Bari to Katakolon

Our first cruise stop was Bari, Italy, a small town on the southeastern coast of Italy. We arrived on a lovely day, the sun was out and the temperature was 60 degrees. This was not a city that was chocked full of things to do but it did have a nice old walled city. We walked from the port to the walled area, which followed the coast and we had some beautiful picture opportunities. Many of the old Italian men sat next to each other and conversed, probably talking about the 'good ole days' before all of these tourists showed up. There were many people fishing, probably for their evening meal. When we got into the walled area we found ourselves in a maze of narrow streets with a couple of really nice churches. The church interiors are always interesting to see, although they really don't vary much. After walking through the churches we decided to walk to a fort. As we made our way we started to hear this violin music playing. As we walked it got louder and louder until we rounded a corner and came face to face with this gentleman, dressed rather smartly, playing a violin. We stopped, listened, took a photo and paid him for his talent. He was happy, we were happy...win, win. We made it to the fort and decided to pay the two euro to take a self guided tour. Again it was nice, but not really much to it. We will see just about anything that comes our way, you never know when a fantastic photo opportunity will arise. In all honesty there wasn't anything that really set this port aside from other ports, but it was a very nice and peaceful city. Our next stop was Katakolon, Greece, more specifically Olympia, Greece. We got off of the ship and headed straight to the local rental car company. We were able to rent a car for 35 Euro, with the agreement that we would put 5 Euro in gas tank. Avis, eat your heart out. We were lucky enough to follow one of the workers at the rental car agency as he was taking another couple to the Olympic site. We arrived early and beat many of the tour buses to the site. We parked near the Olympic museum and walked over to the the Olympic site. There were crowds of people all around from the cruise ship. Evenly spaced throughout the complex, they had workers with whistles and if anybody was standing on a part of the ruins they would blow the whistles and call out to get off. We didn't have any sort of guidebook for the Olympia but each area was labeled with what they thought it was. We tried to stay away from the crowds of people, which was a very difficult task at times. It was amazing to walk past the temple of Zeus and have these columns that have collapsed, leaving these fragmented discs lying one against the other. It was hard to picture what they structures would have looked like during their prime, but it was fun imagining. The highlight was making our way into the stadium area walking under the arched entrance. You almost felt like you were there to compete. I expected my name and country to be called out as I passed underneath this arch. Since nobody stepped up to compete against me, my kids decided to humble me. We lined up and Sharma told us to go. Even before I had taken ten steps I knew I had lost, and you know what? That is exactly the way I wanted it. We made our way to the Museum and wandered through looking at all of the pieces that they were able to preserve. It is truly amazing to try and understand how old these things really are. We drove back to the ship taking in as much of Greece as we could. We dropped our car off and walked back to the ship. On our way back to the ship the wind whipped up quite ferociously, making our journey back very difficult indeed. This little boy in front of us lost his hat four times, he finally figured out that he should just hold it...a good lesson. Info Bari: Arrived by: cruise ship (MSC Magnifica) sites: Castello Svevo di Bari- free Katakolon: Arrived by: cruise ship (MSC Magnifica) Sites: Olympia museum/archeological site- 9 Euro/person