We met our tour partners Vivian and Bob Pai just before 8am and left the ship together to find our guide for the day. I had made arrangements with George at 'Taxi Katakolon' for him to find us a driver since he was already booked by someone else on our ship.
George is a very nice and personable man and he met us to introduce us to our driver Denos or Demos.
We headed out for the archaeological site at Olympia as soon as we got to the port entrance. This turned out to be one of the best decisions since we beat all the tour buses and had a good portion of the site to ourselves before the crowds hit.
The site is much larger than we expected and covered a few square miles. We tackled it in no specific order other than to avoid the few private and semi-private tour groups that had also decided to get an early start.
The site is among trees and is shaded in most places other than the competition field which reminded us greatly of Circus Maximus in Rome. This field is rectangular rather than oval but the rest of the area is very similar.
About the time we had finished with the site and decided to head for the museum several large groups were coming in so our timing had been almost perfect.
The museum is very modern and not as large or as extensive as we had expected. It’s contents were reminiscent of the small museum at Delos, containing statues, earthen jars, glass and of course partial statues that had decorated some of the buildings and temples. The site itself had been tumbled by a massive earthquake which accounts for the lack of intact pieces.
There was a moderately large collection of swords and knives made from gold, silver and bronze. Our grandson, Dominick, would have been intrigued by the shapes and sizes of some of the pieces.In total we spent a bit over two hours at the site and the total cost for entrance fees to both the site and the museum was E9 on a combination ticket. There is another museum dedicated to the history of the Olympic games that is free entry. Vivian and Bob went thru it and said it was quite interesting.
We stopped for about 30 minutes in the village of Olympia and I bought some olive oil and spices along with a few post cards to make into a collage.
We had intended to visit a local winery at George’s recommendation however he informed us that he had called them to say we were coming and they told him they had tour groups totaling 300 plus so he recommended we skip it which we did. Instead we had a scenic ride to an amphitheater and to a beach resort and took some nice pictures. We also rode thru the town of Pirus (sp) where George and Demos live.
Lunch was at a local Greek restaurant and we asked the owner to make us up a sampler of his dishes so we could try a variety of things. Bob and Vivian agreed they wanted that also. We had a very filling lunch of calamari soup, beef steak, chicken, meatballs, and salad. We are beginning to think that all lunches in Europe are E25 per couple. If we keep this up we will be hitting an ATM in short order.
By this time we were all tired and asked Demos to return us to the ship a bit
early. The total for a full day car and driver was E120 per couple. We felt we got our money’s worth without all the tourist traps.
We love to travel. People tell me I should be a travel agent because of all the things we do,the places we go, and the money we save. Our grandaughter,Sophia,tells everyone that we are on a "field trip" while we are gone, thus the name. I hope you find helpful, interesting information about different locales, ideas on how to get the most for your money, and be entertained in the process. Welcome. Connie
