A Morning of Ancient Artifacts and an Afternoon of Driving to Olympia

We devoted the morning to the National Archeological Museum in Athens. The exhibit is arranged chronologically, so one can see the changes and developments in arts and engineering over time. We began in the Cycladic section which includes artifacts as old as 2500 B.C.  We also saw artifacts from the Mycenae site (which we will visit in a few days) including Agamemnon's Death Mask. This is not really the mask of the King described in Homer's Iliad, but the nickname has stuck. We enjoyed the bigger than life statuary of the Archaic Period--lots of Kouri with gentle smiles. They could provide a visual backdrop for a video of the popular song, "Happy!" We also enjoyed some of the bronze creations from the Severe Period--faces looking more serious and bodies even more exact in scope and shape.

Today was a rite of passage--our first time driving in Greece. What are we thinking? Not sure, except that there is not an easy or expeditious way to get from Athens to Olympia, which is on the far west side of the Peloponnese. We rented an economy-size car. The model name 'Micra' sounds remarkably like the term 'micro.' Our family, with combined backpacks and carry bags, is more accurately described as 'macro.' Somehow we managed to cram our macro stuff and selves into the Micra car. We had to disassemble some of the bags in order to make them fit in the back and the floorboard areas. And then we had to take a photo in order to remember how we did it for the next time we needed to re-pack the car.

Athens traffic was very intense, with the lines marking the lanes sometimes visible and sometimes faded beyond view. Not that this matters, really, because the frequent motorcycles ride on, across, and between these lanes...AND the buses, trucks, and micro cars that are trying to negotiate the streets.

This hair-raising traffic was bad enough in the congested, slow-moving city streets, but it really got interesting on the suburban highways, when the motorcyclists would 'squeeze' between our car and giant 18-wheeler trucks, with no more than 4 feet of side-to-side clearance at speeds of 50 m.p.h or more!

We also did something intelligent. We rented an English-speaking GPS! She (we have not given her a name yet) was very helpful in alerting us to turns onto streets whose names were posted only in Greek letters, without accompanying English letters beneath. (While our driver can technically 'sound out' the Greek letters (slowly), he could not do so while weaving in and out of traffic, and avoiding the fearless motorcyclists. By the time he could figure out the street name, the window of opportunity for choosing it had long since closed!)

Little Micra got us out of town and onto the toll road freeway headed toward Corinth. The good news is that traffic thinned out substantially at this point, so we did not have to negotiate the tunnels and curves, hills, and valleys with the added intensity of city traffic. It was a beautiful drive with dramatic mountains, hills, and the gulf surrounding us on all sides.

After several more toll booths, we reached the end of the super highway and transitioned to older, secondary roads as we proceeded west through Peloponnese. There were occasional villages along the way, and always breath taking views. Occasionally, the GPS would speak forth her wisdom (should we call her Athena?) when two roads would diverge. After an hour or so of traveling on rural roads in the mountains, far away from the toll highway, she belted out a question about whether we preferred a route without tolls (a little late for that question, I thought). There was nothing resembling a toll road anywhere near, but the question--no matter how we answered it--instructed us to make a 180 degree turn as soon as possible. This was not acceptable advice, and so we used the old fashioned GPS methodology. We turned into a tiny gas station and asked, "Olympia?" The older gentleman pointed in the way we were going, and so we were re-affirmed in our pathway and continued along.

About thirty minutes later the road narrowed further, and climbed higher, twisting near the crest of a range of mountains. As we rounded a sharp curve, immediately before us was a herd of approximately 75 goats. They covered the entire roadway from the edge of the precipice to the edge of the rock. We came to a stop, and then noticed a shepherdess with a stick, calling to her herd to move forward and clear a lane--a very narrow lane--so we could pass. The girls took a short video with a telephone camera:

Back down the other side of the mountain, we finally arrived at the village of Ancient Pissa, where we were greeted at the small hotel and tavern, where we are staying for two nights.

Oh, and we decided on a name for our GPS! We shall call her Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. We decided that the goddess of wisdom would not ask a question about tolls after we had already passed through 4 or 5 booths. But she did get us to our destination, and it was like a hunt of sorts on the back roads of Greece!