After a brief detour on to Olympia: For the glory of Zeus…

Warning: It’s a long story but we are here at the airport for 5 hours and lets just sayI am happy I have knitting, a blog, a sketchbook and all the wine I want (actually we aren’t sure why we have that but we are not complaining). So be prepared, it’s a great time to attempt blog catch up.

I suggest for your soundtrack while reading this: the Olympic Fanfare and Chariot of the Gods by Vangelis who sadly recently died due to COVID.

Arrived at Olympia a bit later than we meant to but that’s okay because we have the routine down. Stayed at Leonidaion Guesthouse (great location and a comfy room) where the proprietor told us of his upcoming vacation plans—motorcycling from Patagonia to Brazil then off to San Francisco where he was motorcycling with friends from San Francisco to Tiajuana . We felt the need to give a few written recommendations including that he should head down to LB for a visit.He made us feel like we have a pretty unambitious trip planned. He was doing this in 6 weeks. His reasoning: he usually only takes a 2 week vacation but for 2 years COVID caused him to miss his vacations for 2 years. Makes sense!

We picked up our ticket for the Olympia ruins (where the original Olympic Games began). Due to our Unneda Waterfall trip we area a bit delayed so the ticket sales operator was very concerned about our late start. We had until 8 and we assured her (over and over) that it was fine. (I told Brant that telling her we once did the Louvre in less than 30 minutes would not be reassuring). Slightly embarrassingly, we zoomed through the museum then out to the ruins where they played the Olympic Games for about 1400 years. Seriously—way over one thousand year of competition with all kinds of crazy sports! It was put to a stop as Christianity gained popularity in about 300 AD. The Christians marched in and put an end to the false gods of Zeus etc. —-as Olympics was seen as a pagan celebration (for some understandable reasoning given the sacrifices etc.). Once again, off with the heads of the statues. It seems this would have been difficult to do—chisel, machete, exactly how did they do that? At least, unlike the Acropolis that was blown to smithereens by some general in some war, this spot was further destroyed by an earthquake after the Christians got done with it. I guess after that the “pagans” lost interest in pursuing the games. So as always happens , it became buried in dirt until 1829 when a French archaeologist began excavations. In fairness to that General back in Athens (Ottoman, we believe), how was he to know they were storing all their kegs of gunpowder up at the acropolis?

But back to the Olympics ….. the modern day Olympics resumed in 1896 (in Athens, not here). No longer pagan, just capitalist! Four years later the first woman competed in the Olympics, in 1990 (AD that is). So here we are a few thousand years later admiring the incomprehensible ability of the Romans to build, sculpt, and infrastructure these communities only to lose all these abilities in the Dark Ages. While it seems impossible this could happen again in this digital age…..I think perhaps youth feels differently . Climate warming? Overpopulation? Polarization of communities? More demagogic leaders? Could another dark ages happen? ….okay time for an Aperol spritz. Or a liter of wine (that’s how they sell it in the restaurants here—-my kind of place).

So would we come back here again? And please remember we don’t at all regret any place we have been thus far, but we are talking about a return trip. No, probably wouldn’t come back. We lucked out to have a beautiful evening with that golden light to see the grounds with just a handful of people—-with our soundtrack playing softly on Spotify—who needs audio tours? Also this area was not as pretty or dramatic as other places, but perhaps the flatter land is what allowed them to build a stadium for 35,000 male spectators (women not allowed to even watch the games). I did notice you could come here and join a marble carving work shop which I think would be interesting. And as in all travels here, lots of friendly kind people….

Okay—-here we go—-another BFG breakfast and OTD to Delphi. Brant says he thinks some company caters these breakfasts throughout Greece. He might be right but they sure do seem like a lot of work…lots of cheese, cold cuts (lots of them), eggs 2 ways, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, sausages, rolls, bread, toast, risks, yogurt, honey, fruit, muesli—-each set up the same.