There are times when on holiday, that your accommodation can be the destination. Antinea Olympian was such a place. We swam. We ate. We drank. We chilled. It was definitely a plus that we had this amazing complex to ourselves. 

Purpose. Plans. Peloponnese. One has to rise from one’s lovely lethargy and commit. We’re here to see Ancient Olympia.

We had learnt from our Delphi days to split the experience into a visit to the museum, a nap then return late afternoon to the site.

Google took us back a different route and we actually drove alongside the Stadium. I think Google was having a lend! This was not the regular route. We parked in the staff car park (because it was close and nobody was going to care) and headed to the site. Having visited the museum was definitely an advantage giving us a good idea of the history, purpose and use of the spaces. 

Still the extent of the site was surprising. I posed at the Temple of Hera, Godess of Women, one of the oldest monumental temples in Greece, built in the sanctuary of Olympia it housed cult statues of Zeus and Hera. Today, this ancient ruin is the spot where the modern Olympic flame is lit. Women were banned from the ancient games and while they did have some games of their own, they justifiably lost interest understanding how much more fun women have when they collaborate rather than compete. Oh goodness I’m being political. Really no sporting event is/was more political than the Olympics from ancient times until the present. 

We passed through the Krypte into the Stadium as ancient athletes did before us, although to be fair they weren’t as ancient as we are. John sized up the stadion(Greek)…192m…. the last time he ran was 2005 against the fastest woman in the world. Well to be fair…at the time she was ten and it would be another six years before she won gold at the World Championships and a few more years before she got her silver and bronze at the Olympics but all the same, John was determined not to besmirch his own record.

Me? Seriously? Why?

Our next destination was Kardamyli.  We decided to avoid tolls, but it should have taken two and a half hours however, just after Kalamata I took a wrong turn. I suggested to John we might backtrack but, no, Google has rerouted. Ummm. We were driving by the ocean, and the road was getting rougher and narrower and then we headed up. The first bit was so steep I had to roll back a few meters, gun the engine and charge up the pot-holed, narrow dirt track. This did not behove well. It couldn’t get worse, I thought. Ha! Little did I know. The eleven kilometres added 30 minutes to our arrival time, and we were already 20 minutes late. It also tested my nerve!! We were very high up in the mountains. The track was so narrow with sheer drops into the abyss I was terrified I would meet a vehicle coming towards me. I really think Google got that wrong!!!!  (PS The screenshots are for me…a reminder of how horrific the trip was..for me.)

Nevertheless, we arrived and were greeted by our host, Dionysus, the god of wine. Nah I kid you not! His name really was Dionysus, and he was also very gorgeous! We settled into our beautiful apartment, opened the wine god had left for us and reminded each other how lucky we were.