Today we arrived in Katakolon, Greece which is the port that connects the archaeological site of Olympia to the sea. Historians traditionally view classical Greek history starting with the first Olympics in 772 BC, which carried on uninterrupted until they were discontinued in 383 AD before returning in 1896 (the year Anthony's grandmother was born).

On the BBC news this morning they were discussing the Russian state supported drug cheating at the Olympics since 2010 and whether to ban Russia from participation in Rio next month. We also saw that Malcolm Turnbull was sworn in as Australia's prime minister more than two weeks after the very close election. I also saw a report on Facebook that showed that female representation in Australian government has dropped to below 25% at a time when they're are 22 female leaders in the world including Germany and Britain.

Along with this news was the report of an attack by a 17 year old Afghani refugee of people on a German train with an axe! The other scary headline was that Donald Trump had now been formally recognised as the republican candidate for the US elections.

The ship arrived in port at lunchtime and we almost missed our tour despite being ten minutes early because we were waiting in the wrong lounge. Despite the instructions being to meet in the Grand Bar-Piazza Casanova, this actually meant we were to wait in the bar called the Piazza Casanova, not the Grand Bar. Never mind, we crossed via tender and found our bus. Luckily we weren't the only ones who were late.

It was about half an hours' drive to the archeological site of ancient Olympia and when we arrived Anthony decided that the tour through the site and museum wouldn't take long and he left his bag in the bus. I questioned his wisdom, especially as it was hot, but he was adamant.

We walked about five minutes from where the bus dropped us off and split into two groups based on language. In the shade, our guide gave us our tickets to enter the site and explained we would spend around 1.5 hours at the site before being guided through the museum. Anthony was gobsmacked to learn how wrong he was. The worst part was realising that not only was his water on the bus, so was mine!

The guide took us around the site which was a lot larger than I had been imagining. The site had been left to ruin when the Christian leader cancelled the games which were originally part of a large festive period for Zeus. It was consequently damaged by earthquakes and covered in silt from floods.

The Olympic site was divided into two parts separated by a low wall. On one side was the athletes village and associated camping grounds, gymnasium area, VIP building and IOC centre. On the other was the sanctuary which held the Temples of Zeus (479 BC) and his wife Hera (the oldest since the end of the 7th century BC) amongst other sacred spaces.

When the guide led us to the spot where the Olympic flame is created for each game (since 1936) I felt goosebumps when I reflected on the time I carried the torch for the Paralympics in 2000. The flame had travelled all the way from this site to my village in Kellyville! I felt humbled and connected through the ages, especially as Brianna had participated in the Youth Olympics in 2010.

We also viewed some graves of former athletes (winners could be buried here) and the hall of shame where cheaters were made to pay for statues that listed their name for all to see.

The next section of the site was the stadium and athletics track. I had a very short run down the track for a photo before we moved on. By this time we were pretty thirsty, luckily the guide lent us some money so we could purchase some water. What a relief!

The next part of the tour was through the museum (air conditioned!) where many artefacts were housed. This included the top mantle of Zeus's temple which displayed a series of oversized marble statues conveying stories of the labours of Hercules and other tales for the masses.

Another display was in relation to the building of a gold covered statue which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. While the statue no longer exists (the Romans melted it down), the moulds to create the gold coverings and other related artefacts were on display. We also saw a marble statue of Nike (the goddess of victory) and Hermes (messenger) with Dionysis (wine). Amazing to view these beautiful statues that are over 2,500 years old.

A number of other statues were on display, including Hadrian (the one who built the wall in Britain) as well as ancient artefacts including some bell weights used to hold down dress hems back around 1400 years BC!