The home of the Olympics, a massive castle and 2500 year old technology

In the summer when I had just turned seven, my mother woke me up at night to come and watch the opening ceremony of the 1976 Montreal Olympics on our new colour television, bought for the occasion. From then on I would spend the entire fortnight of each Olympiad glued to the screen. Two highlights of my career with the BBC are covering the 2012 Olympics in London from inside the park, and going to Rio to work on the 2016 games. Arriving in Ancient Olympia, the home of the games, and the place where the torch is still lit every four years, had me in a state of great excitement.

Arkoudi - clearly more of a summer place 

We had taken several days to cover the short distance to Olympia from the ferry crossing to Patras. We don't need to be in Kalamata to pick up our post until Friday, and wanted to wait for the forecast storms to clear. Our first stop was the pretty resort of Arkoudi. A wander around the shuttered up streets revealed there was almost no one in occupation, apart from an American woman feeding the many cats, and a German couple with a motorhome, but staying with an old friend. After a short chat we headed to the beach to see how much sand Elsa could collect in her coat playing ball. The answer appeared to be most of the beach, so we were grateful for the external shower point we'd had fitted.

The next morning we moved to nearby Kastro to explore Castle Chlemoutsi, the vast Frankish crusader fortress built in 1220. It's the biggest of its kind in the Peloponnese, and the walls are still largely intact. The throne room was huge and must have been daunting for visitors, the small museum had been beautifully curated, and the list of former owners included some familiar names from the Angevin dynasty, before it was taken over by the Ottomans. We were only slightly embarrassed that our arrival meant that the stewards sheltering in the ticket office had to grab umbrellas and rush to take their places inside the castle. Fortunately two other visitors arrived while we were there.

A castle built to last

We have seen a lot of rainbows though

As we returned to Florence the cloudbursts were getting heavier. It was time to move on to Katakolo, where we planned to sleep in the harbour car park. We did spend the night there, but I can't say we slept much. The rain turned into a full-scale thunderstorm. Lightning lit up the moored yachts, the thunder roared over the mountains above, and rain pelted the roof. Elsa was briefly given the very rare treat of getting onto the bed, as the thunder was making her hair stand on end. Max was curled up tight in his den. After four or five separate storms had passed through there was a brief respite in the early hours, and then the wind blew up as dawn approached. We both ran through scenarios in our heads about how to escape if the van blew over, and decided we'd be well looked after by locals, if we could only manage to escape the wreckage. We've been in stronger winds once, on top of cliffs in northern Spain, but the punching power of these gusts had Florence rocking on her suspension. 

Unsurprisingly we slept in. When we at last emerged the rain had eased. We went for a walk around the port, spotting a yacht with a familiar name: Christina O. Only one of the most famous yachts in the world, a former Canadian destroyer converted by Aristotle Onassis into a luxury yacht which was to host everyone from JFK to Elizabeth Taylor. She's now for sale, but you can charter her for half a million dollars a week - off-season. 

The Christina O in port

3rd century BCE robot

We left the spaniels to sleep off a late breakfast as we headed over to the grandly named Museum of Ancient Greek Technology. We always try to find unusual collections, like the Museum of Devils in Kaunas, or the Museum of Nativity Scenes in Evora, in Portugal. This was one of the best. A lifetime's work by an enthusiastic engineer and amateur archaeologist, had generated reconstructions of technology used in Ancient Greece. It included time-keeping, water collection, cranes, ships, long distance messaging, siege engines, water fountains, and jugs which could pour either wine or water depending on your grip. There was an early alarm clock, and an automaton which would refill your wine goblet. The devices used levers, pulleys, water pressure, partial vacuums, steam and, above all, ingenuity. One inventor was so close to developing steam devices that would generate motive force, that, had the Romans not intervened, there would have been steam engines more than 2000 years ago. We were given a demonstration of a water pump for fire-fighting almost identical to those used in London in the 1850s. And not only was the technology mind-boggling, but the reconstructions were works of art. Our minds were full of what-ifs and might-have-beens as we made the short drive to Olympia, where we spent the night in an open-air theatre on the outskirts.

How the temples were built

We threw back the curtains the next morning to sunshine and blue skies, and quickly drove down to the town where we found a river to walk along with the spaniels. Then it was straight over to the museum and the archaeological site. Delphi had been impressive, but the top deity there was Apollo. One of the dodecatheon - the top twelve gods - certainly, but Olympia was dedicated to Zeus. No-one was higher in the pecking order than Zeus, and Olympia makes that clear. 

The return of blue skies

The Eastern pediment

The temple to Zeus is vast, the pillars are three times the size of most, and once housed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. This 13m high piece of ivory and gold was made by Pheidias, famous for the statue of Athena at the Acropolis. It was later moved to Constantinople where it was destroyed by fire in about 400 CE after surviving for 800 years. What has been found are the two scenes from the pediments, now in the museum. They are so large, so animated and so perfectly rendered that they brought a lump to my throat. I have seen nothing yet to match them, not even the Elgin marbles come close.

Detail from the Western pediment

The Western pediment

The excavations at Olympia cover a wide area, and we wandered around, stopping at the Temple of Hera where the Olympic flame is lit, and the stadium, where the ancient games were held. Sadly we saw a couple of stray dogs at the site being rounded up by dog-catchers. They were handled kindly, but with so many stray dogs in Greece it's hard to be optimistic about their future. The young man who ran the restaurant where we stopped for lunch with Max and Elsa seemed surprised they were picking up the dogs, and kept a close eye on the two "attached" to their restaurant. They may be strays, but they would obviously be missed.

Site of the Olympic Games - 2500 years ago

A warm day, and a relaxing lunch left us little inclined to squeeze in a visit to the museum of the Olympic Games before 3pm closing, so we have returned to the open air theatre for the night and will go back to Olympia tomorrow. 

Where they light the flame