The seas were a little rocky last night, and the thunder was amazingly loud! We didn’t even have our door open and you could hear it like you were standing outside. Yikes.
This morning, the skies are cloudy and the wind is still howling, but no thunder – at least not yet. We layer up and trundle out first thing to go pick up our rental car in hopes we’ll beat the buses to Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games.
It’s a long walk off the dock (especially in the cold, windy and now rainy weather). The Hertz office is a little hidden, but they have someone standing on the street right off the pier directing us – nice touch. Easiest rental we’ve done in a long time. Paperwork was quick, rental agent very helpful, gave us a map that was a “Cathy” map – had every landmark, # of Kms on each road, and pictures of all the signs you would see when you had to turn – to get to Olympia. Perfect. Didn’t even need the GPS. The agent even told us how much gas we needed to put in for the trip. Nice.
So – off we head – first one’s off and out of the town that we can see. It is an easy half hour drive, through Katakolon which is a one road little tourist town, then left on this little teeny cow path of a 2 lane road through a small village and fields. Then we turned onto a major road that took us through Pyrgos ( a big city) and then out into the countryside on our way to Olympia.
Along the way, we see evidence of the Greek financial meltdown – trash. There are commercial trash bins placed along the road and near buildings. Every single one is piled high with trash bags – and not just on top of the bin, but all around it. It’s a mountain of trash at every receptacle. Really sad. Heaven only knows what other services are lacking – we’re hoping it’s not the train track signals that we have to pass on the way to the ruins.
We make it to Olympia without incident. Once in the town we follow the signs to the Archeological site. We figure we might as well go there first since its not really raining right now. Then we can hit the museum. The signs lead us to a little road with do not enter signs posted. What? How do we get down there? A mini-van is sitting outside the entrance, so we turn around and try up the mountain road, which isn’t right. When we get back down to the Archeological site, the buses are there. Pooh. But they are letting people out and they are walking down the road – so what to do? Find parking!
We’re a little hesitant to park on the road, since we don’t know the rules exactly, so we end up finding a parking lot outside a restaurant a bunch of blocks down from the entrance to the site. We hoof it back to the road, and wait a minute! There are taxis down there. What? We keep walking, and cars come by. Well, what the hell were those signs for then?? Geez. So – hint to any other travelers who will be driving to Olympia – ignore the do not enter signs at the archeological site road! And right next to the ticket booth are a couple of parking lots. Geez.
Ah well, this is our 2nd morning exercise. In we go, with only a few busloads of others.
This is the site of the first Olympic games! Too cool. It began in the 10th-9th C BC, devoted mostly to Zeus. Buildings were added in each century, to keep up with growth, with the final enlargement in the 4th C BC. the games started in the prehistoric era, but were begun again in the 8th C BC and the 4 year schedule was put in place.
The contestants had to be “true-born” Greek men, women weren’t allowed to watch the games. The winners in the games were crowned with a branch of the wild olive tree that stood near the temple of Zeus. The games were stopped in 393 AD when religions were suppressed by Theodosios I. In 1896, they were revised again and have been held every 4 years since.
The game site was a major religious, cultural and sporting center with gyms, baths, workshops, temple, altars and of course, the stadium. What’s left today are the remains of a lot of the buildings and site plans. Statues and reliquary have also been found, restored, and displayed in the museum.
It’s gray and overcast, but not raining yet, and there are only a few people here now, which is nice for photos and wandering. We enter at the Gymnasium, where they are doing more excavating, hoping to finish by late 2015. Then we turn toward the Stadium and head past the Prytaneion building where the crowning of the victors took place, and where it is said that the sacred hearth and the fire that was never extinguished was located.
Next is the temple of Hera, one of the earliest Doric temples in Greece from 600 BC.
There is just so much to see, and so many cool ruins – like the doric columns broken on the ground, and the Treasuries, and Metroon, the temple of Cybel. Really fascinating.
We manage to get to the entrance to the stadium, and the stadium itself, without too many people in our photo way. The arched entrance gives you a little glimpse of how it must have felt walking into the stadium. The stadium itself, now just a dirt track, still is pretty amazing to behold and imagine how it was designed, built and used so long ago.
As we leave the stadium, the rain starts to fall. We’ve been hearing thunder the entire time we’ve been here, but it’s only sprinkled now and then. Now, the sprinkles are over. We are heading back into the back of the site, where there is a building we assume to be bathrooms. Our assumptions are correct and, since there is cover there, I take the opportunity to put my rain jacket over my heavy coat and get out my umbrella again. Ed also uses his, and we head back out into a deluge of rain. It’s time to make the trek back to the car – we’re outta here!
As we make our way through the rain, and fierce wind, to the main entrance, hundreds of our fellow ship passengers are just streaming into the site on their tours. Oh, the joy of doing this on our own! First of all, we’ve seen a lot and it’s not been raining much until now. Secondly, we want to leave….and we can! These poor people will be force marched through the rain, wind and mud around the site until the tour guide shows them what they came to see. Poor things.
It actually takes us a couple minutes to get out of the site, because there are so many people walking in, they re blocking the entrance. Move it folks! Back we trek to the car – it’s doesn’t seem as far on the way back (isn’t always the way?) – and sit for a little organizational meeting. We have tickets to the archeological museum which I believe is right in front of our parking lot. We also want to go to the Olympic Sport Museum, but were unsure of where that actually is located.
It’s back to sprinkling now, so we brave the wet again and head toward what we think is the museum. Turns out we are right (thank heavens) and spend the next hour viewing an amazing collection of artifacts dating as far back as the 10th C BC. There are clay vessels, brass items of every kind, incredibly detailed designs and statuary all around. Some of our favorites were the little figurines made to represent Zeus (R- rated photo – be warned!)..
The terracotta figures, including this dolphin and the lion spouts for fountains….
The bronze period helmets and shields…
I loved the little bronze figurines and the bowls and drinking vessels – such detail and craftsmanship!
My all out favorites were the jewelry – a bracelet and earrings are below. Fabulous!
Some of the most arresting displays were the statues. There was an entire room filled with roman statues – including a marble bull. But the best were the statue of Nike from the 5th C BC…
and the statue of Hermes, carved in the 4th C BC…
Wow! Impressive. Nice break from the weather, if not the crowds! Now we off to find the Olympic Games museum. Back down the steps and across the slippery metal bridge, to the place where a guy selling umbrellas says there is 1 Euro beer, free toilets and wi-fi. It’s actually a little souvenir shopped, packed with tourists – and not a beer in sight. Nah – we’re outta here too.
We grab the car and explore the main road, looking for a sign we saw for the museum. Turns out, it’s the archeological museum from where we’ve just come. Pooh. We look at the map, and think it might be over by the entrance to the archeological site, but once there, we can’t really see any signs of it. Darn, it shouldn’t be this hard! So, change of plans. Lunch.
Back in town, we manage to park the car pretty close to the center (on a sidewalk like everyone else). But unfortunately, there isn’t much open for lunch. Lots of cafes with snacks, i.e., “toast”, “pizza”, etc. We want real live Greek – gyro, souvlaki, you know, like that! It starts to rain again as we explore, and we are just turning around to go back to the car when we spy a Gyro sign! Yes! We head down the street and they are just opening. Literally. They unlock the door for us.
This is perfect though – it’s a little unassuming place with a one page plastic menu. Pita Gyro or Pita Souvlaki for 2 Euros each. We’re done. Add in an order of spicy cheese and 2 Mythos. This is exactly what we were in the mood for.
Turns out this is the Primanti Brothers of Greece! Do you see those french fries tucked into the pita? Funny. But oh so delicious. Extra hour in the gym tonight – even with all the walking. LOL.
We hang out for a long while in the dry, warm little café. We asked the owner if she knew where the Olympic Sports Museum was located, and while she can speak good English – if it’s pleasantries and menu items – not so much with directions, etc. We do think she told us it’s up the hill like we thought…but…
It’s really raining now, and we decide to ditch the other museum and head back to the ship.
The return trip is uneventful, directions are great. We only put 10 Euros of gas in, and that’s perfect. Drop the car and walk through the little town filled with souvenir after souvenir shops. Unremarkable, and wet. Time to go. We stopped in the local market for supplies, then fought the wind back to the ship. There was a free shuttle sitting at the top of the port – but they must wait to fill the bus, because we decided to try it, but sat there for 5 minutes with nothing happening. Ditched that too. Even though it was a cold, cold, hard wind walk, we still made it before the shuttle did. Good move.
Now back aboard our nice warm ship, with a pot of good Vanilla coffee, drying and thawing out. Ready for a nice night of sailing, our free Le Bistro dinner, and then Piraeus tomorrow.
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