Son of a Sailor

One of the best known sites in Greece, easily seen in one day.

Waking up on the morning of our 4th day in Greece, we grabbed a light greek breakfast and packed quickly, we had a full day ahead of us. We would spend the first half of the day in Olympia, the home of the original Olympic Games and its world class museum. Then we would be wisked off to a greek cooking lesson/lunch and finally ride the bus across the engineering marvel known as the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, which connects the towns of Rio and Antirrio across the Rion Strait. The bridge was opened one day before the 2004 Olympics in Greece, allowing the Olympic Torchbearers to be the very first people to cross the bridge.

**Looking south from the hotel parking lot, across green fields. Not the bridge.**

**The Arty Grand Hotel and our bus, just about ready to head to Olympia.**

What were the ancient Olympics? The ancient Olympics were a series of athletic competitions held between rival city-states at the semi-religious/pan-hellenistic site of Olympia in honor of the Zeus. The traditional start date to these games is approx 776 BC and they were held every four years. During the games, there was an Olympic Truce that was well known for athletes and pilgrims who came to view the games. The games likely lasted well into 370’s AD, but probably came to an end during the reign of Roman Emperor Theodosius II. During his reign, there was also a great fire that burned down the elaborate and massive temple of Zeus….this was a shock to Greece, as the temple was known as one of the wonders of the world then. This temple to Zeus was the largest in the Peloponnese and of course, housed the statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Here’s what it’s said to have looked like:

The complex of Olympia looked like this in the ancient world:

Here’s what Olympia looks like today:

The large white building in the middle is where the Temple of Zeus stood, the small round building in the front is the Philippeion and the circled half-circle is where the ritualistic lighting and worship of the Olympic Torch may have been held. Olympic Stadium is in the background. I’ll show you pictures of all of these spots today.

**The remnants of the Temple of Zeus, once one of the Seven Wonders of the World.**

**Entrance to the Olympic Stadium, one of the largest in Greece.**

**One of the students from our group winning the foot-race in Olympic Stadium.**

**Ancient olympic athletes raced end to end across the stadium instead of round the stadium like we do today.**

**Possible sacred altar where the Olympic Torch was ritualistically lit during worship, sitting directly in front of the Temple of Hera.**

The Philippeion, funded by Philip II of Macedon and completed by Alexander the Great. This is the only structure in Olympia dedicated to human beings instead of Gods. The round structure is known as a tholis and is the only rounded structure in the altis of the Olympia.

The Archaeological Museum of Olympia in Greece

The museum at Olympia is one of the principal museums in all of Greece, founded in 1888. At the time, the Museum was the largest in Greece outside Athens and houses a number of important pieces specific to the Olympia site. The bronze collection held in the museum is one of the largest in the world and is held in the weapons and armor collections as well as statues. Here’s the Museum:

**Legend of the statues from the Temple of Zeus.**

**One of the only surviving examples of a battering ram, left as an offering.**

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**There’s so much that remains of Olympia that some of the pieces are stored in outside hallways.**

Buses outside and past the museum….all of these are EF Tour Buses waiting on different tour groups. We would see at least one of these groups several more times throughout the rest of our time in Greece.

**Right after Olympia and its world class museum, we were off for a Greek cooking lesson.**

**After the cooking lesson and back on the bus, across the bridge and heading to our hotel in Galaxidi. The Rio-Antirrio Bridge is where the arrow is pointing.**

**The shore in front of our hotel, where we were able to dip our feet in the Med.**

**The Europa Beach Hotel in Galaxidi, right on the beach.**

This fourth day of Greece was a long day, but seeing Museum and site at Olympia was so worth it. The logistics of this day probably would not have worked without a tour and tour bus, a guide and tickets that were ready when our group was also in place.

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