When we rented the AirB&B in Olympia, we didn’t realize how perfectly it was situated. A walk to downtown Olympia is 2 blocks. To the Olympia Museum, 3 blocks. To the archeology site, half a mile. It is perfect. So, at this point you may be thinking my title is referring to the B&B, but its not.
As is becoming a habit, I wake about 45 minutes to an hour before Sally and spend t he quiet time in the morning working on this blog. I wake Sally about 8:00am and we get our day going. This morning, we made quick breakfast of scrambled egg and toast, then headed out the door on foot to see the Olympic Site from 2500 years ago.
We walked up the street half a block, turned left and walked a block to the small stream and the bridge that spans it, then up 3 flights of stairs and we are at the museum. That is for after our tour of the excavated Olympic site. 3/8 of a mile past the museum is the site of the original Olympic Games. We paid our 24 euros at the ticket booth. During the exchange I asked how many people were in front of us. We were their first customer. The gates open at 8:00am. It was 8:45am. We wandered down into the site, reading our Rick Steves self guided tour.
What is it about this place? Early morning sun, cool temperatures, birds singing, lush vegetation all around, magnificent trees. Wow! It was spectacular, and notice I have not mentioned the impressive remains of the structures that graced this area. If we had to chose a new place to live, it would be in Olympia. What a breathtakingly beautiful place.
We wandered through the ruins following our guide book, marveling at the expanse of the site and the massiveness of the structures that used to grace this site. Gymnasiums, columned collonades, a 145 room hotel, the Temple of Zeus with a 40 foot high bronze and ivory statue of him inside, and all the other buildings, both ceremonial and functional. It was astounding. And, not to sound like a broken record, but we were the only ones there.
Period. Not another person on the site but the docents gathering in small groups from their distant stations around the grounds to talk. I suspect the lack of crowds added to our admiration of the site.
When we walked down the same tunnel into the stadium that the athletes walked thousands of years ago it was too tempting not to play a little, especially with no one around to spoil the scene or laugh at us. Sally filmed as I jogged into the stadium like an athlete of yesterday.
We dubbed the Olympic Theme song by John Williams over the scene. Perfect. If you haven’t seen it with the music, send us a text and we will email it to you. If we post it on Facebook or YouTube, they edit out the music due to copyright infringement.
Finished with the tour, we walked back to the B&B, showered, cleaned it, put all our stuff in the car and locked ourselves out of the room-we checked out.
We walked back to the museum. Here they display all the artifacts they found when they excavated the Olympic site. Statues, masks, tools, etc. We didn’t have it all to ourselves; there was another couple in the building. The exhibits were amazing.
It was now past 1:00pm and time for us to head to Delphi, our next ancient site to explore. The site would have to wait until tomorrow morning. Today, we had a 2 and a half our drive to get to our B&B down on the Corinthian Sea, 20 minutes from Delphi. Before we left Olympia, we stopped at a restaurant to get Gyro sandwiches for takeout.
On the way, we stopped for watermelon and strawberries, sodas and such to keep our strength up. Watching us eat Greek food is like watching Bill Murray in “What About Bob” eat corn on the cob. We embarrassingly moan and groan with delight at the wonderfulness of it all.
To get from the Peloponesian Pennisula back to the mainland you must either take a ferry or drive across a magnificent bridge. We figured there would be a toll, but we were so used to tolls that we didn’t give it a thought. Truth is, we didn’t know about the ferries until we were driving across the bridge looking down and three ferries scurrying across the water. “Why are their ferries when there is this magnificent bridge?” we thought. The toll booth was on the far side. Sally was holding about 4 euros in change, ready to pay the toll. We pulled up to the booth. 13.50! I mentioned to the toll taker that the price was steep. His response was perfect, “But isn’t it a beautiful bridge?!?” He was right, it was. But, it appears the Greeks aren’t enamored with the idea of paying for it. They take the ferries at about 6 euros a crossing. The 20 minutes extra transit time is worth the savings.
We were now driving on the north side of the Sea of Corinth, heading east toward Delphi. We still had about an hour to go. We finally pulled into the town of Kirra that housed our B&B, wove our way through the small streets, between houses and ended up on the shore, on a dead end, exactly where we wanted to be, at our lodgings for the night. What a location! Our car was parked 10’ from the water’s edge. Our apartment was on the second floor, in the back so we had an obscured view of the water, but the sound of the waves was loud and clear.Our host, Nikiforos, a man of 42, showed us to our room. Unbelievably perfect. Check out the photos. We chatted with him for half an hour, then settled in, unpacked our swimsuits and headed for the beach and our first swim in the Mediterranean. Warm and wonderful.
We had eaten enough on the drive, so we settled for watermelon and strawberries for dinner. Nikiforos invited us downstairs for a beer. We spent an hour sharing ideas and sharing our life stories. He worked for 10 years in Athens in advertising, got tired of the rat race and moved back to his childhood home here on the water. He lives with his mother of 66 who still works. He has 200 bee hives, selling honey for a living along with letting two rooms on AirB&B. His work on the place was amazing. Everything had a special touch, both artistic and practical.
We spent the late evening cruising the web using his WiFi, calling home and catching up on the news and friends. Lights out about 11:00. We left the massive sliding door open all night (the screen shut) to hear the surf. It rained about 3am, the rain drumming on the canvas awning covering our front deck. What a wonderful day.
No comments:
Post a Comment