Keying in on Katakolo

Katacolo, is the closest port in Greece to the ancient Olympia. This is the place where the Olympics began and the place where the flame for each modern day Olympic competition is lit before being carried to the various host countries, to display at the games. Gym and Mrs. Gym would board a bus with our excellent guide Panagiota, to tour ancient Olympia, on the morning of October 30th. First, we toured the remains of an ancient Gymnasium and also walked through the sites of the ruins of the temples of Zeus and Hera that stand outside of the ancient Olympic Stadium. We passed under the the same archway that the ancient competitors passed, on their way to compete in the stadium and stood on the marble starting line which is still there. That marble has persevered through the ages. For Mrs. Gym, standing on the starting line meant something special as she has competed in 8 marathons. For Gym, he wondered if maybe he should have used marble on the patio, instead of exposed aggregate. 

Olympia would just be the early highlight. Later on, we would join dozens of our shipmates for a traditional Greek lunch and a bit of Greek culture. There was a nice light lunch waiting for us in one of the local hotels and if you wanted, lots of local wine and just enough ouzo to get our more enthusiastic shipmates to consider joining the professional greek dancers, for a spin around the floor.  We watched as the dancers twirled around and kicked high in the air, slapping their hands with their feet and contorting their spines, in the process. Having completed a twirl, kick and slap, the dancers would yell, "Opa", at the top of their lungs. Gym believes that Opa means that a dancer has kicked so high and so hard that he has actually cracked his own back.  It is for this reason that Chiropractors find it difficult to land a practise in Greece... after the lunch we re-boarded the buses for one last stop.

Our final stop of the day, was at a very cool local vineyard where we were shown around by the Patriarch of a fourth-generation wine maker.  And you guessed it, at the end there was a wine tasting so that my shipmates and I could keep our buzz going all afternoon. However, before tasting the wine we got at tour from the owner, who showed us around a museum of old farm equipment that he had on display in one of the barns, the beautiful vineyards and the whole wine making facility. This wine was much better than the stuff that we had had at lunch and I highly recommend you give the product a try as it is exported all over the world. Mercouri Estate is a fourth generation winery currently operated by brothers Christos and Vassilis Kanellakopoulos. Check out there website at www.mercouri.gr and look for their wines that are apparently available in many countries, including Canada.

The Marina would leave the Greek mainland for the second time and set a course for Corfu. 

Panagiota

this is where the flame is lit for each Olympics

the archway to the athletes tunnel that comes out on the "playing field"
of the ancient Olympic Stadium

looking down on the playing field from up on the side of the bowl
above the athletes entrance

Mrs. Gym posing on the marble starting line with the athlete's
tunnel in the background

this is not a headstone it is a tribute to a
former olympian from the ancient games

apparently this creek used to be a river that was navigable by
tiger ships that would bring bring people to the Olympics from all over antiquity

Opa!

there is something so wrong here, you would think the
Greek bus drivers parked these after a party

Mr. Kanellakopoulos of Mercouri Estates, a real character

older farm equipment that has been preserved by the estate

The Mercouri Estate Mansion that needs some renovations but is still magnificent