Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader loves the Olympics. He loves the spectacle. He loves the competition. He just loves the Olympics.

So you can imagine that he is very excited about the upcoming Turin Winter Games. He will watch every hockey game they put on. He will also watch all the downhill skiing and biathelon they broadcast too.

But it is not because of his love of the games that he is writing this post. No… Your Maximum Leader is peeved. As you may know, the Olympic flame will be lit in Greece. If you click through on the link you will be able to read all about it. You will read about how they will use mirrors to start the fire. Yadda… Yadda… Then the Priestesses of Hera will do chanting and make offerings to the Gods. Yadda… Yadda… Then they will put the flame on a special airplane and fly it to Italy.

Wha? Wait a minute little doggie? Fly the flame to Italy? What the hell? Why are they flying the flame to Italy? There is a land rout you know… Couldn’t you run it over? Hell you could drive it over if needed… Does your Maximum Leader need to get someone driving directions? (Directions below the fold.)

What is up with flying the flame to Italy? This peeves him. It peeves him greatly. What would be better and more symbolic of the Olympic movement than to actually run the flame from Greece to Italy. You would have to go through Albania (a country atrophied by years of Communist oppression - now growing under freedom), Serbia (a nation ravaged by war and now international troops assure peace while the nation rebuilds), and (depending on the route) you would also go through Bosnia & Herzegovina. What could be more moving than the Olympic flame being run across Europe in the spirit of peaceful competition?

It seems wrong that the flame is going by plane to Italy. It seems so wrong that your Maximum Leader now declares that in the Mike World Order (MWO for those of you who have forgotten) if it is possible for the Olympic flame to be moved from Greece to the site of the Olympics by land, then it must be moved by land. Your Maximum Leader wants to see the torch passed from hand to hand as it makes it way from Greece to the site of competition. Your Maximum Leader will go so far as to suggest that the Chinese look into a torch relay from Olympia to Beijing for the 2008 games. Wouldn’t that be cool? If you could find a way to live-cam it over the internet that woul be even cooler…

Carry on.

Driving directions from Olympia, Greece to Turin, Italy:

This is the “mostly highway” thus “fastest” route to take, by car. Of course, there are probably more scenic ways of getting there. Indeed, this is probably not the route you would take with a torch relay. Your Maximum Leader provides these directions to prove a point…

To begin you would take Greek Road 74 East out of Olympia towards Tripoli. At Tripoli you would change over to Greek Hwy E65 North/East towards Corinth. At Corinth you would hop onto Hwy 8 towards Athens. At Athens you should drive on Hwy 1 North to Thessalonica. From Thessalonica you take Hwy M1 North into Albania. In fact it looks like you would take the M1 all the way through Albania, into Serbia, and on to Belgrade. At Belgrade you would hop onto the M4 towards Zagreb. At Zagreb you would scoot over to Hwy 1 West towards the coast. The Hwy seems to change designations a few times (3, E65, 32, then 3 again) before you hit the coast at Rejika. At Rejika you stay on 3 west for a few miles then switch onto Rt 202 (which changes into Rt 7) Rt 202 which meets the A1 near Trieste. Get on the A1 towards Trieste. At Trieste hop over to the A4 towards Mestre/Venice. In fact once you get on the A4 you are home free. Because you just take the A4 straight past Mestre and Milan (you could even stop to do some sightseeing/shopping in Milan if you wanted). Just follow the A4 on to Turin.

Voila!

If anyone reading has actually driven this route, let your Maximum Leader know. It took him a little bit to figure it out as none of the major “map” websites seem to have the ability to get driving directions from Greece to Italy. Your Maximum Leader had to visit a number of sites and peice it all together.

Carry on.