Monday 9th October 2017
Our first two stops on our 23 night cruise are in Greece. Today, early this morning, we arrived in Katakolon, a tiny little village in the southern part of Greece.
We arrived at sunrise – this was our breakfast view…
And this is Katakolon from the ship…
It is famous because of its location near to (about 30km away) the original Olympic games which date back thousands of years. We are talking about 7 BC. It was amazing to stand among those ruins. This is the gymnasium area…
This is the entrance to the arena…the athletes and judges would enter this gate. Spectators entered through the sides of the arena. No women were allowed to watch (all the athletes were naked!)
This is the original Olympic stadium where the races were run. The only seating was that on the right where the judges sat…
When Paul wrote about running the race, he would have been well acquainted with the athletic events in Greece. Apart from the Olympic games, which were held every four years, the Isthmian Games were close to Corinth and were held every two years.
1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
In the original Olympics only the winner got the prize.
This is where the finish line was…
When we cross the finish line of our lives, eternal life is our reward!
Our modern-day Olympic torch is lit from this square within the ruins of the original Olympic ruins…
A very interesting morning.
Now we are on our way to the island of Crete where we will dock at Heraklion.
While I am doing this, Mike is at a lecture, finding out what happens at Heraklion. That’s tomorrow’s news.
#441 of my 1000 thanks is for what we got to do this morning in the modern village of Olympia which is walking distance to the Olympic ruins. We went to the little village and had a cappuccino at a place with free WiFi and I got to email myself the photos I had taken. I’m still trying to upload a short video of our cabin, but it was to take too long so I abandoned that plan. I’ll try again tomorrow at Heraklion. We have not booked an excursion so will walk into the town if we are able and find a cafe with free WiFi and good cappuccino!
The other quirky thing I did in Olympia today was something I have never ever needed to do before. On the day we boarded, I pulled a 5 euro note out of my purse and it tore in half! I didn’t want to take a useless 5 euros back to South Africa, so when I spotted a bank in Olympia, we went in and queued and handed it in at the counter. The cashier checked it was legit and handed me a new one! High five!
I do not take any of this for granted. I am appreciating every moment.
These are the days!
Keep the smile going!
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂