Day 21 - Thursday May 4 - Katakolon Greece (Olympia)

 

We made port in Katakolon about 7 am this morning and were off the ship at 8:30.  It was a short day in port.  Everyone had to be aboard by 1 pm as the next stop is Athens which is 256 nautical miles away.  Tomorrow is a embark/disembarkation day for many leaving or joining us in Athens.  The final leg of the trip will be 7 days travel to Istanbul.

Our tour today was the included tour "Ancient Olympia".  We visited the archeological site and the ruins from the first, as in 1776 BC, Olympic games and the stadium.  To think, the Greeks held their races on the same ground I walked on!

The bus ride to the site took only about 30 minutes and our guide was amazing.   She was full of information, witty, and wanted all of us to have a wonderful tour.  She walked us through the entire site pointing out The Temple of Zeus, The Temple of Hera.  She explained the shell limestone that everything is built of and how errosion plays a big part in the experts not being able to do a lot more reconstruction.

We were shown where every two years, the Olympic flame is lit using mirrors, the sun and some brush.  It is from this very site that the Olympic torch is lit and runners take it to Athens.  From there, it is transferred to wherever the Olympic games (summer and winter) will be played.  

We made our way, finally, to the Olympic stadium.  The track dimensions between the stone (marble) starting point and the finish line is 192 meters.  There were no seats for those who watched the games.  No women were allowed as they had their own games elsewhere.  The only (few) seats were for the judges.  All spectators sat on the slopes of the stadium.  The stadium held 45,000 people.  Our guide took pictures of everyone starting the race on the marble starting line (still in the ground) and ONLY women won their races today.  Our guide made sure of that!

Tomorrow, Athens!

The archaeological site of the first olympic games in 1776 BC

Temple of Zeus

The Palladium with it's ionic columns (fancy scroll work on the capitals (tops)

the Northwest corner column of the Temple of Zeus

The limestone with a close up (top right corner) of the shells embedded into the rock

Decorations of the temple, faces of lions (she told us) 

The drum or pieces of each doric column

The steps leading into the Temple of Zeus

The white, triangular marble column held a statute of the Winged Goddess of Victory, Nike. (as in the shoe)

I was fascinated by the square hole in the rock (used in their construction)

The Temple of Hera 

In front of the temple, the Olympic flame is still lit every two years (summer and winter Olympic games).

This is a fountain built by the Romans, long after the Greeks built the stadium.  We were told the block walls represented Roman work (and not Greek)

Here the lighting of the Olympic flame takes place, started only in 1936 for the Olympic games in Berlin.  But this continues today

We are now entering the stadium.  Dating back to the middle 5th century (BC).  

The starting line of the original Olympic games on the marble slabs in the ground.  The finish line is far in the distance (192 meters away).

Posing for the camera.  The race started.  The race ended with me as the winner.

A tired loser

Our guide wrote all of our names in Greek capital letters and lower case letters.

Our welcome back to the ship.  Most of the crew dancing to loud music and cheering us back to the ship with lemoncello served as we walked onto the ship.