Sunday, 24 June 2012

Ancient Olympics!

And we’re on the move again….

Looking back on Sorrento to say goodbye
It was a tearful goodbye from the kids when we said goodbye to our new friends at the Palazzo Montefusco.  They took such good care of us we felt like family, but it’s time to be moving again. By mini bus from Sorrento across Italy to Bari, on the Adriatic Sea where we pick up our next ship to tour Greece and the Adriatic.

Driving across Italy is a treat. Leaving Sorrento we pass the backs of the rocky mountains that make up the Sorrentine peninsula and pop out at Salerno, the southern end of the Amalfi coast, before heading east to make for Bari, the second largest city in the south of Italy. At first it’s a land of hill top villages and mountains, Liam gets to be on lookout for fortresses, but gradually the land turns into wheat fields and wind farms. After about three hours we get our first glimpse of the blue ocean and next thing we are winding through the industrial town of Bari to the docks where an enormous ship awaits.

We’ve booked on MSC lines for a quick highlight cruise that will give us a glimpse of Greece, Croatia and Venice. Kids travel free so it was a fairly economical way for us to get the flavour of this part of the world. I was all for staying on a Greek Island for a month and getting a full dose, but the budget had to stop somewhere!

So as we settle in on our Italian ship the rain clouds come and wash away some of the dust of this land and get us ready for our first view of Greece tomorrow morning.

OLYMPIA – home of the Olympics….

About midday we dock at Katakolon in the western part of Greece. It is a seaside town that is the gateway to the ancient city of Olympia – home to the first Olympic games.

Leaving Clara and Juliet on the ship we head out with just the big kids. Liana is practically vibrating with excitement. It’s finally getting to the part of the trip that she picked. Liam had input into Petra and Vatican City, while Liana was desperate to see Greece and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. She’s studied the Greek classics, can tell you most of the stories, and knows a great deal about ancient mythology so today was her first exciting foray into the land of Homer, Herodotus and Hercules.

The remains of the temple of Zeus




















Instead of taking the overly priced tour we buy a ticket from the local bus. It takes us about 30 minutes to get to the hugely touristy destination of Olympia. I was here with my parents (and Cathy!) twenty or so years ago and it seemed quite off the tourist map back then, but with the recent Olympics and all the money that poured into the country from the added tourist revenue, it has been commercialised and fancied up. Large car parks for the buses and cafes and tourist shops are all in place.


We get our tickets and head into the well kept archaeological site. Liana squeals when she sees her first Greek text. It’s hard not to feel super excited when you are surrounded by antiquity. 

The first remains found here date back to the 10th century BC and the first Olympic games were officially held in 776 BC, and were played continuously at this sight until the last Olympiad in 393 AD, after which the Christian emperor, Theodosius I put a ban on the ancient games, deeming them too pagan. And when the 2004 modern Olympic games were held in Greece the men’s and women’s shot put competition was held right here in the restored Olympic stadium. How amazing would that have been for those competitors!?

In the well laid out ruins that are the modern archaeological sight of Olympia there are many different time layers within the buildings. It was a bit of a pilgrimage sight for many people in the ancient worlds. In fact it was said that wars were put on hold so that competitors could travel to the games. They were sacred of Zeus and the ruins of the massive temple in his honor are still some of the most impressive of the sight. There are Roman ruins as well as Macedonian ruins, all put together with the Greek ruins. It's similar to any working sight that is continually improved upon. 






But no matter how much time you spend wandering around the ruined temples, ancient training halls, places of worship and places of feasting, every tourist ends up at the Olympic stadium.

Inside the ancient stadium
Not too many people can say that they’ve run in the Olympic games but here you can pass through the archway that ancient competitors would have strode through and run in the old stadium. Even us women who would have been forbidden entrance to the ancient games. After overcoming his horror upon hearing that all competitors ran in the nude, Liam was keen to become an olympic athlete and we caught him on video racing in his first Olympics, which he did with his usual grace and comedy. That's my boy. 

There were also other tourists and a few Greek school groups who were doing the same thing. How amazing would that be to go to school, learn your history and then walk out on your own doorstep and be able to touch and feel the spirit of your ancestors and walk (or run) in their footsteps. It makes you think that you’d have a bit more appreciation for the timelessness of history. Or maybe not, and I’m merely looking at it through my own filter of experiences.

All in all, we only had a few hours to introduce the kids to Olympia, but it was enough. They got the spirit of the ancient Olympics and feel the difference of this place over the other cultures we’ve visited so far. We are only a few hundred miles from Italy but the feeling of the land and culture is as different as Oman was from Italy. A good lesson that geography does not necessarily dictate the spirit of the land.

After returning to Katakolon we had a bit of time before ship was due to leave so we spent the time doing a bit of wandering and shopping in the touristy shops. I bought some cute dresses for the girls and some aspirin to help with the lingering aches from my earlier illness. Randall and the kids added to his growing dagger and sword collection. And finally we pass a gyros shop. Stopping in our tracks it’s time for the kids to discover true gyros. Sauce dripping, steaming, onion filled gyros. Oh yum. Hot fresh pita bread filled with greasy meat, fries, onions, tomatoes and tziziki sauce it’s an instant hit and we gorge our way back to the ship. For me the perfect way to end our afternoon. 

A brief stop here on the western Peloponnese and it’s back on the road south to more Greece, blue seas, gyros and sunshine.


But not before we have a night out at the club on the ship so our girls can tear up the dance floor.... 




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