Sporting in Katakolon

Thursday April 22, 2009
1:20 PM

We are in Katakolon significant because it was near the home of the original Olympic Games which began in the eleventh century as a small regional festival dedicated to the god, Zeus. The first Olympic games were held in 776 BC and reached the height of popularity in 576 BC. They were banned in 426 because they were pagan but resumed in 1896. We get a daily bulletin with day’s activities and I copied some of the first paragraph for the blog. We also get a condensed version of the New York Times. CNN BBC and ESPN come on the TV in our room so we are pretty well up to date on news and events.

I call this Sporting in Katakolon because of the Olympics and because this morning I actually did my 35 minutes on the treadmill that I do quite often in Sneads Ferry. We were awakened by the PA system announcing that we were in port and that tours were leaving in a few minutes at 8 AM. We skipped the tour because the destinations were mostly the original Olympic site 45 minutes away and just a field now strewn with large rocks…the ruins.

After showering we went to breakfast and found Marlene and Lyle who had mentioned at dinner that they might sign up late for the tour….they decided against it and woke after we left for the gym……by the way gymnasium comes from the ancient Greek and means a place for naked exercise…..no not us. After eating we planned to leave the ship as there is a little shopping area just of the dock. But just as I took the first picture of another cruise ship docked here too the battery warning came on. So Charlotte and I came back to the ship climbed to the 6th level and retrieved our second battery….then went out shopping…Typical souvenir type stuff but it is always fun to see what is there. After walking up one side and down the other I took a break and went into an internet café where the price was 30 minutes for 2.50 Euro. I checked e-mail and checked my fantasy teams a bit. Charlotte came by and was delighted by the e-mail Monique wrote and the news of Ross’s trip to Asheville.

On the way back to ship we picked up some water light coke, and a bottle of chardonnay we now have a bottle of red and one of white……We will let you know how it goes down.

Almost forgot the GREAT NEWS last night as we were dressing “smart casual” for dinner Charlotte reached into her pants pocket and found a sock YES WITH THE PEARLS ALL INTACT…..I quickly tore up my complaint card about the shoddy bagged security and suggested that we go to dinner early and have a drink to celebrate which we did. After dinner it was Toga Night in the casino but my poker game had not yet started and when we came back to the room I decided to take a poker break and read my cruise book “Snowball” the biography of Warren Buffet got up to page 204 before turning out the light at around 10:15 PM

I am again typing this out on our Veranda Lyle and Marlene updated us on the shopping news and then decided to go eat. Charlotte is writing postcards and we are sharing a zero coke. It is pleasant probably 72 degrees and partly sunny….we did have a couple of short rain showered this morning. There is the ship’s horn I believe we are about to pull away from the dock….Yes we are moving and it is only 1:48 PM everyone must have gotten aboard….they have an electronic system checking IDs off and on.

We are off to Santorni for tomorrow’s stop. Tonight is another formal dinner night and I think Charlotte will wear pearls….Life is good…….