Olympia

November is a really good time to visit Greece. I may change my mind about that in a few days when the winter weather behaves like November weather would be expected to behave, but our first few days in this country we have been incredibly grateful to be two of the very few tourists visiting right now. 

This was especially true in Olympia, which caters to tourists with absolutely no shame. There is pretty much only one street in the modern city (confusingly called Ancient Olympia), and it is made up completely of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. The downside of being the only potential clients in town is that all eyes were on us. No hiding behind postcard racks for us!

We only planned one full day to be in Olympia, and really that was all that was needed. There isn't much to do other than to see the ancient ruins of the location of the original Olympic Games. First, we visited the archaeology museum near the ruins, which was a good choice. Most of the sculpture and a few other artifacts from the site are stored there.

The famous Hermes of Praxiteles

Chunks and pieces of bronze statues.
I was very intrigued by all of the different types of hair represented.

Yeah, Greek sculptors did action shots well.
The museum did a good job of putting these things back together, despite some huge gaps. 

The museum visit ended with a model of the whole ancient site as it would have looked during its glory days (approximately 400 B.C.) up until it was destroyed for being a location of pagan worship in the first few centuries A.D. Then we went out to the site to see how it looks today. It's pretty barren. We used our imaginations and the information that we had learned in the museum to enhance our experience. It helped that the sun was shining.

A temple completed in the time of Alexander the Great.
One of the structures with the most parts remaining.

The original Olympic stadium
It's even smaller than the picture makes it look: Just over 200 meters long.
And there were never stands. The spectators just camped out in the grass. Neat!

I love the Olympics, so Olympia was a place I would have regretted not seeing. It's probably worth all of the tourist hubbub that it receives during the high season, too, despite its sparse remains.