Today is Thursday, August 31, 2023! STOP, Kronos, STOP making time go so very, very fast! I MISS our family, and I love this trip!
Today we were up and out by 8:10 A.M. so that we could get everything in and still get back to the ship for the 3:30 P.M. all-aboard! Once again, it looks as if most on board chose The Best of Olympia for their excursion today. In Istanbul, we were in Group 11; in Chania, we were in Group 12. Today, we were in Group 28!
Our ship docked early this morning in the port of Katakolon, Greece. One other cruise ship plus a smaller luxury small ship docked alongside of us. Katakolon is a very small town in the Peloponnesian area of southern Greece. There are maybe three streets in this town, and they’re not very long. The street closest to the water has the cruise ship port and a string of little shops that only open when cruise ships are in town. As soon as the last cruise ship leaves, the restaurants/shops close up. There is a street a level above this on the hillside. The third street above the second is where the Locals live. Katakolon owes its economy in large part to a very wealthy, now-deceased, shepherd who thought he’d help his town and nation by building the cruise port that can accommodate three cruise ships at once. That is why the port is named after him. We traveled by bus from one town to the next, viewing a quiet countryside that is bathed by two rivers and boasts fertile land that contributes to the area’s main products: tourism and agriculture. Olives grow well here, and the olive tree is honored and respected. Almost every family in southern Greece owns an olive tree. Olive oil is the foundation of the Mediterranean diet, and olive growing, harvesting, and processing are handled with great care, as a science. Olive trees are treasured and revered, because the goddess Athena gifted an olive tree to Athens and the Greeks. Olive trees have nourished the locals both physically and economically. One does not ever remove an olive tree nor cut one down. One can prune the olive tree to enhance the growing and harvesting processes. Each olive tree produces fruit every other year, and it can potentially live for an extremely long time, I.e., 2,500 years! Besides olives, though, all sorts of fruits and vegetables successfully grow in this year-round moderate climate, 200+ days of sunshine per year, and lack of snow in the low lands.
Our destination included the town of Olympia, Greece, to see the ruins of the Temple to Zeus, one of the wonders of the ancient world, and the site of the very first Olympic Games dating to approximately 700 B.C. We saw the remnants of the Temple to Zeus, the gymnasium, the hotel where spectators might stay, the public baths, sacrificial altars where animals were sacrificed to please Zeus and the gods (the smell and smoke were for the gods, and the flesh was for the mortals); the running course (originally, thenOlympic games were only running games), the tunnel through which the athletes entered the stadium to compete, and the well preserved, original marble starting blocks. We saw the judges’ seating area by the stadium (everyone else sat on the ground—there were no other seats), and we saw the ruins of the Temple to Zeus’ wife. In front of the Temple to Zeus’ wife are the ruins of the site where the Olympic flame was first lit. Since 1936, thanks to Hitler and the Germans who wanted to have some political visibility at these important games, the Olympic flame was lit at that very site and carried by runners to the Olympic cauldron where the games would be taking place that year. That ceremony, at this same site, continues for each Olympic Games to this day. It is important to note that Zeus and the ancient Greeks believed that the human mind and body were interdependent: I.e., a healthy mind leads to a healthy body, and vice-versa. The Olympic Games were always situated within a religious festival headed by Zeus. Only men could compete, they had to be Greek (but many beyond the borders of Greece were Greek), and they had to never have committed a crime. They competed nude to show off their bodies and their physical fitness. The prize for the winner was an olive leaf wreath and some ribbons that could be worn around the winner’s head. The winner was celebrated in many other ways for the rest of his life, nevertheless, and he earned public recognition within the Temple of Zeus.
Excavation of the site continues to this day. Some was going on while we were there today. The vast Olympic facility and Temple to Zeus were damaged in large part by an earthquake in the sixth century A.D. Some original geological excavation artifacts are displayed in the Archaeological Museum, which we visited. Everything therein is original/authentic. Many of these artifacts were found in the athletes’ burial sites. Another museum of the Olympic Games was built in the 1970s nearby. We visited that museum, as well.
The gift shop at Olympia included locally produced ouzo, pistachio spread, olive jam, green olives, and black olives. We were provided free tastings in the store.
I saw no stray cats nor dogs today. Perhaps, these critters know to stay away from these sacred grounds where animals were sacrificed to please the gods.
A traditional Greek buffet lunch was included in this excursion. We traveled by mini bus as Group 28 to a local banquet facility. The food was plentiful and delicious! The variety of pastas, fruits, vegetables, meats, spreads, and so on, was impressive! The site was just.lovely and the people gracious.
We sailed away from Greece late afternoon and are traveling to Trieste, Italy. We roll our clocks back one hour tonight as we enter a different time zone seven hours ahead of Chicago time.
Our Travels 