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I think someone's been feeling a bit left out of our blogs, because Tom-Tom (our GPS) did everything he could to steal centre stage of our 3 days in Greece. It was the first of two trips we were taking with Steph's mum Sue while she visited. We initially intended to spend all 3 days in Athens, but it somehow expanded to include Corinth, Olympia, an island and Italy (OK not Italy but Tom-Tom did try and take us there!)
But before Tom-Tom took centre stage we made a good discovery. Plane tickets for 40 Euros may sound well and good at the time of booking but there is always a hidden price to pay... and in our case that was a first leg departing at midnight (finally got to hotel after 3am) and a return flight departing at 4am (arriving home just in time for Anth to go to work).
Our first day was Tom-Tom-incident-free since we were walking everywhere. As uncultured as it sounds, after recently being to Rome and Egypt we were starting to get over old things. This really is a shame for Athens. But first stop was the National Archaeological Mueum where the highlight
The Acropolis
Minus shiny bits was an altercation with a security lady. Sue was posing in front of a statue of a lady holding her boob... so naturally she mimicked the pose and this lady raced across the room almost grabbing the camera and screaming "Delete, delete, delete". She wanted to see all our photos to ensure there was no more offensive boob grabbing and we were so in shock we did what we were told. I know, I know, the highlight should have been some of the old stuff.
One of the (usually) good things about being with Steph's mum is you walk EVERYWHERE. So we saw Athens by foot, which is really the best way. We saw the amazing panoramic view form the top of Lykavittos Hill, were slightly underwhelmed with the Acropolis (partly cos it was more old stuff and partly cos Britain had stolen all the shiny bits), stood on Mars Hill where Paul first preached the Gospel in Athens and got dog poo on Anth's jeans. Steph (who has doggy-doo-phobia) had been extremely vigilant in spotting it on the path, but walking up stairs (directly in front of Anth) she got the sense that maybe she had some on
Back Door of Ancient Olympia
Expressing our gratitude to Tom-Tom her after all, lifted up her foot backwards and planted it firmly above the unfortunate knee... whoa - we're really stretching for highlights now aren't we?
The next day we hopped in our hire car with the plan of going to either Corinth or Olympia or both. Unfortunately Tom-Tom had other ideas, and confidently announced 'You have reached your destination' somewhere on a country highway, in what we guess was the general vicinity of Corinth. At a total loss for where Corinth might actually be, we programmed in Ancient Olympia. Here we were fairly confident as it seemed to have the actual address of the museum. Bom-bom. His first independent decision was to take us the VERY scenic route (cliffs, mountain goats, deserted towns, washed out roads etc). His second independent decision was to again announce rather proudly "You have reached your destination" smack in the middle of a paddock. No buildings, no crumbling pillars, no Chinese Torch Relay thugs in sight. We reprogrammed and he insisted we had in fact reached our destination several times before we gave up, headed back to the main highway and followed the general flow of traffic which did actually lead to Ancient
Olympia (a good idea with hind sight).
Unfortunately it was now 4:30pm (yes, our first location of the day) and so we technically had 30 mins to look around the site of the Ancient Games. What we had forgotten is that the Greek tourist site workers seem to think 5pm closing time means by 5 they have emptied the site, locked the gates and have the engine running in their cars. So were chased around the site but as a massive Olympic buff I was thrilled to see the arena where the ancient games were held and the place where they light the torch every 4 years (which had happened 5 days earlier for Beijing in fact). As we were leaving we caught sight of a series of paddocks that looked vaguely familiar. Yes, Tom-Tom had in fact taken us to Ancient Olympia, but the back of it where there is no entry.
So rather than trust Tom-Tom we checked in at a souvenir shop for directions back to Athens. A very friendly guy gave us a much quicker route, including a map, the names of 5 towns to go through and repeated warnings to stay outside and
Olympia to Athens via Italy!?
Tom-Tom having clearly lost the plot do not go inside (don't take the exit). He really was very nice but gave the directions with such earnestness that we had trouble leaving. We felt obliged to go back and buy something, and he was very happy to see us as he had decided to tell us names of more towns we would pass, and repeat the 'stay outside' instruction. So then we bought something else, and he gave us more specific instructions, we bought something else, and he outlined the trip home again. So half an hour later we finally left, having spent 45 Euro and heard the directions literally 10 times.
We tried to program Tom-Tom to take us home via his suggested towns... and he accommodated telling us the trip would take only 39 hours and 7 minutes. Um, excuse me Tom-Tom? We checked out the map and it included a ferry to Italy, another ferry back to Greece and then on to Athens. Oh dear Tom-Tom. But we got back to Athens much quicker than the arrival took and gave Tom-Tom a stiff drink and a lie down.
The priority for the next morning was to go to the first modern Olympic
Stadium where the 1896 Games were held. Unfortunately the torch relay was in town so it was completely shut down (as was a whole heap of other old stuff through town). We took the ferry out to the island of Aegina where we enjoyed a sunny afternoon picnic with a bottle of red on the beach.
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