Olympia, Greece - yes, where the Olympics started....

Olympia!

Imagine, sailing the Ionion Sea to visit Olympia, it is almost like time travel!

Olympia (Katakolon) Greece is the next stop on our cruise.  We arrived in Katakolon at 7 am.  Olympia is actually 25 miles away from the port of Katakolon, where cruise ships land.  It is a small seaside town, with very little to do there, so we definitely wanted to go to Olympia.  

Many of us that were chatting on Cruise Critic at the time where asking...how do we get there? Cab? Bus? Train?  One of our fellow travelers found Katakolon Express.  It is a company that has 48 passenger motor coaches and they sell tickets on line for 10 Euro, round trip to Olympia.  Almost everyone on our Cruise Critic thread ended up buying tickets for the bus.  We did investigate private tours and the train, but this was a great deal, and most of us agreed we did not need a tour guide.  You can find Katakolon Express on line and buy your tickets before you depart for your Cruise!  

The bus left at 9 am and we were off to see the ruins at Olympia.  The original home of the Olympics. where ancient Greeks came to celebrate the Olympic Games.  You will find the remains of the temples of Zesus & Hera, the floor of the original stadium & the Council House where athletes took the Olympic Oath.  







The Archaeological Museum full of incredible collection of Greek sculpture including the famous Niki Winged Victory, ancient pieces of armor and bronze figures that were discovered during the excavations of the sight.  The Museum is worth the ticket - go for it!

I do not remember the exact cost of the ticket - 10 to 12 Euros I think.  We took a lot of pictures in the museum, but it is so much better in person, so I won't post a bunch of pictures here, but here is one I really liked  

I really have no idea how Alvin got this shot -- maybe ATP took it for him, but I did not see it until after we returned home and he posted it.  I thought it was kind of cool :-)

Anyway, back to the info you are reading this blog for! 

It takes about 35-45 minutes to get to the site from the port.  The ship was due to leave at 4 pm, meaning we needed to be back by 3:30.  This does limit your time at the site to about 4- 41/2 hours.  My suggestion is to split your time evenly between the ruins & the museum.  Both are pretty spectacular.  

We enjoyed our day at Olympia.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  The site is quite large, so even though you will see a lot of tour buses and individuals doing guided tours, we never felt like it was over crowded.  There are Docents around the site to keep an eye on things and make sure the tourist don't play on the ruins.  We got scolded a couple times for a few of our picture taking adventures around the ruins, but never tried to touch anything of course, we were just having fun taking photos!

Do this:  Visit Olympia

See this:  The Museum and the ruins

Try this:   Jump!Jump!

Until tomorrow,
Safe travels