Thursday, September 29, 2011
Katakalon, Greece then sailing toward Mykonos, Greece
I bagged this tour today, and slept in. Jan was a trooper and went on the tour, and here's what she found.
The tour was to the site of the ancient Olympic Games, on Mount Olympus. She saw the sights, listened to the tour guide, and was most impressed by what she saw and heard. First, as so much of the antiquity we have seen, the site was a ruin. As you would expect from the passage of over two millenia. But, she bought a book that was so neat, it showed a photograph of the current ruin, and the semi-transparent page before, if you lay it over the current day image, shows the site as it was in ancient times. So piles of doric and ionic columns lying on the ground or standing partially erect, become the columns and the temple itself as it was in history. A most effective presentation which, together with the guides explanation, brings history to life again.
The games were held every four years, only one games and not summer and winter ones, and were mainly competitions among the soldiers of the warring states. A three month truce would be called and all the contentious factions would send their best soldier/atheletes to Mount Olympus so that they could compete. A couple of weeks for the atheletes to travel to Mount Olympus, a month of training, a month of games, a couple of weeks to travel back, and the then-current war started again. Curious, but that's what they apparently did.
But the games were much smaller then than now. About 100 atheletes and the stadium would only hold about 4000 people. Of course, as a percentage of the known-world's population at that time they may have been, per-capita, as popular then as now.
Jan arrived home to the ship very happy, but hungry, and we went to the buffet for lunch and then to the cabin for a nap. A nice afternoon. Formal night tonight, and all of us looked lovely. Both couples had our pictures taken by the ship's photographer. A champaign waterfall at 7:15pm, hosted by the captain, then dinner, a nice night.
