This morning we had a breakfast at our hotel of halva, eggs, breads and yogurt with various jams or honey.

We hired a tour guide to take us through the museum and archeological site of ancient Olympia, where the first games were held from 776 BC to 393 AD. The tour starts with the gymnasia where the athletes prepared, naked, for one month prior to the event. D was quick to remind me that he told me a month ago that “gymnasia” meant “naked” in Latin — score one for education!

I personally liked the fact that if an athlete was caught cheating, they had to fund the creation of a bronze statue that would be displayed, with the cheating athlete’s name on a pedestal, at the entranceway to the stadium as a reminder to future athletes. Our tour guide had treats for D and Paul after they finished racing at the stadium and did a nice job comparing what we saw to sites we’ve seen previously in Rome and other historic sites in Greece.

By noon we were back at the hotel pool having aperol spritzes.

Mid afternoon we grabbed a bite: a small gelato, a single lokhum for me, rice pudding for D which he said was sweeter and had less rice than the one he enjoys at the church bazaar. Paul got a gyro and an espresso.

Only day 2 of the trip and we’ve seen three basketball courts and D didn’t bring a ball! Right down the road from one of the courts was Klios Honey Farm.

Klio spent an hour with telling us all about her great grandmother as a bee keeper and how her great grandfathers chickens produced 5,000 eggs that were sent by train to Athens. Klio invited us into her beautiful yard where we sat under the shade of a massive 70 year old fig tree. She brought us water, juice, quince spoon treats and coffee and told us all about the honey production from her hives, brought us around the back of the house where she showed us the machine she uses to spin the honey from the hives, then she moved us into a room in the farmhouse that was converted into a museum with photos and history about honey, and finally brought us to another part of her yard under the shade of another fruit tree where she brought out plates of diples that she drenched in honey so we could sample her product. It was the best hour of the day.

We popped into a supermarket, one of my favorite things to do when traveling, to pick up snacks and waters for the trip, and went back to the archeological site to check out one of the other museums.

Another dip in the pool for the boys while I caught up on some work, and then dinner!

Dinner at Ambrosia Garden, near the entrance to the archeological site, was mixed: we enjoyed the tzatziki and toast, and Pauls pork souvlaki, but D’s deconstructed gyro was just ok with soggy fries and chewier meat. We all agreed my dolmades were excellent (grandma they were thicker and the meat to rice ratio was higher than what you could use), I ordered a glass of tsipouro (Greek grappa) which I couldn’t drink but D liked the house red. While eating, the secedes continued to chirp and stray dogs and cats strolled by. We watched a man and a little boy deliver braids of garlic to the restaurant.

Tomorrow, we head to our next destination.