The Home of the First Ancient Olympics…..

We had a great first day on the cruise and were very excited for the rest of our time traveling by boat around Greece and Turkey.

and we became even more excited the next day when we arrived at our first port in Greece…. Olympia.

When we got off of the boat, our driver Christos took us to the site of the very first ancient Olympics in Olympia.

The Gymnasium

The Gymnasium was where the competitors would practice before going into the stadium. Today, there are ruins and columns forming a big rectangular shaped building and looked like plenty of space for the competitors to practice.

The Temples For the Gods

Around the area, there were many temples dedicated to the gods and goddess such as Zeus, Nike, and Hera. They were huge buildings with many rows of columns and beautiful pediments. The temples were used for sacrifices and prayers. There was also a large fountain dedicated to the Nymphs. The competitors used the water from the fountain for drinking, taking baths and for many other purposes.

The Entrance to the Stadium

The entrance to the Olympic stadium was a long stone hallway with a big arch standing over it. At the beginning of the hall there were two statues of Nemesis that the competitors would look at before entering. They were there to remind the athletes to be fair and not to cheat.

While the competitors were walking down the entrance, they would remove their clothes and compete in the nude so they could be faster. Under the arch is the most popular place to take your photo at the stadium.

The Ancient Olympic Stadium

The ancient Olympic stadium is now a big area of grass with a large patch of dirt. The patch was the running track where the competitors raced. What I thought was interesting was that the start and finish lines were blocks of marble lined up in the ground. Katherine, Mikhaila and I raced all the way to one end of the racing track and then raced back. We also practiced running long jump, standing long jump and triple jump. It was a lot of fun and we felt like we were in the Olympics.

A few years ago, Mikhaila and I went to a summer camp and learned about the Olympics and I remember this video.  It is from Horrible Histories and explains the Olympics with the Groovy Greeks!  Watch it! 🙂

In the areas where the spectators sat and watched, there was a little area with about thirty blocks of stone which were the V.I.P.s would sit. It reminded me of the V.I.P. section at the Colosseum in Rome.

I think that today’s track and field meets are based on the first Olympics. Another interesting connection is in London, we saw the modern stadium used for the Olympics in 2012 and the tracks and stadium are very similar thousands of years later.

The Museum

In the museum we saw a huge model of the Olympic area and could point out where a lot of things were.

Another interesting thing is we saw the statue of Nike, the goddess of victory.

We also saw statues from the pediment of Zeus’ temple which tell a story. One story took place at a wedding. The bride and groom invited centaurs to the celebration who became drunk and tried to kidnap the bride.

After learning about the ancient Olympics, we drove our next stop.

The Monastery

The Kremastis monastery is located near the top of a mountain. It has a very interesting story about an icon that was found up on the mountain….

One night people in a village saw a bright light at the top of a mountain. The whole village thought the light was a bunch fire flies and ignored it. It went on for many nights until one day two people saw it during the day so two shepherds went to see what it was. They both saw a beautiful icon inside a cave and thought it would look amazing in the new church at the bottom of the mountain and decided to bring it down. They put it in the church and the next day, it was gone! They thought someone had stolen it so they prayed to God to let them find it again. That night, they saw the light in the cave again. They climbed up again, took it down and put it back in the church. It disappeared again and kept appearing in the cave at the top of the mountain. This happened over and over so they decided to build a church at the top of the mountain and that is where the icon remains today.

Mothers used to bring their ill babies to the cave where the icon was found to heal them. Once they were healed, the mothers would drop them over the side of the mountain and they would survive which I thought was a miracle.

The Beach

Our last stop was the beach. Mikhaila, Katherine and I had a lot of fun jumping over the HUGE waves. The water of the Mediterranean sea was really cold at first but after a lot of jumping, it was the perfect temperature. The waves reminded me of the water in Collioure and the big waves when we went to Crete.

To finish the day off, we celebrated my 11th BIRTHDAY! The housekeeping staff gave me a beautiful cupcake and sang happy birthday to me which was very kind of them. We went out for dinner and the waiters gave me a delicious cake! Yum Yum! We also saw a fantastic live show with a very talented performer who was ventriloquist and could make amazing detailed shadow puppets such as a moose, a bird and E.T.

I think being able to see where the first Olympics were held and many other things made my 11th birthday the best birthday EVER!