Day 15: PATRAS–OLYMPIA. Wednesday 13 July
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2011
1
20
41
Trip End
Jul 30, 2011
Olympia, Peloponnese, Greece
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Enjoy some daylight cruising towards the Greek coast before reaching Patras. Then, drive to Olympia for an overnight in the Peloponnese. (B,D)
Hotel: Olympia Palace 2 P.Kondyli Street Olympia Gr-27065 Greece Tel: 00 3026 24023101
Ancona to Patras by boat
http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=Ancona,+Italy&daddr=Patras,+Greece&hl=en&sll=43.615844,13.518739&sspn=0.258004,0.793076&geocode=FWSGmQIdk0fOACk9fiKUu38tEzGVswh0g3UXPw%3BFYG3RwIdaq5LASkt7SSlmTVeEzGgjLniLL0ABA&mra=ls&dirflg=w&doflg=ptm&z=6
CITY: Olympia
Olympia Archaeological Site
This ancient site is the most famous of Greek sanctuaries, where Zeus was worshipped and where his ivory and gold statue was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World. Olympic Games were held here between 776 BD and 393 AD. Your local guide will bring Olympia back to life with her commentary.
Approximate value: EUR €22 per person
What we did:
Up at 8:00 after a restful sleep for our included 8:30 breakfast in the self serve restaurant. It was a nice big croissant, fried egg, thick bacon, juice, and coffee or tea which rather nice I thought. We did some poking about the ship and discovered shops, a Casino, and the pool was now full of water and in use. I met a retired 82 year old high school Ancient history and Latin teacher from Florence. He said he's going to Greece now and will stay home in August because everyone in Italy takes holidays then so Greece will be much busier. The ship’s first stop at 11:00 was Venitsa Greece, after which we continued on for Patra. We napped and snacked until our rendezvous in the King Minos Lounge at 3:00, staged at 3:30 by reception, and disembarked at 4:45, and 5 minutes later were on our bus and headed for Olympia. Good co-ordination and management by Chiara and Julio made us the first bus leaving the dock. During the drive to Olympia it was quite flat with a lot of water melon fields and olive trees. There was also a fair number of closed businesses along the highway reflecting the hard times they’re enduring here. We stopped for wine/olive tasting just outside of town and Nancy bought some earrings. It’s a beautiful hotelWe were checking in to our attractive rooms by 5:30 but the entire hotel is too hot. We had 45 minutes to check out the main street before supper and it’s very charming and quiet. We ended up in the Apollo jewellery store where the owner George Galanis and his sister took care of us. George has carried the Olympic flame 3 or 4 times for the start of different Olympic Games. Quite a few of us had our pictures taken with George and his torch. George said it was very busy earlier with cruise ship traffic. We bought some more jewellery and the prices were better than just outside of town. We got back for supper and had one of the best included buffets so far on their beautiful patio overlooking the street. It’s one of the most convenient locations just at the end of the 3 block downtown strip so everyone went back to cruise the shops after supper. We ended up on the pretty tree covered patio of the Olympias restaurant with our travel chums having drinks and comparing purchases until 12:00.
