The Nuns Were Hitchhiking

That title has little to do with anything, but I heard it and liked it. Sheelagh saw them from the bus and said very quietly to herself, "Hm, nuns hitchhiking." It seems there were three of them.

We got up early and went to the Palermo version of Tim Horton's. Tim, we never knew ya. It was so good. Then we hustled off to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Agrigento on the far side of Sicily. It took a little over 2 hours and brought us to the Valley Of The Temples. This is a must see here. It is the greatest group of Greek temples in the world. Most admit it is better than anything in Greece.

We caught a local line 2 bus from the Agrigento terminal and got off at the temples. I got in free cause I'm old now. Shush cost us 10. That's what comes of robbing the cradle guys. We strolled up a gentle grade to the Temple of Concord. This is the best preserved Greek temple in the world. The reason being that a Christian church was built over it in the 6th Century AD and removed in 1748. It dates from 430 BC and gives an idea of what the others would have looked like.

From there we followed a carriage way up to the Temple of Juno from the mid 400's BC. The Carthaginians took a whack at it and then a couple of earthquakes did some damage. It has a large sacrificial alter where animals were sacrificed.

Next we looked at the remains of a set of burial chambers that spanned from the Greeks to the Romans and Christians. There are all sizes carved from the rock for all ages.

The Temple of Hercules is the oldest as it dates from the 6th century BC. It's columns were put back in place in 1924. Both Greeks and Romans worshipped Hercules/Heracles here.

The Temple of Jupiter/Zeus is the largest of the temples. In the ruins was found a Telamon, a 26 foot stone man that would have been used to hold up the roof. Now he just lays around all day. The final little ruin is the corner of the Temple of the Dioscuri or the Temple of Castor and Pollux. This was the Sanctuary of the underworld deities.

In the middle of all that we sat under olive trees and drank fresh orange juice.









We got back over to Palermo by 6 to get some pizza slices and limp home.