We had to sit on a tour bus for about a 30 minute drive until we got to the ancient site of Olympia. Our tour guides did an awesome job giving us lots of information on our way there. Our kids on the other hand were not real interested. Luckily we had some really nice people in our group and they all had kids (that they had left at home.... smart people) and were very understanding. Finley was the absolute worst about being on the bus. She does not like bus or train rides where she isn't in a car seat, I think she just has no idea what to do and doesn't understand why she can't run everywhere so she just screams. That makes for some fun times.
We made it to the Olympia museum and were able to tour the museum with our guide and get a lot of information about how the Olympics started and about the site itself. It was very neat and the kids even enjoyed checking out all of the status about "hercules and his dad, Zeus." They love the Disney movie, Hercules, so we pretty much just tried to relate everything we saw to something in the movie so they would remain interested and not break something.
It is crazy to try and wrap my brain around how old these statues really are!!
This is the helmet of Miltiades, he was the general in the battle where the Greek's defeated the Persians. It was one of my favorite parts of the museum, it was really amazing to see in person.
After the museum we walked over to the actual site of the first Olympic games. It used to be an entire village where the athletes would go to train their minds and their bodies before competing in the games. All of the villages would send a man from their town to represent them. When the games were not happening, only priests were allowed to live in the city. Learning the history of the Olympic games was great, I loved our time here! Our guide told a story about how if a town's man won an event at the games, they would knock down part of their town's wall to show that they had an Olympic winner and they didn't need their wall to protect them because he would. She said they did build the wall back up shortly after and really it was just a way to announce they had an Olympic winner. I thought that was a fun story.
Our kids loved playing in the dirt and rocks the entire time we were there.
Walking into the first Olympic "stadium" which is actually just a field with hills coming up the sides. The audience would stand on the hills to watch but only men were allowed to attend the games.
The judges box.
Leo hanging out in some Greek ruins.
The picture on the right is the site of the first lighting of the Olympic flame.
I love this sweet girl.
Running on the field.
This is what remains of a temple to Zeus where he was made of gold. The description of the temple was incredible. He sat at the end of a pool of olive oil and the reflection from the oil would make him look like he was coming alive to many of the Greek people that went to worship him.
The tour was great and we loved it very much. We had a little time in the small city right off the port to shop and Dave got his first gyro in Greece. When we got back on the ship they had sandwiches waiting for us in our room which was so nice because we were tired and hungry! After our busy day Dave and the little kids took naps. Quinn and I went to dinner because it was Indian night at the buffet and I was super excited about that! It was fun to go to dinner with just Quinn and get to spend time with her, she is so great and I love her sweet personality. They were having a cupcake decorating activity at the buffet and she picked blue icing, sprinkles and a cherry on top. We got an extra plate of cupcake decorating items so that Leo could make one when he got up too.
I thought I would share this neat idea I saw online. The walls of the ship are metal so you can use magnets on them. I brought some and some magnet clips to put by our door and help organize our room, I loved it!
After everybody woke up from their naps we went to explore the ship for a little bit. We visited the gift shop and Leo wanted to buy Francessca, our friend and their babysitter, a present. I am pretty sure he has a crush on her and he made sure we got her a gift to take back, it was so sweet. We did a second dinner at the buffet for all the nappers and then went to see a show they were putting on in the theater. Leo and Finley were not having it so I let Dave stay with Quinn and watch the show while I took the little kids back to the buffet for some ice cream. Quinn loved the show and was trying some of the acts when she got back to the room. I am glad her and Dave were able to stay and watch it.
We ate ice cream and my favorite cake fondue (yum!!) while watching the sunset, it was amazing.
To say it was a great day is an understatement. We visited Greece (yay!!), went to the ancient Olympic site and museum, ate a gyro and had the best evening on the ship. It was incredible and I am so thankful we were able to take this trip and share these memories together. Doing this blog just makes me want to book another cruise! My travel journal had this quote on it and I thought it was great, "Travel while you can. Experience is far more valuable than money will ever be."
Greece is great, life is good!
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