Olympia

We spent the morning relaxing at the campsite and then set off for Olympia:site of the ancient games. We arrived late afternoon and went to the historic site to get information for out trip tomorrow. We then wandered through the beautifully kept modern town.  It was touristy as one would expect but it had lovely backdrop of hills and trees.  We bought postcards, had an icecream and then wandered back to the van and drove it to our overnight parking spot - a deserted car park with stunning views on the outskirts of the town. As the carpark was empty we had a game of football with a stone, tennis until Mike broke his plastic racquet and then frisbee.  We returned to the van for supper: tuna salad and then a game of scrabble.

Friday 26th April
After breakfast we drove back to the ancient site of the panhellenic games. It stated that this site was in use from the 11thC BC but it was around 500BC that the site was really important and the temple of Zeus was built.  Although the site is in ruins from effects of time and earthquakes it was interesting to see where the athletes trained, bathed, and worshipped their gods in the many temples. If an athlete was caught cheating he was fined and the money was used to create a statue to Zeus and the athletes names was engraved for all to see. So there was a 'cheats corridor'. I thought this was quite a good deterrent.The 200m (nearly) running track was still in existence and Jacqui could not resist getting down into a starting position for a photo opportunity.   The whole place was in a most beautiful wooded setting with a backdrop of green hills and we enjoyed exploring it for a couple of hours.

Back in the town we got stamps for our postcards, found the information centre (closed) and went for a drink to use the wifi in the cafe.  here we sorted out our campsite for when Millie and Liam come over and Mike chased up his rent which was late.

We then headed south in the van with Jacqui driving as Mike had had a beer and ended up south of Kalamata We stopped right next to the beach, the sea was crystal clear and it was hot so Jacqui went for a swim and we spent the night there.