Olympians we

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We begrudgingly parted ways with Gialova and drove from the SW corner of the Peloponnese to the NW corner – the glum town of Kyllini to catch the ferry. The western Peloponnese is lush with olive and fruit trees.

Our destination stop en route to the ferry was Olympia – the site of the first Olympic games about 2022 years ago. The way coolest part was that the original 100 metre track was still intact including the raised start and finish lines. Running the 100 meters on that track (oops Will corrected me that it is a 200 meter track – that makes me feel much better given the effort of sprinting it with them in the formidable Greek heat – Helios was particularly fiery that day methinks…).

Many buildings and columns remain originally erected to provide proper scpace to pay homage to Pelops, Zeus and Hercules (Herakles – one of the early victors).

Will and I gave up trying to come up with a colour to describe the Ionian Sea as we neared Zakynthos Island “Turazurmapealean” was Will’s excellent effort. That reminds me – while strolling Olympia Will had a cool idea that every now and then things represented by homonyms (or by words with multiple meanings) should switch – i.e. One crosses water on the back of a magical winged “ferry” and little boats flit about at dusk called “fairies”. Marika Will and I had a lot of fun with that…

Zakynthos is the first Greek isle that Will, Marika and I have4 set foot on, and Kim’s first Ionian island. The British presence is more notable as evidenced by the amount of anglo signage and that service workers engaging tourists speak very clear English. To compare with English speakers in Quebec - Zakynthos is touristy Montreal to the SW Peloponnese’s small rural Quebec towns… A little bit of magic lost.

After plummeting down a hillside in our car on a not very funny excuse of a cement track we careened into a tiny parking space and somehow flipped a 180 degree spin so we could face uphill for our daunting challenge to head back up to the main road. I am now undeniably gray haired…

Our “Villa Saranta” clings to a hillside looking out over the Ionian Sea – again ‘spectacular’ doesn’t do it justice. We walk down stone steps bedecked with red and pink flowers to reach our door. Will & Marika’s upstairs loft features a terrace, bathroom and small kitchen and two beds.

Kim and I have the main floor with a terrace of each of the kitchen and bedroom – and another bathroom and sitting area. There is a small pool we share with a couple of other villas.

After a little Father's Day celebration, we clambered up the steep hill to our local tavern for dinner and upon our return in the dark were transfixed by lots of translucent pink camouflaged geckos on our wall by small lights enjoying an all-you-can nab buffet of a variety of small winged insects.

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Photos

Modern day Olympians
We all had a thrill at racing on the original 200 metre track.