Day 24: KATAKOLON

After a smooth night's sailing we arrived in the tiny fishing village of Katakolon at 7.30 am.  This is on the south-west coast of Greece in the area known as the Peloponnese.  It's a 30 minute coach drive to Ancient Olympia, site of the original Olympic Games.

We began our visit at the Olympic Museum where they have displayed many of the artifacts recovered by archaeologists, and a model of the 50 acre complex of stadiums, temples and other buildings as best they can reconstruct it historically.  The games began as a truce period between warring Greek city states in the 700's BC.  With the advent of the Roman Empire modifications were made by Emperors such as Hadrian, until in the 300's when Christianity became dominant they were banned as pagan rituals.  After the usual desecration of the statuary's genitalia.  The site was virtually destroyed by a massive earthquake after that, and fell into ruin.  Only in the past few decades has serious archeological wotk been done to recover and preserve the place.  So we got to see the boxing

and wrestling gymnasium; the little round temple where the Olympic Flame is lit each couple of years; the temple that housed the huge ivory statue of Zeus that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (looted by the Turks and destroyed by the christians); and the original stadium where the finishing line for the 200 yards straight running track is still visible.  All very interesting, but requiring a fair deal of imagination - and rows of ruined columns do get a it boring.  We did have a very knowledgeable guide who communicated with us by radio and drove me mad by clearing her throat noisily after every second sentence!  BTW, I learend from her that the Olympic Flame is only a modern invention dating from the Berlin Gasmes of 1936;  never existed in ancient times.

A short wander through the township that is totally geared to tourists (a milkshake cost me €6 or $9) and back to the ship by 1pm for lunch and departure.  We spend the next 24 hours weaving our way through the Greek Isles as we head to Kusadasi (Turkish port for Ephesus) where we are due Wednesday at 1.30 pm.  I managed to snare one of the guest laundry washing machines after lunch and got my wardrobe back to full strength.  Cold is hanging on, but not getting any worse. Tonight I am dressing up and eating in the main dining room - a change from the excellent buffet.

A few not every exciting photos can be found here.