Day 5 September 13 - Olympia (Katakolon) Greece

Today we are taking an excursion to the quiet town of Katakolon the site of the original Olympic Games. Should be fun to visit.

Here's what we see from our veranda this morning.

Our excursion took us on a 30 minute bus ride to the site of the ancient ruins of Olympia. It was a gorgeous day - 30+ C and no wind. We did explore the ruins and visited the museum associated with it. We took a load of photos but I will share just a few here. We have to shower up as we had a 6:00pm dinner reservation followed by tonight's entertainment show at 9:00pm which is a theatre production called Broken Strings.

The show ended up being great and afterwards we went silent disco dancing. Everyone has a set of of headphones which are connected to 1 of 3 different types of music. You can switch the genre - so everybody is singing and dancing to different music. Doesn't sound great but is fun to take part in. It has been the most successful thing we have seen. The dance floor and bar areas were full. See Gladys with her headset below. Also a couple of photos of a Mediterranean sunset.

Oh yes, tonight we dined on coq au vin which in English is chicken cooked in red wine. It was good and so were the desserts too!!! 

Tomorrow we are in Athens and have an afternoon excursion to Mount Lycabettus which offers some great views. We'll see!

Katakolon from our veranda. You can also see the marina there.

View inland from the veranda.

Best view of our boat we've had. Taken from the dock in Katakolon.

Main Street through Katakolon - notice the horse driven carriage taking people on a tour. It's only a small town that has the Main Street full of vendors serving tourists.

This is where the Olympic torch is lit to signify the beginning of the Olympic Games period.

There are 16 columns along the side here. Each used to contain a statue paid for by an Olympian who had been caught cheating. The athlete's name would also be on the column.

Here's Gladys standing on the original track which was used for the Olympics. It was too hot for her to go for a jog!!

This is the temple of Zeus. Just an amazing amount of concrete all around.

The bottom area just inside the big stone was used to house the officials for the Games.

An example of some of the many columns still left standing. 

Good one for Tish - as they are still digging here. Today there were several people digging and carrying the dirt away in wheelbarrows in 30+ C heat. 

Just at sunset.

A little dark but beautiful evening.

A Mediterranean Sunset

Silent disco dancing just starting. We went downstairs to join in.

Gladys going green. 

A typical country side house except most were one storey. All I could get as the bus sped along.

A local gas station where gas was around 2 Euros per litre.

An olive grove - olives are popular around here and harvested from September to December.