Mediterannean Cruise/Disneyland Paris Day 5: Katakolo, Greece May 17, 2022

Well, last night went better. I was up only twice.

However, my husband K and I got up at 6:52. This is not my idea of vacation time.

Our daughter J arrived at 7:25 to go to breakfast. I got the makings of two sandwiches, but found that it felt like too much. I think it was the size of the rolls.

Leaving K to finish up, J and I were back in our cabins by 7:54. I stepped out onto the verandah to catch a shot of the approaching port of Katakolo (or Katakolon), which is on a peninsula. The water was gorgeous!

At 8:01, the captain announce that there had been a delay in docking, but we were docked just 7 minutes later.

J and I were in line in the World Stage to get the stickers for today's excursion, Ancient Olympia and the Museum. (Six years ago, the two of us were here, but only saw Ancient Olympia. We wanted K to see that and we thought the museum would be good.) They actually called our group before we got our stickers and they ran out of Blue 1. They had to scramble to find more. Then, K was late. We had to hustle to get out to the bus. 

We were in line for the bus at 8:30 and Maria, our guide, actually scanned our tickets on our phones with her phone. We were on at 8:33 and the bus soon departed.

As we rode along, Maria told us about the area. A few details stood out to me. In the nineteenth century, 80% of Greek currants came from here. Spain and Italy import a lot of Greek olive oil to improve quality of theirs. Therefore, it is hard to find Greek olive oil. 

At 9:07, we were off the bus for Olympia. We had to walk a bit and she sent us off to the restrooms- which, unfortunately, involved going downstairs- while she got entrance tickets. This side activity gave K time to learn that two couples traveling together were from Winter Springs, the town next to ours, and Lake Mary, about a half hour away. They'd started talking because one of the men reacted to K's UCF cap, which he was wearing rather than the one bought on the ship while the luggage was missing.

As we walked along, Maria noted that we were walking under an olive tree. I also saw that the site was a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The first thing you encounter is the area that is still be excavated. Excavation actually started in 1875. The area had gotten covered by silting from the nearby river, which flooded and used to be closer. It was cool to see some folks out there working. They were working on the Propylon, the monumental gateway.

My ears perked up, when she said that "Gymnasium" here did not mean what it meant in the US or even Europe. You see for years, I taught my German students that this word was a false friend. It is not a place for playing sports, but rather it is their word for an academic high school. Now, I learned that for the ancient Greeks, the word meant "naked practice place". It was also a place to grow a healthy mind and a healthy body, as it was a place to socialize and engage in intellectual pursuits. They were not into so-called dumb jocks.

Turning to my left, I was looking toward the Temple of Hera.

When one finds brick buildings here, they are Roman. If you find stone, it was Greek. There was also a building that was taken over at one point to be a paleochristian basilica. So, folks have been there for a while. 

The next thing after the Gymnasium was the Palaestra, which was used for wrestling. The pillars in the back are the remains of that.

Perhaps the most intriguing site was that of the Temple of Zeus. There had been a huge statue of Zeus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is believed it was taken to Constantinople in the Christian era and destroyed in a fire there. But, during the ancient Olympics, which was a religious festival, hundreds of oxen were sacrificed here on the middle day of the festival. Actually, just the thigh bones wrapped in fat were burned. The rest of the animal was turned into a great feast. Athletes would leave votive offerings of small figurines.

Next up, was the stadium. There's a whole processional path and an archway leading to it. Back in the day, judges sat on stone seats. Spectators sat on the grassy hills around the stadium. When J and I were here 6 years ago, the group was encouraged to run, but today, it was taken over by young people.

On the way out of the stadium, we made note of the pedestals for the Zanes. That word is actually the plural of Zeus in the local dialect. These were all statues of Zeus. However, I don't think he should be thrilled about them. Each of them was paid for with the fines placed on an athlete who cheated. His name,city, and offense were placed on the statue, too. He also received physical punishments or exclusion from the games. They were meant to warn the athletes entering the stadium. Today, 16 pedestals survive.

We now approached the Temple of Hera, the first erected here. In front of it, on some unassuming  stones, the Olympic fire is lit and then the Olympic torch to this day.

We now stopped to look at the Philippeion, which we had passed earlier. This circular memorial had been built in Ionic style. Inside had been statues of Philip and his family, including Alexander the Great. It is the only structure here dedicated to a human.

   

It was now time to walk to the museum. Along the way, we passed a garden, which I would have loved to explore. But, there was no time, of course, as the tour had a set time span.

It would have been nice to have had more time in the Archaeological Museum at Ancient Olympia. There was so much to see. Maria took us to see very specific things and told us about them as she kept us moving along fairly well. Of course, there was plenty of pottery to see, but this one piece with the dolphin gave me particular pleasure, since I love dolphins. This was a measuring vase.

 

They had an amazing array of votive offerings from the altar of Zeus, which were bronze and clay figures in the shape of animals. Here I learned that there was a Geometric period of Greek art. How cool is that?  Besides the figurines, there were bronze votive tripods, which were also from that period. Besides the cauldrons they had a display of bronze figurines of animals, mainly horses and bulls, that represented reproduction. Then, there were bronze warriors that had been attachments for the cauldron handles. They used to hold spears and the reins of a horse. 

I was very taken with the statue of Nike of Paonios. I was impressed with how they took her pieces that they could find and put her together again. They had a nice painting behind her to give an idea of what she had looked like. I was impressed by the sense of movement, even though this was a sculpture. It brought to mind the  works of Bernini, who was born about 2000 years later.

There were two more prized sculptures. One was of Zeus kidnapping Ganymede from Troy. He then bestowed on him eternal youth and made him cup bearer to the gods. This was from the beginning of the 5th century BC. The other was from 340-330 B.C. and was called Hermes of Praxiteles. It was found in the temple of Hera. Here, the messenger to the gods takes a break while going to deliver the infant Dionysos to the Nymphs, who were to nurse him. They think his right had a bunch of grapes, a symbol associated with the future god of wine.

Ever wonder how they managed to have a statue for a new emperor so quickly? Thy had stock bodies, that they simply carved a head for.       

I was impressed how often they were able to reconstruct the various figures that had been up on the pediments. These were from the Temple of Zeus. The first is from the west pediment and depicts the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs. The second was on the east pediment  and shows the chariot race of Pelops and Oinomaos.

They did have a picture of a picture of what the statue of Zeus supposedly looked like. I don't see any reason to put a photo of it here, when you could look it up, if you were interested.

I will note, that, as usual, their definition of air conditioning is far different from the American.

It was about 11:30, when we left the museum. As we crossed the river Kladeos, I spied these lovely poppies. The gorgeous rose was near the stands where we had a few minutes to shop. 

We got back to the bus at 12:00. On the way to the ship, she told us that in a normal May they would usually have 50 cruise ships visit. This year, there are only 19.

We arrived back at the port at 12:39 and said good-bye to Maria with a 4 euro tip. We did not go look at the town just outside the port gates, because no one was truly interested. Instead, we took the opportunity to take photos of the ship and, of course, ourselves.

We were on board at 12:50 and went right to our cabins. I got this lovely photo of the water and the town beyond.

It was lunchtime and we were on the Lido Deck by 1:05. K got a turkey club that he said was very good. J had focaccia and a noodle dish, while I had a piece with salad. After a hot morning, J and I found our Coke and Coke Zero very refreshing. Our dessert collection was a fruit tart, chocolate panna cotta, pavlova, and bread pudding. We all enjoyed them. 

 

K found out that although the ship normally has 2666 passengers, there were only about 1400 guests on board. That would explain why some of the decks can be partially closed off for work and why we haven't felt too crowded on the Lido Deck. I mean, there are times when we have to stand in line, but it is not too awful. In these Covid times, it's actually a good thing the ship isn't full.

When we finished lunch at 2:15, K went back to the cabin to read. J and I remembered that they print the New York Times crossword every day. So, we headed up to Deck 12 (Observation) to what we kept calling the Crow's Nest, because that is what it was called on our Baltic cruise ship. Here, it was called Explorations Central & Café out in the front with the big windows and behind and to the sides, The Retreat. We saw a sort of room with chairs set up and facing a screen. We found in front of that shelves with the crossword and an assortment of books and magazines. A sign encouraged you to take a book and leave a book. Out in the front part, we found board games and puzzles. A table was set up for Chinese checkers. A few people were up there, but it was not crowded. We sat and worked on the puzzle for a bit.

Then, we had to go down to the Microsoft Studio on the Plaza Deck (2). There, at 3:30, coloring had started. There were maybe 8 designs or pictures to choose from, including a scene of Amsterdam. You picked what you wanted and a tin of pencils and sat down. J had chosen something that looked like a mandala and I chose flowers. There was very mellow music and perhaps 6 of us in there. I actually found myself dozing off! The hour went by very quickly. We took our pictures to bring back to finish another time and took the pencil tins to the front and thanked the crew member, who'd been there with us.

We each went back to our cabin. K wanted to go hear some Schumann on the Lincoln Center Stage at 5. J and I didn't want to rush to get ready and get there on Deck 2 and then have to leave that early to rush up to the Lido Deck to Canaletto for the first of our 4 Dine Around Dinners that were part of what we'd earned over the past 2 years of patience.  So, he went alone and then joined us at Canaletto.

The restaurant is tucked into a corner of the Lido Market, but separated from it by fancy walls. The menu is Italian and the food is served family style, which saved us from rotating plates. They brought us a plate of olive bread with another plate with three items for dipping (oil and balsamic vinegar, pesto, pimento) and a bowl of green olives. Really delicious!

Since the appetizers were a bit difficult to share, we didn't. J got Veal and Sage Meatballs, while K got Langoustine, which  was a tomato soup with mussels. I had Minestrone. All were good.

Since we knew the main course was served family style, we probably shouldn't have ordered three entrees. They were great, but it was a lot of food. We chose Scaloppine Alla Caprese, Beef Short Rib Brasato Barolo, and Lasagna Bolognesse.

Dessert was unnecessary, but as happens in the Dining Room, it is ordered at the beginning of the meal. The delicious choices were Orange Blossom Ricotta Tart, Sicilian Marzipan Cassata Torte, and a selection of Italian Cheese.

After dinner, we walked out to the back of the Lido Deck, past the Sea View Pool to take a look out the back of the ship. Our wake seemed to stretch for miles here in the Ionian Sea. Off to the side, the land looked rather spectral, with a haze wrapping the base of the mountain there.

Back inside, away from the chilly breeze, we discovered a melting guitar. When we went to the other end of the deck, near the spa, we found a statue of David by Daniel Anderson, which cost HAL $55,000. It's not just David, though, for in his hand is a cell phone- he's taking a selfie!

I wanted K to see the cool piece J and I had seen on the Panorama Deck, when we'd been up there earlier. So, we took the elevator up from David's spot. Previously, I had realized that when you looked through the hole in the black board in front of the end of the case, you saw an homage to Magritte.It looks like his Son of Man. This is what the artist, Brad Pras intended with this preassigned vantage point. But, now I saw all kinds of allusions to other Magritte paintings and that, if you looked at it from above, it looked like the torso portion of Son of Man. There's a pipe to remind you of The Treachery of Images (or This Is Not a Pipe). The train reminded me of Time Transfixed. I love surrealism and Magritte's contributions.

 

We had some more time to look around and stepped outside. We were treated to this lovely view of what my phone says is Elis, Greece.

We went down to the jewelry shop on the Plaza Deck (2) for their demo and drawing. We did not win, but we each got a chain with a stone pendant. What kind of stone? No idea. But, it was free. And, I tried on a Tanzanite necklace, which was absolutely too expensive, even with their "sale". 

We went back to our cabin at 8:15, not being interested in the evening's entertainment. Plus, it had been a long day. Tomorrow would be another early day. So, J headed back to her cabin.

After 11, I got this beautiful shot of the moon, which was a good close to a very good day.

My phone says that I walked 9,309 steps for 3.2 miles in total and climbed one floor. I guess that was going down to the restroom at Olympia.