grandeur of Delphi Greece when there were forty columns standing!

We then came by the below spot, which is called the Omphalos, or the center/navel of the Earth. This was extra special to us, because of a connection to our family. Per Greek legend, Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the Earth and said wherever the eagles met is where the center of the Earth is. This is the spot where the eagles met. What makes is extra special to us is that our nephew (Damian’s brother and sister-in-law’s son) is named Zeus, and our niece (sister of Zeus) is named Aquila, which means eagle in Latin. It felt like a little piece of home with us in Delphi Greece!

After that we continued walking around the grounds. Much of the stone was carved with words (which we obviously couldn’t read, duh), which was well preserved and really neat to see. There was also an amphitheater, which even in recent centuries was used to stage plays, and, of course, Damian had to show off his acting chops there! And finally, after a long climb up in the heat (I wouldn’t say I wasn’t complaining) we reached the athletic stadium. This stadium was used to host the Panhellenic games every four years, the second biggest games after the Olympics.

Up next!

We had so much fun in both Lefkada and Delphi Greece, and in Brazil before that, but man, were we tired! We were ready for some downtime and “regular life” and our villa in Tuscany, Italy was going to be the best place for it! We just had one quick sleep near the Athens airport, then a flight from Athens to Rome and another from Rome to Florence and then a one hour drive and we were there. Zoom zoom!

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If you want to read more about our time in Lefkada:

• Part 1: Days 1-3 in Porto Katsiki, Agiofili and Vasiliki – click here
• Part 2: Day 4 doing our own swimming tour of private beaches – click here
• Part 3: Days 5-6 with a return to Porto Katsiki and exploring Lefkada town – you are here!