Olympia, Greece

Grant was looking forward to "running" at the site of the very first Olympics in Olympia, Greece!  The boat docked in Katakolon, and we took our only excursion of the trip on a bus to Olympia for a kid friendly tour of the place where the Olympics were held between the 8th century BC and the 4th century AD.

We had two guides who did the tour in two languages - Italian and English.  

We started out our tour in the ruins of the Palaestra, which was the gymnasium used to train athletes for the Olympics.  The athletes that trained here were mostly boxers or wrestlers.  This "building" dated from about the 3rd or 2nd century, BC. 

Little known fact:  Back in the day, the Olympics only consisted of men and they ALL performed their sport naked! In fact, the word gymnasium comes from the Greek word "γυμνός" (which kind of sounds like "yim-nos" and is spelled gymnos in the non Cyrillic alphabet) which means naked!

The gymnasium was the building on the far left in the upper left corner near the entrance of the area.  I always find it helpful to see a picture of what it might have looked like!

Grant was thinking about which room he would like to stay in at the "hotel Olympia."  The Leonidaion was a place for the athletes to stay when they were competing in the Olympics.  It was designed by Leonadis of Naxos, hence it's name. 

This my friends, is where the infamous Temple of Zeus stood.  The Statue of Zeus that stood here was over 12 meters high and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I remember being a child and thinking I would never see any of the original Seven Wonders because they seemed so far away.  I honestly can't believe I saw one!  Of course, it's long gone, having been destroyed by Theodosius II in 426 AD during his persecution of the pagans.  The Romans felt that the Olympics were a pagan festival, and since they conquered Greece, that's when all of the original Olympic fun ended.

It is said that the statue was carried off to Constantinople and then destroyed by a fire in 475AD.  Meanwhile, even after the pagan persecution and the removal of the statue, the temple itself was officially destroyed in a series of earthquakes in 551 and 552 AD.

Awwww.  My kiddos are kinda cute.  They were super sweaty today though.

Finally, one of those important spots for us to see was the stadium where the track and field events took place.  Even in the 2004 Olympics, the men and women's shot put events took place here!  That's pretty cool, considering women were NOT allowed to watch the Olympics back in the time of ancient Olympia. 

OK here we go!  The kids are ready to run!  The track was 192 (and change) meters and Grant could have run it all day long.  If he had been around in the days of ancient Olympia and had won his track event, he would have won an olive branch crown!  There were no gold, silver or bronze medals back in that time!

Daddy, despite having plantar fasciitis, was a VERY good Daddy and took on Grant's challenge to a foot race at the site of the first Olympics.  Notice Grant is looking at Todd... something we tell him not to do when he runs in his track races.  Focus ahead!

Of course, Daddy's foot hurts and it didn't take long for Grant to take the lead.

He was so jacked that he beat his dad in Olympia!

Even though women were not allowed into the stadium to watch the Olympics, there was still a Temple to Hera, Zeus's wife and sister (ummm….)  It is here that every four years the Olympic flame is lit using a parabolic mirror and sunshine.  

Walking back toward the exit from the Temple of Hera 

The Philippeion is the only structure in Olympia dedicated to a living human being.  It contained statues of Philip II of Macedon, as well as Alexander the Great (his son) and Olympias (his wife and mother of Alexander the Great.)

The objective of the day was to find out where the sacred fire that was (back then) lit elsewhere and brought to the Temple of Hera to start the Olympic games.  The kids had clues that they had to find throughout the day to figure out where that spot was so they could help Zeus and save the day.  In the end, it was the alter of the Prytaneion that contained the sacred fire of Hestia. 

After our incredibly hot day at Olympia, they gave us about 30 minutes in the town of Olympia.  We got our magnet and shot glass (mandatory in the Bailey family) and stopped for some ice cream and beer to cool our internal organs.  I'm not sure the kids have ever been so happy to have ice cream.  Can you imagine what the dirty clothes section of the wardrobe in our ship cabin is starting to smell like????

The drive back to Katakolon and the ship was really pretty with it's many fields, bushes, random hollowed out buildings left over from the 2007-2008 financial crisis and beautiful blue skies.

Until next time, Olympia!