Today we woke and got up the earliest since we started our Greece tour as we wanted to see the Olympia Archaeological Site and its two museums before lunch. We then had over 350Kms to ride to our evening destination in Ioannina.
The Olympia site is quite large and we also decided to walk from our hotel, so we had a good exercise day today.
For me the highlight was the stadium and imagining how so many years ago they held the Olympic Games on that site for over one thousand years.
We walked the track, imagined we were athletes, judges and audience.
We sat in different areas of the Stadium and enjoyed watching as any tourists let their guard down and became like children and enjoying themselves.
The vast majority of tourists are Americans that do a daily visit from their cruise ship. The trick is to go in early before the buses arrive as when they do the walking traffic increases dramatically. We beat the majority of the crowd and were able to see the site and take pictures without much interference. We loved it.
We then went to see the museums and the one we enjoyed best was the one that had some history of the games. I am sure one can find this all information on the Internet but it felt very special to read it so close to where if happened.
There were a number of interesting facts but the ones that surprised me was that for one to participate in the games, one had to be Greek and that if you won gold you could have a statue made of yourself and of your trainer.
We had lunch at Olympia and let the presence of the gods wash upon us.
We then made our way north and crossed the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge (that crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road), which is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type.
We stopped at Antirrio to better look at the beautiful bridge while we looked at the Gulf and enjoyed a fruit salad with yoghurt and honey.
Our way to Ioannina was then made in a fast pace on the newly open highway.
Our hotel was very nice, perched on top of the hill with beautiful views and we had dinner in beautiful surroundings. At the end of the dinner we were offered different types of Greek liqueur to taste. Yamas !
Make Life a Ride !
Facebook post with some photos of the day
Click HERE to see all photos and videos of DAY 12 !
The Olympia site is quite large and we also decided to walk from our hotel, so we had a good exercise day today.
For me the highlight was the stadium and imagining how so many years ago they held the Olympic Games on that site for over one thousand years.
We walked the track, imagined we were athletes, judges and audience.
We sat in different areas of the Stadium and enjoyed watching as any tourists let their guard down and became like children and enjoying themselves.
The vast majority of tourists are Americans that do a daily visit from their cruise ship. The trick is to go in early before the buses arrive as when they do the walking traffic increases dramatically. We beat the majority of the crowd and were able to see the site and take pictures without much interference. We loved it.
We then went to see the museums and the one we enjoyed best was the one that had some history of the games. I am sure one can find this all information on the Internet but it felt very special to read it so close to where if happened.
There were a number of interesting facts but the ones that surprised me was that for one to participate in the games, one had to be Greek and that if you won gold you could have a statue made of yourself and of your trainer.
We had lunch at Olympia and let the presence of the gods wash upon us.
We then made our way north and crossed the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge (that crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road), which is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type.
We stopped at Antirrio to better look at the beautiful bridge while we looked at the Gulf and enjoyed a fruit salad with yoghurt and honey.
Our way to Ioannina was then made in a fast pace on the newly open highway.
Our hotel was very nice, perched on top of the hill with beautiful views and we had dinner in beautiful surroundings. At the end of the dinner we were offered different types of Greek liqueur to taste. Yamas !
Make Life a Ride !
Facebook post with some photos of the day
Click HERE to see all photos and videos of DAY 12 !
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