Blogs from Pelopennese, Greece, Europe - page 19

today is a day trip to this ancient site. the highlight was viewing the spot where the Olynpic torch is lit every two years. a chic greek fashion model or someother noteworthy and beautifyl woman takes on the role of a goddess. Origins The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece. Records indicate that they began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece. They were celebrated until 393 AD.The Games were usually held every four years, or olympiad, as the unit of time came to be known. During a celebration of the Games, an Olympic Truce was enacted to enable athletes to travel from their countries to Olympia in safety. The prizes for the victors were laurel wreaths, palm branches, sometimes even food for life. The ancient ... read more

Location: Athens and Corinth Weather: Sunny, 31 °C As I had visited Athens before joining the cruise I selected to visit the Corinth Canal and the site of Ancient Corinth. The Canal was amazing; it is difficult to believe that it was made entirely by hand thousands of years ago, the rock has been carved so smooth. We stopped to take photos and have a coffee break - I had the worst coffee ever, smelt good, looked good but tasted awful! I saw signs of the recent fires around Athens as we made our way to Corinth, all were very close the suburban areas. Lots of the vegetation in Athens in terms of street trees are Eucalyptus, they look great but not the best for a fire prone area. The site of Ancient Corinth was good ... read more

DAY 96 Waking up in Sparta. The town of about 60,000 people had been built pretty much on the old ruins. So the town appears to be realitively new. There are a few ruins exposed but not really that much to spend time searching out according to our guide. So we take a day trip to the ancient city of Mystras, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mystras is the only surviving expamle of a Byzantine palace complex in all of Greece. The complex was the seat of the despot of Moreas. There are several monasteries and many churches in the palace complex. Many started in the 1300's with the fortress being built in the mid 1200's and sits at the top of the mountain. The last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, was despot at Mystras ... read more

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. ... read more

I neglected to mention we crashed early in Nafplio the day before which meant we did not get to enjoy as much of that city as we would have liked, it is clearly a place you could spend a few days in. We left Napflio at a bit of a leisurely time and headed out towards Sparta in a bit more of a back way which took us over the mountains rather than around them. A lot of hairpin turns but it wasn't horrible by any means. I have to admit that I initially mistook the exuberance of Greek drivers as meaning that anything goes so long as I was safe, plus I was foolish enough to think that the photo-controlled speed zones were not a real threat until I realized that when I saw the ... read more