Katakolon and Olympia Greece - Day 9

We arrived in the port city of Katakolon, Greece for our last stop of the cruise and the closest port city to Olympia.  We decided to go our own way instead of taking a professional tour, but I had Rick Steve's guidebook which was plenty detailed.  We did use the ship's tour bus to get there.  Sadly, like Santorini, the hospitals are unmanned due to a lack of doctors and nurses in Greece, so they have to drive a ways to get medical help.  Also, they just ran out of contract for waste disposal, so now they have trash piled up along the main thoroughfares while the work out a new solution.  Very sad.

BUT.... the land was very beautiful - lots of hills and mountains, lots of greenery, olive trees and more vineyards all the way to Olympia, the site of the first Olympics in 776BC.  The Olympics was held here for nearly 1000 years until the fourth century AD, then discontinued until it was resurrected in 1896.

When we got to the site, we bought a combo ticket to the archeological site and the museum.  First, we went to the site and saw a number of areas which were probably massive and beautiful in those times.  Now all that' slept are the outlines of buildings with columns and a few key walls to mark the buildings that once stood there.  However, we were still able to feel the atmosphere as we walked the shady tree covered site and see enough remnants to key our imagination. 

 

The massive temple of Zeus in the center of the main area only has one large column standing, but you can tell how huge it was and there are pictures of how it would have looked with its 40 foot high Zeus sculpture, like Lincoln at the Lincoln memorial.

There was a pillar that once held the winged victory statue - we later found the statue in the museum.

 The highlight was to see the original stadium, with its grassy banks around an oval dirt infield.  At either end are the original marble starting blocks for the inaugural event, the 192m dash.  We got lots of pictures at the blocks and overlooking the stadium.

 

 

 
 

We also saw some fairly intact temples with original columns and writing. 

 

After a brief stop at the outdoor cafe, er, snack shop, we walked the short distance to the museum.  The museum made a nice progression clockwise through the ages, my favorite being the Bronze Age Griffins, weapons, and helmets.  There were are lot of statues, including the original winged victory Nike sculpture above.

After the museum tour, we walked into the nearby town to get souvenirs and have a beer (Alpha beer from Greece).  I wanted to buy a lot of math shirts but settled on one Pi shirt each for the kids.  There was a museum dedicated to all of the great Greek mathematicians and scientists, but we didn't have time (and Shellie didn't feel like geeking out like I did).

 

We returned back the town of Katakolon and stopped at a couple shops and had a beer and some Tzatziki at a little curbside cafe. 

 

Then a short walk to the ship and we were off to sea for a day, where all we did was wake up late, walk the ship, take naps, and had a great sushi dinner at Izumi.