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Friday May 3rd, 2013. Katakolo (Katacolon), Peloponnese, Greece
This port on the northwest coast of the Peloponnese, serves not only as the current harbour for the regional capital of Pyrgos, but as the gateway to Olympia, birthplace of the original Olympic Games in 776 BC. It was a major religious, cultural and sporting centre, a pole of attraction for Hellenism and the bond that linked Greece with the other colonies of the Mediterranean.
This was our second Good Friday this year, as this is the day that it is celebrated by the Greek Orthodox Church who follow the Gregorian Calendar. We were to find out to our cost later in the day that they take this holiday very seriously (well at least the public sector workers do!) and not a lot was open (or at best was only open for a restricted number of hours). We made our way to the tourist office where we were given the times of the trains to Olympia. We were also informed that because it was a holiday the Archaeological site would not open until 11 am. We worked out that this would still give us ample time to get to Olympia, see
the site and the museum and get back in time for the ship to leave at 4.30 pm.
The train left 5 minutes late and we travelled at a fairly leisurely pace through the Greek countryside. We were both very surprised at how flat the land was; lending itself to cultivation. There were olives, oranges, lemons and vines all growing in rather unkempt fields. Every house seemed to have its own chicken coop and a few goats. We arrived at Olympia at about 11 am and were dismayed to discover that the last return train would leave at 1.05 pm giving us only 2 hours to get to the site, go around it and see the museum. Still we were there so we decided that we could still do it albeit at a rather rapid pace. We followed the signs to the Ancient Site of Olympia and were rather surprised to see people from the ship strolling in the opposite direction. We found out why when we reached the ticket office (which was closed). The site was not going to open until noon as it was Good Friday. As it had taken us 20 minutes to walk from the
station to the ruins we worked out that we would only have 40 minutes to see the Ancient Site of Olympia. The ticket office was scheduled to open at 11.30 so we decided to stay in the queue in order to be one of the first to get the tickets (and thereby to maximize our time inside the ruins). There were two types of ticket, a combi (which included the museum) and the site only. As we only had such a short time we went for the site only ticket. D got in cheap again because of his OAP status.
After we purchased our tickets we still had half an hour to kill before they would open the gates (no wonder Greece is in trouble - there were 1500 people from the ship trying to see these ruins!). We walked up the hill a bit where we could clearly see the stadium which would have held up to 40 thousand people and was the largest of its kind at that time. We took some pictures (one less thing to see once inside). we then descended the hill and got in the ever growing queue for the entrance to the
ruins. We had a map of the site with numbered items on it. We dashed from one number to the other, first taking a picture of the sign with the description and then following up with pictures of the ruins themselves. We figured that at least we could look at the photos later to find out precisely what we had been looking at!
Many of the structures in the site date back to the 9th century BC. The Olympic games were integral to the society of Ancient Greece. Every 4 years men from every city state would travel to Olympia to compete and to honour the king of the gods, Zeus. Due to natural disasters and the destruction of the site by Theodosius, Ancient Olympia is mostly comprised of foundations, columns and steps (hence the need to take photo's of the signs). However, its sheer size symbolizes the importance of this site, built as a shrine to the gods. Most impressive was the Temple of Zeus which was built about 470 BC and was one of the greatest temples in all of Ancient Greece.
We dashed back for the 1.05 train (having succeeded in our task of getting
around the whole site in 40 minutes) stopping at a Kiosk for a couple of Mythos Beers. The train went back the same route but slower. This was because it was Good Friday and most of the public sector workers were on holiday so the staff that were manning the level crossings on the way out had all packed up for the day. This left the train driver no choice but to slow down and sound his horn repeatedly as we approached each one so as not to run anyone (or thing) over.
We alighted at Katakolo and had hoped to go to the two museums in the town - which we had been assured by the Tourist Office earlier were open. WRONG - they had closed at 1 pm (because guess what? It was Good Friday!). So we contented ourselves with a nice walk which was marked on the map. It was quite steep but gave us good views of the coast on both sides of the island. Once back in the town we stopped at a local bar where D had a Souvlaki and M a Gyro for a bargain of 7 euros the lot. We re-boarded
the ship ready for the sail away.
We went to the show at 6.30. This was a Spanish Classical/Flamenco guitarist (from Greece!) called Dimitris Dekavallas. He was very good, and as well as playing very well, he liked to caress his instrument passionately. We went to dinner with Bill and Jennifer and then we all went to the dessert evening. This was amazing with falcons, castles, fountains and much more all made of chocolate. We all tried some Banana Foster which is bananas steeped in various different types of alcohol served with ice cream. It was made by our waiter Roy - so we got extra big portions and extra liquor.
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