Solemar Ixia

Just before 6am I awoke to the first sounds of thunder. After a beautiful day yesterday, and a clear night, this was not what I wanted to hear. Having planned to head out from Olympia, we were stuck while shower after shower drenched everything around. <br><br>A quick run into town revealed a hostel that only cost 1 Euro more than the campground (major rip off). The debate of what to do to avoid the rain began ...

... that held those first games in 776 BC. The time span boggles the mind. <br><br> But first there was the tacking of crowds. I tried to get up and out as soon as possible to arrive at opening time, but it wasn&#8217;t going to happen. There was coffee, and Brian&#8217;s hair, and internet, and breakfast. By the time we made out way to the site, the parking lot was full of busses. Great ...

... can&#8217;t continue like this. What&#8217;s the point if we can&#8217;t see what we want of these countries? Winter is settling in. No matter how mild it is in comparrison to Canada, it&#8217;s not meant for cycling and camping. <br><br>The areas of Turkey we want to see are no better for temperature and rain. I even looked to Australia and it&#8217;s full of thunderstorms this time of year ...

... and other provisions at a supermarket. Then we headed back to the campsite via Kastro, where we stopped for something to eat; the village had all the air of expecting a massive influx of tourists - just not today... so we ended up getting a couple of huge tiropittes and taking them back to the campsite. <br><br>After lunch, the weather closed in quite surprisingly to become totally overcast. Paul persuaded me ...

... word gymnos which means "naked," so yes, ladies, all the men (no chicks allowed) competed in the nick. Maybe that's why everyone, even slaves were allowed into the games... but not women. We might get all hot and sweaty under the chiton! Ray decided he wouldn't want to be an ancient Olympic wrestler. Think Borat. We saw a lot of the equipment they used to use (eg. hand weights to help in ...

... even there we saw evidence of scattered fires. The most upsetting was around Zacharo and at Olympia itself. As we saw when we arrived and walked the site, the fires had burned to the edge of town, to the edge of the archaeology site and to the edge of the Museum. In fact, fire surrounded the museum, briefly, but obviously people had done everything possible to spare the ruins and the museum, and nothing irreplaceable was destroyed. But the magnificent pines around the ...

... has a length of 2882 m (9,455 ft.) . It consists entirely of five cable-stayed spans and four columns, it is the world's longest cable-stayed suspended deck. Prior to this the only way across the gulf at the eastern end was by 40-minute ferry. The toll for the bridge is &euro; 10.90, pretty expensive really, but it was based on the ferry fare rather than a normal toll. On the other side we are on the Peloponnesian ...

... Gladiator outfits, hmmmmmm) for an Early Birthday gift. We shopped for about an hour, then headed back to the ship, but not before picking up 6-2 liter bottles of water for only 1 euro 50, which is less than a small bottle of water aboard the ship.... Michael was settling in after his lunch to watch the world cup and nap when we returned, so we went up to the Lido deck for lunch again (we always seem to miss the meals in the dining room ...

... his seats at night, and cooked us two pounds of pasta. We drove through Austrian Alps with horizons skiing alongside us. Impossibly long pine trees squirmed and lurched up, up like vines, into clear sky. ... In Antonio's truck, I dreamt I was hitchhiking some small European mountain road. The car and I came to some mountaintop animal crossing. I got out and played with a panda and a brown panda, who nibbled on my fingers playfully ... The next ...

... the worship of Zeus was central to the affair and in a large temple stood one of the 7 wonders of the world, a 13.5 metre high statue of Zeus made from chryselephantine, seated on a throne of ebony and ivory. After the games were abolished the statue was carried off to Constantinople (now Istanbul) where it perished in a great fire. The site fell into disrepair ...