Day 5: Patras to Nafplion
Holy Church of St. Andrew
Olympia
Ancient Sparta
We visited the Holy Church of St. Andrew in Patras, Greece in the morning. This is a relatively newer church. It contains the relics of St. Andrew including pieces of his crucifixion cross contained in an X-shaped cross and his skull in a silver church/dome-shaped container.
On the way out of town we stopped to get in the water in the Gulf of Patras (Ionian Sea).
We visited Olympia. This is the ancient site of the original Olympics. The Olympic flame starts from here for modern-day Olympics.
This is the entrance to the Olympic stadium.
Cooper, Nash, Tess, and Tate ran a race.
After leaving Olympia we took a side trip and visited ancient Sparta. I don't think this is a usual stop for many people. This photo shows the ancient theater on the acropolis with the modern city of Sparti in the background. It is a small city. The setting was pretty with tall gray mountains to the right of the photo and red rocks off the left side of the photo.
After leaving ancient Sparta, we drove to Nafplion. Nafplion was the capital of Greece before Athens. We arrived late and the town was alive and active.