Day 4 Greece!

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To recap...When we got into Lagkadia, we went to the Kentrikion Hotel. The young man who worked there said we might want to stay at the Lagkadia Resort, also owned by his family, because the Kentrikion was too noisy. Which was true. You know those movies where the Geek families are arguing and talking loudly all at once? There were a group of people, probably 60's, men and women, standing at the desk talking rapidly and with great irritation. I have no idea what was going on. So we moved to the other hotel.

Then, we went to the restaurant, also owned by the family, and old men would come to the door, pass through to another part of the hotel, some women too... very weird. It was like the whole town was in meltdown. No idea. Christina said she never used to say "It's all Greek to me", but that she probably would now. It was so confusing!

We left Lagkadia around 10-ish, after a quick breakfast. It was so weird, we walked into one place, trying to get coffee, and the old man working there would not serve us! That was one of the things I was saying "weird" about. We were seeing old men sitting around everywhere, but no women anywhere. Very weird. And we got looks from those old men, like we were aliens. Very very odd. My guess is they thought it inappropriate for women to be travelling without men.
Christina began to quote Monty Python (she's a witch!).

There was a little market shop we stopped in, family owned, and the woman there was saying she made a lot of the items for sale. All kinds of preserves and pastas, honey treats, and baked goods. Yum. I bought what I think is a chocolate and hazelnut sauce... I drool to think of it. But probably won't open it until I get home.

Driving down the mountain to Olympia was gorgeous, though the pictures don't really show it. We had to stop, there were sheep in the road! The shepherd got them past us with no real issue.

Once down, we were not always sure we were on the right road. It may have been one of the "main" roads, but it was like one of our country lanes. But we got to the site just fine, wandered into the museum, then the site itself. Very pretty.

After the site, we walked in the town proper, also very nice. Sat at a little cafe, I had tiramisu ice cream and coffee, Christina had iced coffee. It was so pretty under this huge tree, even though it kept dropping fuzzy seeds on us.

After we left Olympia, we were on the E55, plenty of easy road to drive on, not much traffic. We should have taken the route through the mountains like I had planned. But considering how wired we were after the other roads (and sheep), we changed our minds to the main road through the plains. It was very boring. Ever driven in Nebraska? Guess who was speeding!? We got pulled over. SO lucky. No ticket.

We got to Patras, the hotel was downtown. Busy city, crazy drivers. They just stop and park where ever. We got with in one block of the Byzantino hotel, but could not get in front of it. The street does not allow cars!!! So it was pretty bad. But we just drove out of town and found Airotel Achaia Beach in Rio. It is one I had looked at, but did not go with, because it was expensive. We got a great deal though, because it was last minute. The views were spectacular!

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Photos

My favorite at Archea Olympia
For more, go here:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/pheidias.html