Katakolon, Greece

Katakolon - (Olympia), Greece -- February 27, 2015

Another rainy day awaited us on this day which really messed up our trip to Olympia. Next time I will not book a cruise to the Mediterranean during the winter season. 

Katakolon Express

We had pre-booked our bus ride online with Katakolon Express which offered some discounts if you book more than one tour with them, and then some more discounts if you are a member of Cruise Critic or Tripadvisor. I took advantage of the discounts booking this and Athens tour with them so we saved a couple of dollars each. Instead of 20 euro each, we paid 54 euro total for this trip to Olympia. From their instructions, we were to board the bus at the port gate.

We left the ship at 8:30 and planned on taking the free shuttle from the ship to the gate but there seemed to be just one bus doing the trip so we ended up just walking that short distance out the port.

Katakolon Express had a couple of buses going to Olympia. They checked off our names and told us which bus to board. While we were waiting they also picked up a few more customers who wanted the ride last minute. As we were passing through the town of Katakolon, we saw people holding signs that says "10 Euro to Olympia", not sure if that would be one way or roundtrip though. There were also taxis waiting between the port gate and the town. 

The ride to Olympia was about half an hour. I made good use of the wifi on the bus and downloaded several episodes of soap opera on my ipad. 

When we arrived Olympia, it was raining really hard. The line to get tickets was horrendous! All the buses seemed to arrived at the same time. People were lining up by the door at the museum to get tickets from this one single person inside the lobby. They only let several people in at a time but some people, like Stephen our guide, were able to cut in. If Stephen can cut in and get tickets for certain people, Katakolon Express should provide that service to everyone on their buses. 

After we purchased the combo tickets for the museum and the archeological site, we started exploring the museum. There were so many people there that I soon lost interest and wanted to just sit down. Here are just a few examples of the things on exhibit. It was not easy to take pictures without other people getting in the frame. ChC spent a long time checking out all these treasures in the museum so it was a worthwhile visit.

Entrance of the museum.

After the museum we walked about 10 minutes to the site. This should have been an excellent site to visit if it was not raining. It was slippery and muddy with puddles everywhere.

Seats at the stadium

The stadium looked more like a swimming pool.

Yuck!

We walked around a bit and tried to take as many photos as possible before leaving the site.

Then we walked across the parking lot to the town of Olympia.

The main street of Olympia with souvenir shops, cafes, markets, and bakeries. 

We did not buy anything except spent 2.50 E for two Greek pies at a bakery/cafe, a cheese one for ChC and a sausage one for me. The sausage one was actually a hot dog with flaky crust. Fresh, hot, and delicious on this cold wet day.

I suppose it must be really easy to be lost in the crowds here. As we were waiting on the bus for our return trip, a woman came and asked if she could ride with us back to the ship. Apparently she got separated from her husband who had all the money and the train tickets. Stephen told her it's better for her to wait at the train station and if her husband doesn't show, any other buses will be able to take her back. A man on our bus also got separated from his wife. They tried to look for her by driving through town and drove through the other parking lot but couldn't find her. He thinks that she can get her way back since she has money on her. 

ChC noticed that our guide Stephen looked very familiar, he was pretty sure that he was our guide in 2010 when we stopped at Athens for the half-day there when we were on the Gem. He later found the photos in his camera and sure enough it was him, but that time it was through another tour company that we booked.

I wanted to walk around the town of Katakolon but it was still raining and we were cold and wet when we got there. Some people did get off the bus but I just wanted to go back to the ship and change into some warm, dry clothes. I was actually shivering as we boarded the ship and I thought I was going to get sick. After a hot shower we headed over to Cagneys for some lunch.

Yes, a hot bowl of soup!

Leaving Katakolon

Dinner was at 7:15 and there was no line, no waiting.

We got a table on the side of the ship, a round table just for the three of us!

Even though it was not crowded, it took almost two hours for us to finish dinner that evening.

After two weeks on the road, it's time to get some laundry done!