From the Panorama in Greece, 8/10/2009, Panorama II

Kithnos

The ancient Greeks believed sports and competing were good to train their people for war, as well as a way to honor the gods, and the most famous of all athletic competitions was the Olympics. They were held every four years at Olympia to the honor of the god Zeus and are still to these days one of the world’s most important athletic events.

Well, here on the Panorama we have our own Olympics. Although they might be slightly different to the original games and we do not call them the Olympics, we call them the “Pan Oramics”. It has been an ongoing competition for our youngest travelers, with both mental and physical challenges, and today was a big competition day.

The morning at Kithnos Island started nicely; we got to sleep in, have a healthy breakfast and then spent the morning on the beach. The energetic joined our naturalist Sue for a vertically challenging nature hike, whilst the rest remained on the beach to do some swimming, reading or snorkeling. We attempted kayaking as well, but the strong winds we have had the last few days proved to be too challenging.

At lunch we went back to the ship and the children were offered to paint some pottery. In the afternoon however, we all went back to the beach and the competitions began.

The first was the archaeological challenge. Three broken pots were buried, one for each team, and they all had to “excavate” their pieces and glue the pot back together, with the quickest and most accurate team winning the competition.

After this followed various challenges such as a wheelbarrow race and javelin throwing (instead of javelins we used beach toys), as well as an egg tossing and a swimming competition and the teams, the Athenians, Spartans and Korinthians, all fought hard and fair.

In the evening we had our traditional Greek party with ouzo and octopus and a beautiful Greek buffet dinner. The night finished with a National Geographic movie about Troy and most people were tired and went to bed fairly early.

Here we learned something else about sports. It is not just good as the ancient Greeks believed to prepare for war and worship the gods, but it is also a good way for young children on a family trip to burn off energy and sleep well at night.