- Exploring the Peloponnese
- The freeloaders have delivered!
- Running with the Olympians
- Our first taste of night sailing
- Moonlit nights on the water
- Dolphins on the bow
- An eventful dinghy trip
- The best kept churches, and the most remote
- Monemvasia: a wonderful surprise
- Look what landed on our deck
- A helping paw
- Peloponnese: round up
- October-November 2018
We’ve been doing a spot of land tourism, and visited Ancient Olympia. We moored Nemrod in Catacalon harbour and took the two carriage train to the ancient city (10 euros for a round trip ticket). It is most definitely off season – we were the only two tourists on the train, and walking around the archaeological site, we were joined by a couple of school groups and a handful of others. It was great to see the site away from the crowds and imagine the feet that have trodden the same path.
I learnt a few things:
- The athletes used to train naked. The word gymnasium actually means naked room!
- The original events included running, boxing, javelin and discus, and each Olympic Games only lasted for a day.
- The ancient Olympic Games ran every four years continuously for 1069 years, before the Romans abolished them.
- No women were allowed to compete or even be present in the stadium.
The running track is equivalent to just under 200m. Scott and I couldn’t resist a competition and ran the length of the track, watched by a group of bemused Italian school children. As with any embarrassing activity, no photographic record is available, so here is a selfie just to prove we were there!