Day 75: Olympia

Today we spent a lot of time on the road. In the morning we headed to the ancient site of the Olympics - Olympia. The ruins there were quite extensive and for this part I found our guide much more knowledgable, and I actually learned a lot. Unfortunately there were lots of groups of school kids also there on field trips, and with one week of school left in Greece they had a lot of energy. The site also had a small museum. For the most part it wasn't too exciting, but it did contain the original of the famous sculpture Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles.



Next we started heading north, eventually crossing over a fancy bridge from the Peloponnese into central Greece. Olympia had been pretty green with lots of trees, but as we went north things got much more barren. It really is impressive that such an amazing civilization could grow out of such a dry and desolate environment.


Shortly after crossing the bridge we stopped for a break at a shop that specialized in homemade sweet things, especially in cakes and other pastries. They had a huge variety and getting a slice was quite cheap, so the place was a big hit with the group.


We continued east, hugging the coast. The view was constantly great as we followed the road up and down over moutains, always next to the water. We got to Delphi around 7pm, which is where we're spending the night. We'll be doing the actual archaeological site tomorrow morning, but I went for a walk through town before dinner to check things out a bit and take some pictures of the view and a few of the locals. (Add Delphi cat to the list)