Stampin’ Up! 2019 Incentive Cruise Last Stops! Athens and Olympia

Good Saturday to you all!

I am mystified, amazed and not a little sad to think that this will be my last “tour” post!  Yes, it’s true.  It’s Saturday morning and we’ve been to our last port of call.  As this posts, we’re steaming towards Rome.  Tomorrow – we’ll be leaving on a jet plane!  Back to the real world. 🙁  These trips go by in the blink of an eye – the saying that time flies when you’re having fun isn’t a saying for nothing!

Our last two stops were at Athens and then Katakolon.  I took a ton of pictures – hello?  Tourist? Yes, that would be me!  So figured I’d share a few of them with you – and will post the bulk of them on my Stamps-N-Lingers FB page!  Hope you’ll check them all out! 🙂

Athens was pretty amazing – busy busy busy.  Lots of people.  We got a ton of warnings about pick-pockets (more here than anywhere we’d been), so we were keeping a sharp eye!  The traffic was cray-cray, so the bus ride into the city center took a minute – but we got some gorgeous looks at the water!

When we finally debarked the bus – to stern warnings to be “BACK ON TIME CUZ WE’RE LEAVING EXACTLY AT 2” we made our way to the bottom of the Acropolis.  And waited in line to get our tickets before beginning the climb.  I’m serious.  I hit my exercise goal half way up (and hadn’t done the treadmill that morning! :))

This is a view of the Acropolis from a slightly different perspective – but you can see it’s sorta up there, right?

As we climbed – for a ways it was on a pretty decent path, I took some pictures (using the moment to catch my breath, but…we’ll pretend it was just for the picture taking!)…

Did I mention there were a LOT OF PEOPLE?!?  As we got nearer to the top, the path got less path-y and way more climb-y…and the rocks were slippery – and the staff peeps were blowing their whistles at folks who tried to stop the flow to take a picture.  So – I didn’t!

Much

Finally – we reached the top.  And…Oh.  My.  Lord.  Folks – the pictures you see online and in books and on this post simply can’t REALLy do justice to the sheer enormity and architectural prowess of the Parthenon itself.  So – enjoy these pics, but…to truly “get” it – you need to put your own eyeballs on it!

After we’d seen what we went up to see, we climbed back down the hill and made a quick pass thru the Agora (marketplace)…

 

We saw the temple of Hephaestus – the God of Fire, Metallurgy and Blacksmithing (he was also known as Vulcan – not the Live Long and Prosper kind – the Roman mythology kind) and made note of some of the fauna of the area!

Finally – we had a few minutes left to get some lunch and then get ourselves back to the bus and return to ship-sweet-ship for the evening!  As we set sail, we waved good-bye to Athens!

While we slept, the ship made good time around to Katakolon and we awoke to a beautiful sunrise in the Mediterranean!

We backed into the port at Katakolo and boarded our bus for the Olympics.

Well – the birthplace of the ANCIENT Olympics!

This is a much greener area – with olive and citrus trees abounding.  I really like this area – and the little village of Olympia is very pretty indeed!  Also?  WAY fewer people this day! 🙂

We started at the actual archaeological site…

and strolled thru taking pictures here and there.  Take a look-see!

We came to the area where the lighting of the flame took place…

…and then thru the arch to the big field where the track events took place.

On your marks!

GO!

We discovered Nero’s Villa…a palatial spot (remarkably intact!) with a “luxurious bathroom” (their words!) for him to stay when he came to the games!

A bath-house (every other Friday whether they needed it or not)…

…was near a swimming area – this whole area had some definite Roman influence.

There was a lovely flowering bush nearby…

Finally, no tour would be complete without a Temple to Zeus..

Greece reconstructed one of the columns for the 2004 Summer Olympics – anticipating heavy tourism!

My handsome hubby posed for me to help you get some perspective – that pillar is pretty tall!

We ended the day with some gyros and – shocker! – gelato at a tavern on the main street!

That’s far from all the pictures we took in Athens and Olympia – I’ll load them onto my FB page as I can on the ship and then when I get to a little better internet!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a little peek at our fabulous trip!  I’m sorry to see it come to an end – but…know that next year in Maui will be awesome, too.  And…we got a look at the 2021 Trip.  Back onboard Royal Caribbean!!  This time on the Symphony of the Seas!!  WOWZA!!

See you tomorrow!

TTFN
M

 

 

 

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