Corfu (May 1st)
Not much to report on Friday’s stop in Corfu. This beautiful and magnificent island is yet another victim of out-of-control tourism. Six cruise ships in port didn’t help. The charming old city that I remember when I visited 30 years ago was so jammed with tourists that we could barely move through the narrow streets. We, after all, are travelers, not tourists. Other areas of the island with popular vistas of the Ionian Sea weren’t much better with adjacent roads lined with tour buses. To end on a positive note, the massive old fortress at the entrance to the port of Corfu is magnificent.
Olympia (May 2nd)
The archaeological site of Olympia was absolutely fantastic! If the name hasn’t given it away, this is the site where the Olympic games began in the year 776 BC and ended in 393 AD, a run of more than a thousand years. Here, we gained an appreciation for how important the games were to the ancient Greeks.
The games were devoted to Greece’s primary god Zeus. An enormous temple for him stood on the site with a 40-foot-high statue inside that was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Like all Greek temples, this one faced east to welcome the rising sun. Unfortunately, several earthquakes in the 6th century completely destroyed the temple.
Back then only Greek men could compete, and they trained and competed in the nude so they could have nothing between them and the gods. In fact, our word gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnos, meaning completely without clothes. So, the next time you’re at the gym, will you be tempted? Sorry ladies, women weren’t allowed in the arena.
Tomorrow, it’s on to Athens!