Military History Tours          On Tour - Greece and Crete Tour 27 April 2013

Today was our special visit to the Olympic site. A very beautiful day with a brisk morning , clear sky and refreshing atmosphere. As they had a fairly harsh winter, the spring has burst amongst the trees and birds with the chattering of the birds incessant and all the trees showing the spring growth.

This is the best that I have seen the Olympic site, green, clean and with limited visitors at the time of our visit. We were briefed at the entrance by Elena, our guide who takes the whole tour with us, were able to see the area of the gymnasium where the athletes trained, King Phillip's memorial to his victory that caused Greece to be one country and the area where the athletes took their bath after the training.

We then went to the stadium and before our race we were checked to see if our stature was correct.

We were then sent on our way and walked the 100 metres down and back as part of our practice for the games.

I have included a shot of the building where the sculptor built the model of Zeus and it was saved as the Christians turned it into a church. in 400 AD, the Christians burnt the Temple to Zeus and closed the Olympic site. The games had gone on for 1200 years, every 4 years. 800BC to 400AD. The Christians believed all Pagan edifices should go. The Christians certainly caused issues as they tried to put their beliefs over their world.

In the museum we saw this statue of Hermes, a beautiful statue made from the best of marble. There were many more artefacts in the museum were all reclaimed from the site of the dig that exposed the Olympic site.

We visited a museum on the coast of the Ionian Sea, the only museum in Greece on the Korean War. The private museum was put together by a Korean War Veteran, Capt Constantinos Farros and his wife. Both have now retired and his wife was the first female Brig General in the Greek Army. Constantinos started a group to recondition WW2 vehicles and members of our group enjoyed a drive in a Dingo Scout Car that saw action at El Alamein.

We had a small ceremony when Constantinos layed a poppie on the Memorial as Boyd played the Last Post as Matt Walsh, John Lee, Ian Prothero and Ian Long brought the 4 flags to half mast and then raised them again as Boyd played Reveille. A very moving moment for all attending.

Tomorrow we return to the Main Land and Delphi.