Things to do in Katakolo

Katakolo is one street of tavernas behind a quay. It sits on the west coast of the Peloponnese and turns into one of the busiest cruise calls in Greece. Then the ships leave and it is a fishing harbour again.

Why the ships stop here

Olympia lies a little over thirty kilometres inland. That is about forty minutes by road. The Games ran there from 776 BC for nearly twelve centuries, until a Christian emperor stopped them.

• The stadium. The track runs a little over 192 metres between stone starting sills you can still put a foot on.
• The temple of Zeus. It held the ivory and gold statue by Pheidias, one of the seven wonders. Its column drums lie in a row where an earthquake dropped them.
• The workshop of Pheidias. Identified by the tools and moulds found in it, and later rebuilt as a church.
• The museum. The temple pediments reassembled, and the Hermes attributed to Praxiteles.

What a call actually looks like

The day here is Olympia, timed to the ship. Forty minutes out, two to three hours on the site and in the museum, forty minutes back with margin.

A guide earns the fee. Without one the site is foundations and pine trees. One local option reconstructs the sanctuary in virtual reality, which answers the same problem a guide does.

The village keeps a small museum of ancient Greek technology, a lighthouse on the point, and sand at Agios Andreas. None of it takes long.

Practical

• The cruise calendar. On a two-ship day the quay is solid from eight until four and dead otherwise. Half the tavernas do not open when nothing is due.
• Heat. Olympia has almost no shade and summer afternoons pass 35C. Take the morning slot.
• Tickets. Site and museum go together on one combined ticket.
• The train. A branch line runs from the quay to Olympia in about forty-five minutes, Monday to Saturday, for around ten euros return. Slower than the coach and much cheaper.
• Taxis. Plentiful on ship days, absent on the others. Do not plan on finding one.