Katakolo, Greece - Nov 2024

Katakolo (Olympia), Greece - November 7, 2024

Our original plan was to go to Olympia to see Ancient Olympia; however, since Travis was still recovering, we stayed in Katakolo, also spelled Katakolon in some documentation. The options looked like a tour coach purchase at the port, public bus, or public train. 

We had found an Ancient Greek Technology Museum that we planned if we got back in time, so we did this as the main stop. We also stopped at the ATM in this port to get Euros for our tour in Naples. 

Arriving in port. 

The museum was a short walk from the port. It was a 5 EUR cash donation each (why not just a 5 EUR entrance cost, I don't know because the lady working there said to do it/required). She was able to make change for us, which was helpful. Another lady did a tour and demonstration of some exhibits after several visitor groups arrived; this was good. The technology was from 1st-5th BC, very impressive. The main technology to me seemed to be siphons; however, I don't have any pictures of these and they are not in the brochure. There was a siphon water fountain with a bird that whistled, an alarm clock, and a moderation cup (if it was filled above the line with wine, all was siphoned out). 

Fancy sundial and then our youngest son does Tech Theater, so some Greek theater technology to show him. Lastly, the picture enlargement tool. They also had puzzle games that you could try out.     

After the museum, we hiked up next to this church to get a view out over the water. 

Today was our Sapphire perk Wines Around the World wine tasting. Travis made me try most of them even though I'm not a wine fan. Unfortunately, I still did not acquire a taste for it and gave up before the last country/last two. This time, they gave us a booklet to take notes and rate each. They covered what meat each wine was good with and what restaurants they have it available (so a little bit of a sales pitch too). We are still keeping Travis feeling okay and next was our reservation at Le Bistro, the French restaurant. We did not know if the tasting would run into our reservation time, but it was quick, about 30 minutes. We were split into groups, and each group visiting a different country at one time. The main host kept everyone moving and on schedule. This was better than on our last cruise ship tasting where we were divided into two groups, where the second group went after the first finished -- just for the restaurant reservation concern, if we were assigned to the last group. 

At Le Bistro, goat cheese croquettes with beet salad; I ordered this just for the croquettes. Since I did not eat the beets, our waitress insisted on bringing me more croquettes. They were very good. She also pushed the escargot, which Travis has had before; he ate many today and said that they were good and garlicy. I did not try them. He also ordered the French onion soup. You can also see that Le Bistro is dimly lit for ambiance too, but bad for pictures. 

For mains, Travis got the Mediterranean Sea Bass, and I got my favorite, the beef filet. It was very good. For dessert, Travis got the poached pear, which was very good with very good chocolate sauce. I had the 70% Dark Chocolate Cremeux, which was good but was hard to eat. It had a rice crunch piece through the center that did not like to cut with a fork. I found later that there were sections, if you fork in the right place, though that was hard.  

This night was the only night that we went to the show. It was acrobats, which I really like. However, it was a little light on the acrobatics -- they did all the good, exciting acrobatics only at the end. After that, we went for a walk on the promenade. Travis was still feeling fairly well after the wine tasting and big meal, yay.

Next up...Messina, Sicily

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