Greece - Day 6 (Sun. 9/1/24)

Nice leisurely day. This is the first morning that we didn't have to get up early. After breakfast, we had a long bus ride to our hotel in Olympia. We listened to some good playlists that our leaders had put together. Some American music (such an anatopism listening to "Bohemian Rhapsody" while driving through the Greek countryside) and some Greek music. 

We stopped here for a potty/food break. There was a fresh fruit stand in the parking lot, and our friends the Hinmans bought a large melon (maybe a crenshaw melon?) for 12 Euro to share with the whole group. So thoughtful.

A very nice lunch buffet was waiting for us when we arrived at what turned out to be my favorite hotel. Greek salad (of course), tabbouleh, gigantes plaki (huge baked beans), a mysterious yellow hummusy thing that may or may not be made from lentils (I didn’t completely understand what Nikos said, but he was adorable trying to explain it to me).

Then we had free time to enjoy this hotel setting: a quiet bucolic area on a hill above ancient Olympia. We had a nice balcony with a lovely panoramic view. This was the first day we finally started to feel like we were getting a handle on the jet lag.

In the evening, we went down the hill to tour the museum and ruins of the first Olympic Games from 776 BC. Our entertaining guide, Nikki, gave us lots of interesting stories and details (including the fact that the athletes were all naked men). I was struck by the fact that the Greeks were doing things thousands of years before America was even born. 

The athletes would go through this tunnel to enter the arena that held 45,000 spectators.

This is where they light the torch before carrying it to the city hosting the games.

The original starting blocks for the sprint.

We went back to the hotel and watched the sunset from the pool while eating the melon the Hinmans had bought earlier in the day. The hotel staff kindly cut it all up for us and served it. The melon was refreshing and mild and very enjoyable, and I was thinking how much our cats would love it.