Greeking Out, Part 2
The Peloponnese is a haven for finding ancient Greek sites and places to visit. We purposely booked two separate areas to stay in so that we could more thoroughly explore the historic sites throughout this region.
One of the places we were all most excited to visit was Ancient Olympia. We went there for a day trip to explore and spent hours walking around there! There was so much to see, including the original Olympic racetrack. Originally, the Olympics was just a footrace. Over the years, more sports were added to it. That original racetrack remains, and visitors can run on it. The girls and Jon ran a race together, with Emmeline coming in first, Katia in second, and Jon in a dismal third. I stood at the finish line to judge and capture it on film. As they all went to find shade and rest after their race, I decided to go for a run there myself so I could also experience it. I do NOT run, but had to make an exception here. This place has so much history and I can’t even imagine what this track has seen!
There were tons of other really interesting things to see here. Various columns were built by cheaters as punishment, baths, government buildings, temples, wine-making warehouses, and so much more. The girls loved seeing a temple to Hestia, Goddess of Home and Hearth, which is so rare to find! It was where the Olympic flame was tended and cared for. We all loved learning that one of the ancient wonders of the world was built and displayed here, The Statue of Zeus, created by famous sculptor Phidias around 430BC. It stood in the Temple of Zeus just across from where it was created. It was destroyed long ago, so we did not get to see it, but did get to see depictions of it. It looks impressive! It was around 40 feet tall, which is mind-boggling to think about how the sculptor could have possibly created this statue or how many people it would have taken to move it to its home in the temple!
There was so much to see and do in Olympia, and we enjoyed exploring here for hours before heading into the town to get some lunch. We attempted to do some other exploring in the area after leaving Olympia, but didn’t find much worth writing about!
The other big Greek destination we visited was Sparta. There were tons of older ruins around, which we drove around to check out. However, the ruins were pretty far gone and there wasn’t too much to see and explore. There was a very nice statue of King Leonidas I of Sparta, though. While I don’t know many kings from Greece, his name was one of the few I was familiar with.
The third and final Greek site we saw while in this area was Ancient Messini, which was only 15 minutes from us. We were going to go inside to explore on foot but decided against it. Each site we went to cost between $55-75 CAD for the entrance fee for the four of us, which really adds up! Especially when paying for toll roads, food, and drinks since most places are quite far away and the heat means stopping to buy a lot of cold drinks. We could see all of Ancient Messini from the beautiful taverna and pulled up the site map to learn more about the site while we looked out at it. It was also interesting to see an overhead view of an ancient site, to get a new perspective.
Ancient Greece is such a fascinating time. All of us, but especially Katia, loved being able to see the ancient sites that we have heard so much about while learning about Greek Mythology and Ancient Greek history from our audiobook Alexander the Great and His Time. It’s unreal to think about all the things that have happened right beneath our feet. Things we know about, and so much more we will never know about. We can’t even begin to imagine what other treasures are still buried beneath the ground in these areas, waiting to be discovered one day. While Greece was our least favourite country to visit this past year (at least so far!), we are so grateful we did come here to explore and experience these ancient historical sites.
