Vacation 2013 - Egypt & Greece, Day 8 "The Day We Didn't See Olympia"
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 – Day 8
The day was to begin at the Archaeological Site with the Sanctuary of Olympian Zeus, the Ancient Stadium, and the Archaeological Museum. Here is what we didn't take into account. May Day is a holiday celebrated in Greece, generally on May 1st. Olympia was CLOSED. May Day is generally a time for European workers to pause and celebrate labor rights along with a general celebration of spring. There were strikes and many of the attractions were closed today. We were soooo disappointed. We went to the site anyway - George was hoping they would give our group some leeway, but no such luck. We were able to stand outside the fence and take pictures of the Ancient Stadium, but man, I had really hoped to step foot there.
The day was heating up quickly and there were a ton of bugs in this area. So, as I waved the bugs away, you can make out some structures in the background...and that is as close as we were able to get to the grounds. At least we were still able to take pictures of the site.
I practiced my archery pose, then we learned that archery wasn't a part of the Ancient Olympics, so I just got into a classic running pose, LOL.
After this rather disappointing visit, we began a long day of travel. We stopped along the coast at the Restaurant Scala for lunch, and then enjoyed some gelato before we got back on the bus. One of the Australian couples joined our table, and they talked about how they traveled virtually non-stop, settling in one country long enough to get jobs and earn money so they can move on to their next destination. As awesome as this sounds, I think I would be exhausted!
We were staying at the Amalia Hotel in Delphi, so we got checked in and it was still plenty early. George announced that dinner wouldn't be until 8:30 again. Perhaps because we hadn't gotten to explore Olympia, we had plenty of time to wander around town still. We got our room situated and checked out the view, which was really nice.
We began the trek away from the hotel.
These little churches or houses are roadside shrines that are often built by a survivor of a potentially tragic accident or to publicly thank a saint for a benefit. They are sometimes built as a remembrance for a traffic accident victim.
The turnaround point of our journey ended up being at this overlook of the valley.
The day was to begin at the Archaeological Site with the Sanctuary of Olympian Zeus, the Ancient Stadium, and the Archaeological Museum. Here is what we didn't take into account. May Day is a holiday celebrated in Greece, generally on May 1st. Olympia was CLOSED. May Day is generally a time for European workers to pause and celebrate labor rights along with a general celebration of spring. There were strikes and many of the attractions were closed today. We were soooo disappointed. We went to the site anyway - George was hoping they would give our group some leeway, but no such luck. We were able to stand outside the fence and take pictures of the Ancient Stadium, but man, I had really hoped to step foot there.
The day was heating up quickly and there were a ton of bugs in this area. So, as I waved the bugs away, you can make out some structures in the background...and that is as close as we were able to get to the grounds. At least we were still able to take pictures of the site.
We were staying at the Amalia Hotel in Delphi, so we got checked in and it was still plenty early. George announced that dinner wouldn't be until 8:30 again. Perhaps because we hadn't gotten to explore Olympia, we had plenty of time to wander around town still. We got our room situated and checked out the view, which was really nice.
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| The showers in Greece were nearly always like this. |
It was a quaint community, with these amazing staircases and lots of pretty scenery. We did a fair bit of shopping along the way.
As we began our journey back, we stopped to chat with one of the girls in our group. She asked if we wanted to grab a beer in town, so we met up a little while later and went to one of the local pubs. I'm not even a beer drinker, but I figured what the hey. Mythos is one of the local beers, so I had two of those. Anita is Australian, so it was interesting to just casually compare some of the differences between our two countries. Anita certainly impressed me with her boldness - she was traveling in Greece on her own for several weeks.
The sun was setting as we made our way back to the Amalia, anxious to finally have dinner. It was buffet-style tonight, so we definitely filled up.
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