Today’s ride on Komoot
This morning, I had two layers on in the first part of the ride. It’s been a long time since I’ve needed more than a t-shirt and shorts. I was looking forward to this. Dimitsana is perched on a steep rocky hill and my route would take me along and up the side of the next hill which looked spectacular. In fact, the first half of the day would be full of spectacular-ness.
I took so many videos in the first half that I had to change the battery before I got to Olympia.
There was a surprising number of villages that were perched on the sides or tops of steep hills. I only went through a few, but the others were visible from vantage points looking down the ever widening valley. Each time I saw one, I thought “why” ? Why would they build a village in such a place ?
I also saw some hilltop houses. Perhaps there was more to them ? Apart from the view, I can’t imagine living there. Let’s kick a footy – oh, it went over the cliff. Let’s play cricket – same thing. “Oh, I forgot the milk. I’ll just abseil down to the car and get some”.
I’ll let the photos tell the story of the first part of the day.
Approaching Olympia, I wasn’t aware that my route would take me past the Olympia Archeological site. I was shocked as I rounded a bend to find the original Olympic athletic stadium in front of me. This is where in the 80s, Cathie ran a lap – couldn’t hold herself back. I’d return later and witness quite a few others succumbing.
One guy took his shirt off to do his run and the guard quickly emerged from his tiny guard house, blew his whistle and demanded the the guy cover up. Fair enough too. However, I’d been there for half an hour and didn’t realise there was a human in the tiny box. Tough job in summer.
The next morning, my plan was to hit the archeological site, then the Olympics history museum and head to a camping ground 40kms away. Unfortunately, it was raining steadily, so I thought that a visit to Olympia wouldn’t be fun. If I had a rest day, then I could go in the afternoon when the rain would ease.
Over an omelette and coffee, that’s what I decided to do. So I went back to the empty hotel only to find that they were full The next night. I found one up the road, better and cheaper and then packed up the bike for the 200m journey, went to the museum and relaxed in the early afternoon before hitting the archeological site after most of the tourist buses had left.
