Ancient Olympia March 28, 2017

A much smoother night of cruising allowed us to wake very refreshed. I can understand from the prior night's sailing how St. Paul's shipwreck could have happened. Our seas were relatively calm and still we felt the rocking of this large vessel. I find myself musing more and more on the route we are taking and the times of the first century Christians. They were up against amazing odds, operating within the hegemony of the Greco/Roman culture. We saw it on full display at the site of ancient Olympia, the site of the Olympic games in ancient times for over 1000 years.

The UNESCO site we visited on Tuesday was the excavated site of the ancient Olympic games, at the foot of the small mountain of Kronos, in the  Peloponnese peninsula, some few kilometers inland from a small port of Katakolon. After 1000 years of Olympic games--from 776 BC to the 4th century AD--the site was abandoned when the Christianized Roman empire began to forbid the practice of pagan festivals. The ancient Olympics were indeed a pagan festival, dedicated to the worship of Zeus, and including many rituals honoring the other gods of the Greek pantheon. The site was abandoned in the 4th century, then many of the buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in the 7th century, and subsequently covered with mud and silt from the two adjacent rivers. After Greece received its independence from the Ottoman Empire, many western Europeans began to express an interest in excavating ancient Greek sites, including ancient Olympia. Eventually a huge part of the site was excavated, but not much excavation is going on now. That seems a shame to me. There is obviously so much more that could be done. There is lots of visitor traffic here now. I can imagine that architectural historians are fearful that the visitor traffic could destroy as yet hidden artifacts.
The scale of the site impressed us along with the details about how the athletes, priests, sponsors, trainers and spectators gathered here every four years. It was the one pagan festival that united the Greek-speaking world and gave the Greek city-states a taste of peaceful contesting. During the months around the Olympics, there was a truce that allowed the city-states to send their best soldiers to defend the honor of their family and city, with relative assurance that other cities wouldn't attack. The honor/shame dynamic was on full display when our tour guide described the artifacts. Statues of prior year winners lined the avenues so that athletes could be inspired by the honor given to prior winners. Alternatively one could be shamed in public, too. Statues of Zeus, constructed with the fines of cheaters, were also displayed with the names and details of the crimes. Those statues lined the avenue just before the entry gate so that athletes entering the stadium would be reminded of the shameful consequences of cheating.
The whole apparatus of the ancient Olympics seems amazingly similar to the modern games. There was an Olympic committee, consisting of the priests of Zeus, who worked for four years between each Olympic event, administering the buildings and communicating with the participants. There were training regimens, housing for the athletes, accommodations for the coaches and sponsors, a system of administering the finances involved in the city-state sponsorship, rituals for recognizing the winners with olive branches, and most importantly, the cult of rituals and a system of reporters (think "TV coverage") surrounding lighting the flame, opening ceremonies, to the final recognition banquets. The modern Olympics are not far from the cultic practices of these ancient Greeks. Only our names have changed. We don't call them "religious" any more but they really serve the same function in society, cultic acts that unite peoples across many divisions, that have their own set of practices and rituals, and espouse a common "ethic:" 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger" proposed by Pierre de Coubertin upon the creation of the modern International Olympic Committee in 1894.

We entered the stadium grounds through an archway not unlike that in many modern stadiums from where the home team takes the field. On the field were many other tourists, including many children--a group of junior high aged French school children, some high school aged kids. Their teachers encouraged them to run the length of the field, from finish line to finish line, marked in marble at each end of the field. Smart teachers! The stadium area was surrounded by sloping hills where the spectators sat. Rol and I climbed the hill to take pictures, and Rol was adopted by a friendly dog who sat down next to him to make him feel welcome.

Our luck with the weather is holding out! Spring flowers are in bloom everywhere, and the wysteria is fragrant. The purple blooming tree we call redbud is called by the Greeks the "Judas tree."

Santorini on March 27

Yesterday, we visited the most photographed place in Greece--Santorini (from Saint Irene) one of a ring of three islands that form the boundaries of an ancient caldera. We awoke yesterday morning after a long sail from Athens to Santorini in some roughish water that rocked us all night. I wanted to wake before sunrise to see the sun come up, to see if dawn was indeed "rosy-fingered" in Greece. However we were so close to the cliffs of the caldera ring we couldn't see the sun at the horizon. I did see the whitewashed houses, clinging like eyebrows at the top of the cliffs, clustered in the two big towns of the Oea (pronounced "Ia") and Fira. The strata of rock on the cliffs was beautiful and interesting. We took an early breakfast on the ship where I found my favorite Scandinavian cheese on the menu. They called it Bruno's cheese, but I call it gjetost, made of caramelized goat milk. Yum!

We couldn't leave the ship except via tender boats, since the ship couldn't tie up at a pier. The water around was still very rough and the tenders had a difficult time first pulling up to the ship itself, and then docking at the pier on land. We noticed a couple of people had a rough time. Then very large tour buses drove us up the hill, cutting back and forth in hairpin turns in more stomach turning conveyance to the top of the cliff where we finally got some relief in the spectacular view of the ship below in the harbor.

The cataclysmic volcanic explosion that destroyed the island happened around 1,645 BC and some theorize that it was the source of the myths of the destruction of Atlantis. It may also have been one factor in the downfall of the Minoan civilization. 

At the top of the cliff a road runs from one end of the big island to the other. We drove through the town of Fira, dedicated to tourist shopping and resorts, then to the town of Oea, where we left the bus for a stroll through the narrow sidewalk lined with shops and taverna. There was construction going on everywhere, people getting ready for the high season of tourism that will start on Easter and run through September. It's a very popular romantic destination and we stopped to watch a couple--woman in a wedding dress and man in a tuxedo--trying to photograph themselves with a tri-pod camera. The wind kept displacing her veil, and a local stray cat tried to climb up her wedding dress, making for some amusing comments among the tourists who stood watching the drama. At the end of the road was a small circular stone ruin of a fortification from the middle ages. Along the fence were thousands of padlocks, just like I've seen in other romantic destinations in Europe where couples place a padlock to celebrate their wedding and throw the key off the bridge or the tower to symbolize the permanence of their union. I don't know how old this custom is, but we've seen similar phenomenon now in St. Petersburg Russia, and Munich, Germany. Maybe the practice will be seen in the US soon.

The tour guide told us that before Easter is when all the construction has to take place. As soon as the season opens, there is no more building allowed. All over we heard the sounds of electric saws and noticed wet cement and new fixtures. Many buildings were under intensive renovation and had excavations revealing lots of old stonework underneath. More and more tourists are spiking the demand for luxury accommodations, and the retail mix of high end shops proves it.  This is definitely the money spot of Greek resorts. Everyone wants to build on the top of the cliffs, and hanging down the slope to get the best views of the sunset. From the top walkway, many staircases lead to lower shops and cafes, mixed in with rental units, boutique hotels and private homes, white wash everywhere and lots of blue, highlighted by the Greek flag of blue and white, for the ocean and the waves, according to the tour guide. I thought it an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn't want to necessarily spend much time there--too much crowding for my taste. I can imagine it cheek by jowl with people in the high season.

Back on the bus to retrace our route to Fira we got a taste of the crowding that must be intense in the summer. The only road was supposed to be two-way, but the width of the buses and the parked cars crowded the passage so much that a bus could barely make it through by itself. Then we encountered buses coming the other direction. We couldn't figure out how they were going to make it work. One driver seemed to be challenging the other for the right of way. It took us 45 minutes, of negotiation and wiggling for the buses to pass each other along about 100 yards of road. Our tour guide told us that such occurrances are common in the high season. "This is what happens when only one cruise ship is in town.  Can you imagine when there are six or more?"

We finally made it out of Oea back to Fira. I noticed that the other side of the island away from the cliff side (the inside of the caldera) was gently sloping, with cultivation in grapes and enough space at one point for an airport. Back in Fira at 11 am there wasn't much in the way of sunset to be viewed yet, so we stopped to get some local wine and sagagnaki at a very pleasant place looking out over the sea. A jewelry store, with a very talkative and charming salesman (who turned out to be a second generation Greek American from California) sold me on a Greek key necklace and matching earrings. We made our way along the shopping street of Fira, back to a cable car for the descent of the cliffside back to a port tender for the trip back to the ship, still in fairly choppy water. 

Back on board, Rollie took a nap, still trying to shake his cold, while I had a dip in the pool and then tried out the afternoon tea served English style, with sandwiches and biscuits.  After a lecture on Greek civilization by a resident historian, we had our dinner with the first group of strangers at the ship's restaurant. A host seated us at a round table with three other couples. I remember that on our river cruise with Viking two years ago, the most interesting part of the trip was being seated with strangers at meals while we had conversations about our places of origin and shared impressions about the excursions of the day. This we did last night, with three other couples from Los Cruces NM, Denver CO and a small town in Eastern Tennessee. I don't know if we'll run into these same folks again on board. (There are over 900 passengers.) On a small river boat you see the same people over and over and have the opportunity to know folks a little better. Not so much on this big ship. But, in the small world department, we found out that one of the couples has a son in the same law firm as our son, Carl, but in a different town. We exchanged those names.

Lessons from Athens

First full day aboard the ship finds us still in the port of Pireaus, with enough sleep behind me to enjoy the day. Took the bus into the main city of Athens had a guided tour to the Acropolis ("the top of the city" in Greek).  A native Athenian, she had the dry sense of humor and extensive knowledge and pride in her city that makes for good tour guides. Highlights of her remarks for me:
Athenians of classical antiquity were justly proud of their accomplishments in mathematics, science, philosophy and the arts, and built the Parthenon over the time span of just ten years, between 447 and 438 B.C. to show their accomplishments. The Parthenon--the temple to the goddess Athena--is just one of many buildings on the Acropolis, but is the one most visible, and the one I think of when I picture Athens. The goddess Athena was the patron goddess of Athens and myth says that she gave to the Athenians the olive trees for the privilege. The olive tree made the civilization possible. It was the fossil fuel of its day, giving oil for lighting, medicine, and lubrication, providing edible fruit and fodder for animals, wood for carving and fuel for pottery making, all while requiring very little labor or water--a most beneficial tree! Thus the olive tree gave the Greeks the leisure time to think, design and write plays and poetry. It gave them wealth. They thought up ways to make civilization flourish, and so it did reaching its zenith under Alexander the Great. What did him in was hubris. "He over did it," said our tour guide. Dead at age 33, Alexander had succeeded in bringing Greek culture to the east, but he never brought wealth and power into Greece.  The guide Elsa ("a Greek girl with a German name") spoke with some sadness about her country, not living up to the glory days of its past. Still she seemed proud to be Greek. I have picked up a book in the ship library by Arnold Toynbee about Greek civilization and culture which seems to proffer the same view: Greeks have a peculiar way of looking at themselves and the past, with their past and seemingly better days behind them, they can be both humble and proud. She wanted us Americans to understand the pitfalls of great civilizations. No age is permanently privileged or permanent blessed. Hubris is the undoing of great countries.

From the Acropolis the views of Athens are spectacular. The guide pointed out the Theater of Dionysius and Odeum of Herodes and Pericles down the cliffs. We could also see the top of Mars Hill, where St. Paul preached to the Athenians, and the agora with its temple to Jupiter.
There is marble everywhere. The steps and walking surfaces up to the Acropolis are polished by millions of visitors' feet and are very slippery. We made our way up, entering the top by the western gate, just as the son was getting higher. It lit up the buildings to highlight them against a pure blue sky.
The main part of the city itself isn't beautiful, in the sense that other European capitals are, like Rome or Paris, but our guide laid this at the feet of the long history of occupation by foreigners--Romans, Byzantines, Italians, and Ottoman Turks--who plundered the city's wealth and never tolerated the flourishing of independent Greek culture. Not until independence from the Ottoman Empire (which Greece was celebrating on March 25, the day we arrived at the city) did an independent Greek country emerge. Now it is part of the EU, which many people regret. Our guide assiduously avoided too much political discussion, except to make some humorous and ironic remarks. The neighborhoods of the city of Athens are jungles of concrete condos, most of which were built after WWII. Their sprawling shapes crawl up the hills. We see lots of shiny cylindars on rooftops which look like solar hot water heaters and tanks. There is very little room for growing things or parking cars, which compete for space in the narrow streets. Some wild olives grow like scrub bushes. Redbud and wysteria are in bloom, as are red poppies. Bitter orange and chopped off mulberry trees complete the streetscape plantings. A little greenspace is found in some small parks tucked in among the concrete condos, many of which are covered by graffitti at street level. Some of that street art is surprisingly good.
Our bus tour of the city took us by many of the public buildings and museums, which are housed in former grand homes of the 18th and 19th century. A Numismatic Museum is in the former home of German excavator Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated Troy and then found a gravesite at Mycenae in the Argolid Peninsula containing 19 body remains and lots of gold from 1500 BC. Read about it in a recent issue of Smithsonian Magazine.
We passed by the parliament building and the Athenian Art Academy. We got off the bus to walk in the narrow streets of the Plaka District, lined with shops and cafes and people taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the Sunday holiday. Vendors hawked their wares in close quarters to lots of tourists. There are two Viking ships in port. Only scant glimpses of some small orthodox churches reminded me that this was Sunday. Although the tourists are everywhere, there were a fair number of Athenians out and about, too. After walking near the Museum of the Acropolis and glancing through street level cut outs of the excavations below, Rollie and I sat in a sunny cafe to watch the people and have a little refreshment.

Back on the ship we noticed that the cruise director would be acting as chaplain to lead a brief prayer and meditation (Christian, non-denominational) prayer service at 6pm. About 30 people gathered (in the disco, no less) to be led by cruise director Aaron, who said that although he was not an ordained person, he was from Texas. That's probably all the qualifications a person needs to be a chaplain on a cruise.  The worship was familiar, in a pan-mainline protestant sort of way, and included a prayer of confession, the Lord's prayer, and singing Amazing Grace. The cruise director admitted to a history in church choirs, and later we learned that he was a part of the ship's entertainment company, with a nice baritone voice.  It was good to mark a Sunday in this way, with worship and prayer. It's a rhythm I need.
Unlike the Viking River cruise that we took two years ago, this group seems to be almost all white Americans, with a few Brits thrown in for good measure. The only people of color I've seen among the guests are a couple we met on the bus coming in who said they live in Topeka KS now. Their accents led me to surmise they were originally of some south Asian country. On the other hand, the service staff are almost entirely people of color, from all over the world, many from Pacific rim countries. There are a smattering of Norwegians, mostly in guest services roles.  It's odd to see such a segregation of cultures between guests and service people...another point of wondering for me.

On the Road Day 1, or is day 2?