Greece Mainland Tour Continued

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22 April 2009

The next day we visited Olympia. The site was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We had a little bit of rain again this morning but it had cleared by the time we reached the site. We had a dog that seems to live near the hotel follow us all the way to the site. Olympia (no surprises here) is the original home of the Olympic Games held in 776 BC. Olympia was a sacred precinct to the god Zeus, whose temple once housed one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (a massive statue of Zeus with gold work), since destroyed.

The Olympia site was huge with the actual stadium, practice stadiums, ruins of ancient temples and roman fountains located in different parts of the quite large archaeological site.

Olympia is also the site where the Olympic torch is lit for each Olympic games (every two years to cater to the summer and winter Olympics). They have a few practice runs lighting the flame in case of inclement weather the day of. The women picked to perform the ritual are beautiful - often models and actresses. Like the chaps used for the “Changing of the Guard” at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it helps to be a looker!

Steve, Melanie (a young Canadian) and Mark (a school principal from New Zealand) had a bit of a run on the stadium track. Steve was only half-hearted about it but Melanie and Mark had quite a competitive run, with Melanie betting Mark in the last metre.
Steve and Mark also had mock wrestling matches as wrestling was one of the events of the ancient games.

From there we proceeded to a museum located close to the site and accessible by foot. We had to go through it quite quickly because you run out of time so easily. Steve is wishing that he had more time to just soak it in and see things a bit more leisurely.
Like many of the ancient sites in Greece, much of site is not completely excavated. We saw a group of archaeologists excavating part of the site while we were there. A lot of the people involved in the digs are foreigners and the foreign governments fund them. Greece only has a small population (about 13-14 million people) and it is too costly for the government to be able to fund all the work that is needed to excavate and preserve the ruins.

In Delphi, the original ancient site had been built over by other generations and often the archaeologists have to dig a long way prior to finding the original sites. Sometimes whole towns end up being relocated, as happened in Delphi.

Steve has developed a very good relationship with Richard (remember one of the men who climbed to the monastery), yep, the same one. He is a very amusing and cheeky fellow and they have good jokes with one another. His wife, Sue, is such a sweetie. They are in their 60’s and have kids our age. Steve calls Richard, ‘The Dickster’. I am not sure how that came about, if it was Steve’s idea or Richards? However, I swear that they both regress in age in each other’s company and can act like teenagers. Sue and I just shake our heads and at times tell them to behave themselves. It is nice to see them having fun.

We found out later in our trip that Rich had had a heart attack in November and needed a bypass operation. He was in rehabilitation until February. The fact that he is on the trip in April, given up smoking and climbing steep hills to monasteries and up all the sites is very impressive. I don’t think that his near death experience changed his personality - it sounds like he was always a jokester and apparently their son (Little Dick) is even worse. Their household would have been a lot of fun.

From Olympia we headed through the Peloponnese via the Arcadia mountains where we passed through Tripolis and onto Argolis where there is many Greek myths and legends. In the afternoon we stopped at Epidaurus where there is an incredible theatre. It holds 14,000 and is still in use, especially in Summer. The acoustics there is a feat of engineering, which is quite mind blowing considering its age. They do not use any electric projection equipment there even now.

Peter from our group recited Clancy of the Overflow from the centre (there is a round marble stone that depicts the centre). I think that he would not have minded being on the stage as he was comfortable there. We were right at the top and could hear him quite well. If he projected his voice and everyone was quiet, we would have been able to hear him easily.

There were a few other performers at the site that day, including a French woman who had a very good singing voice and she sung something in French. That was lovely. She was followed by someone who may have had a bit too much confidence in her abilities.....But as long as she enjoyed herself. It kind of reminded me of an Idol audition.

They had a healing centre at the site originally and they had quite a few monuments dedicated to Asclepius, Ancient god of Medicine. He was depicted with a staff with serpents, which is where the current medical symbol originated from.

It is funny how many of the statues have lost appendages - limbs, heads, noses and peos’ (Greek for something - I’m sure you can figure it out). Someone explained that it may have been done by some of the more puritanical leaders when the Christian faith was established in Greece. Steve explained to me about a man who was called by the people of the time “Large underpants man” who was tasked with painting underpants over Michelangelo’s nudes. That would be an interesting job description...

We headed to Nauplia which is situated on the Argolic Gulf where we were spending the night. It is a lovely town situated on the sea. We had dinner with Peter and Marilyn and then we went and had our first ice-cream in Greece at an Italian Gelato shop that had been recommended to us by our tour director. While we were there we ran into Rich, Sue and Joanie and we all enjoyed an ice-cream together. Steve and Rich once again acted like kids in each other’s company and Rich will often have Steve crying with laughter.

The ladies on the tour from Minnesota have fallen for Steve. One of the ladies, Joanne, told me that they have been discussing him and all agree that he is a real gem. They love his bright eyes and happy smile and believe that he is an all round nice guy. A few of the people on the tour have asked us if we are on our honeymoon - maybe we need to watch our public displays of affection.

At Nauplia there was a fort on a hill above the town. It looked amazing and would have been good to explore but as we arrived at about 6pm and it involved climbing up 999 steps, no one on the tour was particularly keen to attempt it. Maybe next time we come to Greece.

23 April 2009

This morning we made our way to Mycenae - only about 30 minutes drive away. It was another early start, however, it has been good because we miss a lot of the crowds that way. Lots of tour buses are arriving while we are leaving the sites.

The first stop was at a Beehive Tomb. This tomb was another feat of engineering. It is huge and the main block of stone above the door weighed something like 10 tonnes. How they put it up there in the first place is pretty mindboggling (apparently they would build hills of dirt and use logs to roll the stones up there). It would have been very hard and heavy work.

There was a triangle of space left above the tomb entrance with the supporting stones displacing the weight away from the entrance to the other stones and making the structure incredibly stable. It has survived thousands of years and earthquakes intact. It was used as a tomb for the wealthy inhabitants. However, by the time they were found by archaeologists, all remains and artefacts had been removed. They had been used by shepherds for shelter and so the roof is stained black with smoke from the fires they would light to warm themselves.

It was raining pretty heavily by then but was nice and dry in the tomb. From there it was a short 5 minutes drive to Agamemnon’s Royal Palace. Mycenae was an ancient city that was heavily fortified and wealthy. It was once described by Homer as a, “city rich in gold”. It was here that the golden mask of Agamemnon was discovered. Many other treasures were also unearthed here which matched exactly Homer’s descriptions in the Iliad. The entry to the city was via the Lion’s Gate - a fabulous gate with lion statues carved above it. The heads of the lions were lost but the rest of their bodies remained.

There was also a very good museum on site that had a replica of the golden mask and lots of other artefacts that were found at the site.
Touring around this site was interesting because it was raining heavily and was slippery. Steve was helping a lot of the older dears on the tour with stairs and ramps. Charming them all even more!

We wondered around in one of our most valuable pieces of luggage - our disposable (but used many times) white rain coats. The wind was pretty strong though, so we struggled to keep them on. We decided not to explore the site in too much detail and headed back to the outdoor cafe van (with a tiny bit of shelter) to have a hot drink instead.

Steve has been acquiring books at most of the sites that have details of the history and good pictures of the sites and the artefacts found there. He has done this because we visit them quite quickly and you never have the time you would like to explore. When we got on the bus, Sue discovered that she liked the book that Steve had purchased more than her own. Even though it was still raining, Steve offered to run back to the site and exchange it. Rich went too. It ended up being a bit more involved than was expected because Sue had purchased hers from the museum shop and Steve from an outdoor vendor. He had to run back to the museum, beg for a refund (they didn’t usually allow it but he must have battered his eyelids at them), run back to the vendor and then back to the bus. He just made it back in time for our stated departure time. Rich did not (even though Steve was the one with the books - and Rich’s self-appointed task was merely to accompany Steve)..... he ended up wandering back under his own steam about 5 minutes later, looking like he did not have a care in the world. So the people on the bus had a short delay for him again!

From Mycenae we headed back to Athens, with a brief stop at the Corinth Canal. The Corinth Canal is a canal that was cut to open the waterways between the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The canal disconnected the Peloponnese from mainland Greece (that is the southern part of Greece from the Northern part) in a wide enough cutting that ships could travel through it. Cutting the canal saved ships about 7 months travel time (back when travelling by ship was much slower). It still saves considerable time today. It is quite astonishing how much work was required to achieve this.

We arrived back in Athens at about 3pm and headed straight for the Acropolis and the Parthenon, where we were meeting a local guide to take us around the site. It was interesting listening to some of the history of it. Apparently the Parthenon had survived intact for thousands of years but when Greece was under Turkish rule, they used the Parthenon to store gun powder. An explosion went off (I think that the site was hit by lightening) that destroyed part of the structure. Some of the marble statues and artefacts of the site were removed by an Englishman (Lord Elgin) and it was transported back to England where it is stored in a museum. Even though it could be used to complete this site, the English will not release it with the excuse that they are preserving it....

Just down from the Parthenon is Mars Hill. This is where Mark (the apostle) preached to the Athenians.

From the Parthenon, we headed to the Temple of Zeus. This temple was absolutely huge when it was intact. Over 300 columns. Only a few are standing today and this is more to recreate the size of the structure to enable visitors to envisage what it was like when it was built.

A sobering thought: the temples were usually made of marble that was quarried from Marathon (42 kms from Athens) or Paros (4 hours by large ferry today). The marble was usually so big and heavy that it had to be transported across two ships (they were too big and heavy for one ship). The trip would take months by sea. Then it had to be transported from the Port to Athens. Then it had to be carried up a flipping great hill and then it had to be assembled and put in place. It is not until you are standing in front of these structures that you can begin to comprehend the enormity of the task at hand. I don’t even think that comprehend is the right term - because is it very difficult to comprehend how this was done. Some of these structures took 70 years to complete.

In some cases, built structures needed to be rebuilt due to war. The Persians destroyed part of the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. After all that work and effort, other generations had to go through it all again. It was not as simple as rebuilding it (with the pieces left on site). Usually the marble had to be extracted, transported, carved and reassembled all over again! If sites weren’t destroyed by war, often it was by natural disaster such as earthquakes. So much work and effort - you could tell that the population of the day really revered their Gods due to the work that was put into the temples that were built for them. You can also see very clear evidence of this in the churches that have been built in Greece and Italy - amazing feats of architecture with such intricate attention to detail. The vision that people had when they conceived and then developed such structures is incredible. It is very easy to feel very insignificant when you think of it and standing in or by these structures.

We had a farewell drink at the hotel that night because 9 people on the tour were not continuing to the cruise. One of them was another couple that we had met from Australia, Ray and Hilda, who are retired and currently live in Harrington (which is close to where I grew up). They were a lovely couple who were travelling for 9 weeks. Ray has Parkinson’s and was diagnosed 5 years ago but so far is staying pretty well and healthy. Hilda is a dynamo. Very fit and active. Last year she went on a 5 week walking tour through France and Spain and walked 550km in that time! We were sorry to see them go.

The next day we had the morning free before we boarded the ship for our 7 day cruise. Steve and I had been considering visiting the National Archaeological Museum but we decided that a sleep in was a much better use of time, as we had had a lot of early starts on the tour and were starting to feel depleted. Most of the people on the tour had a similar idea. We also decided that we would visit the Post Office to send some items home. We have found that visiting foreign post offices is a unique and trying experience (not to mention, expensive!). We arrived at the post office with our items and purchased a box. We asked if they sold any packing material there. No. We are very spoilt in Australia. Do you know where we could buy some? No. Ok then.... Steve went for a wander and managed to find some polyester filters that were used for rangehoods.

We then wrapped up our fragile items and placed them in a box. Could we buy insurance? No. Australia has decided that it will not insure items posted from Greece. Hhmmm. Should we feel paranoid about that? Could we write Fragile on the box? No and it would not make any difference anyway. Ok then. The box is then thrown into the loading area. Steve and I cross our fingers that our fragile items make it home in one piece. If not, the pot that we have purchased for Steve’s mum will end up looking like a museum piece (all glued back together) instead of a replica of a museum piece. 3 kilos weight cost 42 euro ($80). Steve’s books, while not big, weigh quite a bit due to the quality of the paper. They cost 60 euros to send home! We have since decided that we are not buying many items and any gifts we buy will be light and small!

We have since been in touch with Jackie and so far, our fragile items have arrived in one piece.

The next update will be about our 7 day Aegean Cruise.

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