As a final highlight of our cruise we had booked the Ancient Olympus tour from Katakolon. We were to meet on the dock side at 8.40am and this time Richard and Margaret were booked on the same tour, like school kids we arranged for whoever got there first would save seats for the others. We were running nicely to time as we swiped off the ship and started across the dock towards the coaches, it was then that Julia remembered that she had left the tour tickets in the cabin. She rushed back while I waited on the dock; we made it in time and joined Richard and Margaret on the bus.
Our guide was another enthusiast and she spent the hour’s journey giving us interesting notes on the area and preparing us for Olympus. The main thrust of her talk was that our trip was in two very different parts. The first place we would see was the old stadium which was very damaged by weather and earthquakes while the second part of the tour is the museum where everything is genuine and in great condition. She was also the best dressed of all our guides but more of that later.
The facts bore out her words but both venues were impressive in their different ways. At the old stadium we saw where the modern Olympic flame is lit using a mirror as a focus of the sun’s rays, we had explained to us the nature of the various buildings which according to our guide, and disputed by Julia, had been covered by twelve metres of silt. Twelve metres, about forty feet in old money, does seem like a lot but I wouldn’t argue with the expert. She explained how the site was in the progress of being restored and rebuilt and how most parts had been identified but they had never found the Hippodrome where the horse back events had taken place even though it was recorded as being three times the size of the athletics area.
We stood outside the arch which is all that remains of the tunnel into the arena and she explained that there had been two lines of statues facing each other like a guard of honour before the tunnel except that on the left side were the winners who had won honourably and thus had been made for life when they returned to the city that they had represented so well but on the right were the convicted cheats who brought shame, and the expense of building this statue, to their city.
Her other explanation was given to save us embarrassment, the races were all run straight or there and back like swimming but the stone line across the track at the end nearer to the entrance is the finish not the start, I don’t know how I would have got over it if I’d run the wrong way!
Talking about embarrassment, she reminded us that the runners and all performers were naked, I heard Stephen Fry dispute this but he was talking about nothing that Nike would produce now! Nike, of course, got a mention as the Goddess of Victory which she pointed out was ironic as all these naked performers were men and there were no women allowed even as spectators! She was prepared to stretch a point on this but as a group we were not that determined to be authentic so we stayed fully dressed. All four of us ran the Olympic straight but no records were broken.
We also noted that the normal spectators sat on the grass banks but there was a VIP area with stone steps to sit on!
As a nod to tradition when the modern games were hosted in Greece the ladies Shot Put was held in the old stadium, I didn’t ask but I’m confident they competed in their normal kit otherwise there would have been a huge row from their kit sponsors!
We progressed from the arena to the museum where as she had told us the relics were all genuine and in excellent condition, they had been excavated from the Olympic site. Julia was fascinated by the marble statues but perhaps more so by a model of the stadium area at the time of the games.
Our enjoyment of the museum was disturbed by one of our party feeling unwell and, as our guide went to help her, throwing up, the guide in her smart leather jacket took the hit! While the others took the young girl into the fresh air Julia became a human barrier to avoid anyone slipping on the mess – trust a junior school teacher in an emergency!
We returned to Katakolon by 1.00pm, the ill young girl was sitting right behind us and she nearly made it back but….
Meanwhile Richard and Margaret had booked a lesson with one of the fitness instructors so Julia and I checked out the shops and bars in the port. We had a nice walk round the shops and bought a souvenir or two, we then walked down a row of quayside bars and chose one at random. We had a beer each which appeared without the condensation which indicates a properly cold beverage, as we drank it we noticed the bar next door had the well frosted glasses we lacked and then, to add insult to injury, people in the same bar were served with colder drinks than us. We were then charged the most we paid anywhere despite other bars advertising very reasonable prices. Being English I didn’t complain at the time but if the bar owner reads this let him hang his head in shame. The only balance to this injustice is that I took one of my best ever photographs from that bar looking out towards the Ocean Village with a small fishing boat in the foreground.
We then returned to the ship, that evening we had to pack our entire hold luggage and put both bags into the corridor before 10.00pm, this is a well thought-out policy because it just about guarantees that you have some clothes, even if its those you went to dinner in, left after the luggage fairies take possession of your luggage, imagine if you packed after changing for bed, you could spend a half day on the ship and travel in your night wear!
The cabaret was described as risqué this evening and to me it failed badly in its conception and execution. Why anyone thought that a more adult theme would go well with the cruising fraternity I cannot imagine. The same wholesome entertainment team as led the trips and called the bingo numbers were now more scantily clad and looking somewhat embarrassed by the whole venture. The few younger families on the cruise during school time retreated and the rest of us, some much older than us, were unimpressed by the production. It had a half-hearted feel to the whole thing as if it was in response to a directive from above that nobody felt supportive of. It was the least impressive show of any kind we saw on the boat and not the finale to our cruise that might have left us wanting more.
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