Olympia, Greece

We visited Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games.

Temple of Zeus -- You break it, you bought it

This is the original field of competition:

In the back there they light the Olympic flame every four years.

I heard the guide say to the man, "Don't lean there, sir; these ruins are fragile."

Really?  These 2500 year old ruins?  Fragile?!

Of course the on-site museum had all the good stuff

This is the only preserved complete, massive, bronze relief in ancient Greek art.  630-620 BC.  Depicts a griffon.

Glorious artifacts

Sailing South to Greece

Out of Venice our first stop was SPLIT, Croatia where we had lunch in the ruins of Diocletian's Palace.

Photo by Split local photographer Goran Leš

Not bad for a retirement home, eh?  Emperor Diocletian (244-311 AD) was an unusual Roman emperor, in that he actually did retire (the first Roman emperor to abdicate voluntarily) and also in that he was not a Roman, having been born in Salona (now Solin) Croatia, not far from Split.
More on the Palace here.
More on Emperor Diocletian here.

Sarande, Albania was not very interesting, but next day with great weather we went on to DUBROVNIK, Croatia.

Gorgeous, eh?

16th Century walls

Great view from the top of the cable car

Windy above the Adriatic

More on Dubrovnik here.


And then we wandered on to MYKONOS, Greece.

The classic windmills

Inside one, wooden machinery

Ancient among the relatively modern

Quite the amazing maze

Thank goodness for small trucks

Typical Greek crafts

Off Again ... in more ways than one

GUESS WHERE ------- ?

Venice, of course

Shannon and I had visited Italy several times over the past twenty years but had never been to Venice before April of this year.  It is unique.

Gondola Rides, 90 Euros.  Troppo caro!

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of modern art on the Grand Canal

The Angel of the City, by Marino Marini

Elsewhere in the city, this fellow seems to say,

"The dog bit me right here."

Yes, that tower is leaning slightly

After a few days we sailed away on the HAL Oosterdam

Passing by Piazza San Marco on our way out to the Adriatic Sea