Olympia
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2008
1
15
23
Trip End
Jun 30, 2008
Olympia,
Peloponnese,
Greece
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Then we headed out. Even though we arrived early, the heat was already high again, on its way to 38° or 39°C. But there was a nice wind on the citadel at Mikines.
Mikines is the Bronze Age site excavated by Schliemann in the 1800s. He was sure he was digging up the graves of the heroes of the Trojan War and their ancestors. In fact, he was digging up materials several centuries earlier than the Iliad, but the association remains. It is likely the imperfectly remembered deeds of these Mikines and their era that the Iliad tells
A final view of Nauplio and the Venetian fortress
. Homer knew, at least, that the warriors used only bronze weapons.One of the best-known features of this site is the Lion Gate. This enormous entrance and the megalithic stones led the ancient writers to say that the site was built by giants.
We spent about an hour at Mikines and a few minutes at the tholos, or beehive-shaped tomb of large stones, called the Treasury of Atreus, situated on a mountain just before the site and facing it. But our main focus today was to get to Olympia. So we began our trek across the Peloponnesos.
Although some of our route was along the National Road, most was along two-lane roads, some of them winding and even with hair-pin curves. We saw lots of examples of "half-carting" and, in fact, Karen who was driving, got into it too. If you are going to drive in Greece, you'll have to do it like Greeks. And at high speed. There are posted speed limits but the Greeks consider them little more than suggestions. If you refuse to go that fast, then you'll have to drive on the shoulder and arrive hours later than you want to.
Back to our route: we drove down the National Highway to Tripoli, then from Tripoli to Megalopoli, then west to the coast, and then north
Another view of burnt landscapes in the Peloponnes
. This was another area of the country seriously affected by the fire last year. Mountain after mountain has been charred, blackened trunks and shriveled leaves cover the hills; some people died. Occasionally, we saw that an entire olive grove is blackened. Oddly, many olive and other orchards were spared and most of the houses. A few houses have been replaced already. But in many cases, the fire flamed up right to the edges of yards and orchards. How these were saved, I don't know; it must have been miraculous. Or very determined hosing. Village after village and farmer after farmer must have been terrified, not knowing which way to run because the fires were spreading and scattering erratically and, Karen tells me, at speeds faster than cars. And in Greece that's saying something.Eventually we reached greener areas along the coast, but 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 museum, along the river and above the ancient stadium and treasury were consumed
Burnt hills between Tripoli and Megalopoli
. They're gone. The burnt trunks and branches have been cut down and stumps cover the hills. We saw that many new trees have been planted and they're watering them but trees take time to become tall. Much of the area around the museum has lost its wonderful shade. The site is no longer hidden from the city by vegetation. Yet just a few metres away, across the river, the aged pines around the athletics museum were not touched, nor was the museum itself - a good thing, since it's an older and more flammable building!Having gotten over the shock of the damage around the museum, we continued into the site. The temperature was at max by this point, so we strolled very slowly, mainly moving from shady location to shady location. We felt like we had the site to ourselves since the heat had driven many folks to the sea and Sunday is usually slow anyway. Still, we had our taverna, the "Socrates" to ourselves. Literally: we were the only two customers they had.
We also visited the new site museum then spent the rest of the night trying to get caught up on blogging--but not managing! We're finding that we can fit everything in on our schedule, but often we are exhausted. Sleep or internet? Not an easy choice!
I phoned Reyla in the evening. I couldn't get her since she was at work, so I left a message wishing her a happy birthday. My baby is now 27!
Comments
From your favourite
Aaaaaw I got your message, thank you. It looks like you're having an amazing time. Are you getting enough snacks everyday? You know the Greek Council of Food recommends 2-3 servings a day of snacks.
Love,
Rey