Tuesday, September 28

Katákolon, Greece.  This is the port for Olympia. There were four other cruise ships in besides ours: the Costa Serena, the Louis Majesty, the MSC Musica which was anchored out behind the Majesty until it left when the Musica pulled into the dock, and a little one from Kristina Cruises which was also anchored off past the Majesty just far enough away that we couldn’t get her name.

The vast majority of these tourists probably headed off to tour Olympia and the remains of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and the original location of the Olympic Games in ancient times. Instead of taking a long tour to Olympia, I had planned to take a short tour of a local vineyard and winery, but not enough people signed up for that one, so it was canceled. Instead Jill and I had a leisurely breakfast and wandered in to have a look at the village of Katákolon which is about 2 or 3 blocks long and about 1.5 blocks wide. Virtually all of it is souvenir, leather and jewelry shops...wall to wall in all directions. I would guess it closes up like a clam when there are no cruise ships in port.

The weather was coolish in .the morning, but warmed up quickly...especially with walking around. Fortunately it was cloudy for much of the day, so we didn’t get too baked. Anyway, we wandered along the main street with the very international horde of tourists. We each purchased our first trip souvenir for 3 euros, and then sat in one of the cafes which line the waterfront (see photo: yes, that’s Jill), had a soft drink and did some tourist watching before strolling back to the ship. Interestingly, every single café that I saw had a big sign posted touting “Free Wi-Fi.” Luckily, I don’t need to worry about that as I have Wi-Fi access in our cabin with no need to even tote the laptop around the ship.