Olympia

On Sunday we had a trip to Olympia. The views were lovely, but it is almost impossible to imagine what the ancient complex would have looked like. The Temple of Olympian Zeus was huge, and I got to take a run around the original Olympic stadium.

The Olympic stadium

The collapsed columnsSome scaleIn front of the Temple of Hera

The museum was very nice, and included one of my favorite sculptures--I didn’t know it was there, but it was an awesome surprise. It’s one of Hermes and Dionysos by Praxiteles… and it’s fantastic.

After a nice lunch at an outdoor “air-conditioned” restaurant (the air conditioning was vine cover and fans that had misters attached) we went to a beach called Kahlo Nero (“beautiful water”) on the way back to Pylos. The waves were the biggest we had seen and the view of the sea was marvelous, but the rocks hid some urchins who apparently weren’t to happy when I stepped on them… and now I have urchin spine stuck in my foot. A couple of my friends did the best surgery they could on the bus on the way back, but only managed to get three of the eight spines out… I’ve been told that they’ll just re-absorb into my skin… here’s hoping!

My friend Stephen holding my handGraham and Mike doing surgery