29 June 2022
Having stopped as soon as we reached the coast yesterday…we knew we had another big day today…with a planned three-hour stop at Olympia to be real tourists for a bit!!
Lovely early morning…riding along the coast…(20kms before breakfast!!)
….but then we could not avoid the main road. Not very pleasant…but good and wide!! So a fairly painful 40kms before the turn off to Olympia. You have to laugh at some of the signage en route: blink and you missed it…a sign to one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites!! (Good job we were looking for a newspaper…!!)
Appropriately enough (an Olympian effort for me!)…I clicked over 4,000kms this morning!
And then Olympia. With the ticket seller doing a fine job of short-changing folk. Two groups before me were puzzling over their change (too late to go back!)…& the same thing happened to me. But a hesitation as I counted out the notes…and the additional 5 euro note was poked through the hole!! So blatant!!
That apart….it was great. If too hot…particularly after a 60km ride! The archaeological museum gave a good background, the wander around the site itself was interesting (but…to be honest I am not a great fan of archaeological sites…give me the Parthenon..or Pantheon any day…over Pompei or Troy…)..but interesting given the extraordinary story of the ancient games (which were held every four years…for over 1,000 years!!)…
…so for me the best bit was the museum dedicated to the history of the games themselves. Fascinating stuff…..particularly when you reflect about the antipathy towards the hero-worship of modern professional sports stars…yet winners of ancient olympic events were literally given god-like status. Little changes….!
But as noted, it was very hot…and we were fairly drained after being good tourists…so were not looking forward to the 60km ride on to our overnight stop at Arkoudi. And…it was not great! 40km on a major highway (thankfully of good width and with a service road for half the distance!)…but a pleasant last 18km down to the coast…!
Another hotel stay….but here, they have got it all right!! Lovely spot…for a well-earned rest!! Our last stop before the ferry to Italy!
