Day 5 - Olympia

Our bloggers today are Mike Daddario on narrative and Brian Lettrich on captions.  Sorry about the large (slow loading) pictures yesterday.  I think we have fixed the technical glitch for today.

Mike

Today's pace was more relaxed and was a good change form the intensity of the other cities.  Our first stop was the sports museum in Olympia where we explored the ancient ruins of the first Olympic town. I found the remains of Apollo's temple and the workshop of Pheidias particularly interesting, we were even able to have a 200 meter race in the arena where the sprinting events were originally held.  Next we visited the archeological museum and were allowed to move about in small groups.  Encountering things like the statue of Nike, pediment of Zeus and statue of Hermes independently was again, a nice change from the group oriented experience of the previous museums.  By mid day it was time to make the long haul to our current hotel, Leto, in Delphi.  The monotony of the ride was broken, however, with a stop at the bridge at Patra across the Gulf of Corinth, completed in 2002 for the amazing equivalent of 1 billion US dollars.  Finally we ended the day with a dinner at Astra's and some free time to do a little gift shopping, all in all a relaxing day.

Brian

These were in our visit to the Greek Olympics Museum.  These items were used for bathing.  The sharply curved item was used to scrape the dirt, oil and sweat off of an athlete after an event. The bottles held oils that acted as a cologne.

In the same museum, this rock was used for weight-lifting.  The writing on the stone says one particular athlete lifted the rock above his head with one hand.  Lifting weights weren't part of the games, but it is most likely when one athlete was trying to show off or otherwise intimidate his future opponents.  It is said that this stone weighs about 300 pounds. 

This block was the starting line for the foot races.  The two lines in the middle are where the athlete would put his feet.  His toes would grab onto and push off of these lines as the race started.

This is the Philippeion.  It was built by Philip of Macedonia after he conquered Southern Greece.  Philip built this monument to honor his family.  This was an insult to the Greeks as it was a building meant to honor Philip's family instead of the Greek gods.

At the stadium of Olympia we had ourselves a little race.  One of which Mr. Domo was the winner.  He was presented with flowers but unfortunately did not bask in the eternal glory that others would have if they were to win.

The defeated as they walk back to the crowd of students.  As they walk, they are thinking of something clever to say to try and save themselves some embarrassment.

A helmet of Miltiades from the Battle of Marathon.  This is a little preview to what we will be doing in the days to come.

A group picture at Naupactos.  A city with a picturesque view of the water, but it was a little too chilly for a swim.