Hotel New Olympia

... the Olympic Torch is lit before being sent to Athens and then on to the host city. The most recognizeable monuments are the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Zeus. There is a very nice Olympic Museum on the grounds that has a relief of what the original site looked like. It also houses several statues, mostly headless and ancient relics from the Olympics.

... didn't overpay to see it.
Afterwards, we went back to the ship in time for its final departure headed back for Venice. From Venice we head to Rome for a few days, back to horrible prices for food and overpriced...everything. We have a day at sea tomorrow, so I plan to stuff my gullet with as much food as I possibly can so I can pay for as little food as possible once back in Italy. The cruise ship will soon be sorry it ever saw the likes of me!

... into our water stocks. The insect life up on this high track was amazing - great flighty and flappy creatures with wingspans of several inches sprang and fluttered around us at every step; the gorgeously coloured butterflies and dragonflies were particularly stupendous. Although a little off-putting at first, this was something we soon got used to and in the end it was memorable and enjoyable. There was a sense of treading a little-known path, of being explorers ...

... largest room at Niko the fireman's place - the Karytaina Rooms. We'd stayed here in the previous year, and I had first stayed there in 1999; it's a great situation with wonderful views of Karytaina's magnificent castle and the gorge of the Alfeios river. Nick remembered us from the previous year - and, witness to the sleepy nature of the town, so did the girl at the Cafe Vrenthe and the lady at the little general store in the ...

... more tourists than we have seen at one sight almost the entire trip. (With the exception of The Pyramids and The Taj Mahal!) We spent a long time in the shade next to Zeus' Temple where the kids sketched while I read The Odyssey aloud to them. This has been our way of slowing down and absorbing the sights as we go along. We stop to look, sketch, write in journals or on postcards and of course, take pictures. While ...

In August and September of 2007, hundreds of thousands of acres pf Greek forests burned, hundreds of people were left homeless, and scores of people died. The fires were caused by a combination of global warming, two years of drought, a higher-than-normal jet stream across Europe, accident, and arson. Arsonists burn down the forests in the hopes of bribing ...

... something hot about a man with a hairy chest in a toga... so I smiled, then Michael smiled, then Carol smiled...... off to a good start. For some reason Bob didn't get his picture taken... hmmmmmm. A fascinating day ensued. The ruins are amazing. It never ceases to amaze me just how advanced the "ancients" were. Water systems, streets, paving, gardens and Civilized surroundings. Ok, so they may have beheaded or killed you if you lost the chariot ...

... museum. Like many museums, it told me very little about the site I was standing on. Ancient Sparta is a place dripping with history, full of fantastic stories and a unique way of life. At the 20th item in the museum that said "Pot, 5C BC" I gave up and continued to my next destination, Mystra. Mystra is a hilltop Byzantine city full of churches, monastery ...

... uncovered the site today from under 13-14 feet of silt. Inside the sacred area was the Philippeon, the temple of Hera, and the temple of Zeus. The Philippeon was a tholos building, built in honor of Philip of Macedon (Alexandar's father) and his family. It was the first building allowed in a sacred area that honored a mortal. The temple of Hera is the oldest building on the site. It was originally made of wood, but was slowly replaced by stone, hence the different ...