What is it about cities that makes them so hard to get out of on a bike? Urban planners in Thessaloniki obviously never considered that anyone would want to leave their fair city by the sea with anything that doesn’t have a motor. Our pedal-powered flight from Thessaloniki started with busy and bumpy roads, covered in tar patchwork, and another stretch on a motorway. We gazed longingly at service roads alongside the motorway, which looked much more appealing to us but were completely inaccessible. An hour later and not so many kilometers down the road, we finally emerged on the north side of the city and turned along a slightly quieter route for our journey further east. Much of our path from here to the Turkish border will be along the water but Thessaloniki sits on a penninsula so we had to cross it first and to be honest, if there’d been a bus or train that would have let us and our bicycles on, we probably would have taken it. The scenery is little more than scruffy fields, filled with rubbish thrown out of car windows, split up by villages of the knackered one-horse variety. A strong headwind also made the going hard. The landscape only really improved for the last few kilometers as we rolled through a forest and then stopped in a seaside village to stay with friend we met through the Hospitality Club website. We really enjoyed our evening with Harry – a Greek man who grew up in Germany and is soon immigrating to Canada, so welcome him warmly if you’re in Vancouver! He cooked us a wonderful supper and we chatted quite late into the evening before crawling into our comfy beds.

Well, after our “firsts” from yesterday – two flat tyres – we continued with the trend today by fighting off our first sheepdogs and hitting the motorway.

The sheepdogs were an early wakeup call, not far down the road after we rolled out of our tent at the base of Mount Olympus. The pack of five dogs were quite fierce, baring their teeth and trying to circle around us, but we kept our bikes as a barrier between us and the dogs and after a few minutes of barking the shepherd came out and called them off. We got another scare a bit later in the morning when a dog on the road, which we thought was asleep or had been hit by a car, leapt to life just as we were going by. Once again we used our bikes as a barrier and slowly walked by while keeping eye contact, which seemed to keep the dog just far enough away for us to pass.

In the afternoon it was time for another adventure. We never thought we’d be singing the praises of a motorway on this trip but our experience on Greece’s road to Thessaloniki was rather successful. Normally we avoid motorways at all costs. In fact, most times we aren’t even allowed on them. But this time we had little choice. There are simply no viable alternative roads to Thessaloniki from the south, unless you want to make a significant detour which, on a bicycle, would mean a whole extra day.

We briefly thought of taking the train, having no great desire to bike on the motorway, but the train wouldn’t take our bikes so instead we ran our bikes up the ramp and put our heads down for the journey into Greece’s second biggest city. We had our work cut out for us since we’d already put in almost a full day getting from our campsite at the base of Mount Olympus to the coast but with the wide shoulders and gentle grading of the motorway we made excellent time and covered 70km in less than three hours. (more…)

Well today was, as always, with its own special challenges. First off, waking up on the dance floor of the bar makes for a good story but in comfort terms it wasn’t all that much different than any other wild camping site except for the loos nearby. The real bonus though came when the owner returned with a few things in tow. Some milk, bread and warm ham and cheese croissants. We wish most camping experiences were like this!

Just before we took off, Niko took us on a two minute climb in his truck to see what awaited us for the day. Mount Olympus.

After repeatedly refusing any more cold iced coffees we rolled away with our panniers full to bursting from all the goodies Niko gave us to take on our journey.

All went well until lunchtime when we picked the wrong spot under a tree. Just a few meters up the road after we’d finished our meal and Andrew discovered a puncture in his back tire. Yes, the first flat tire of the whole trip. (more…)

Our day was a fairly ordinary one until early in the afternoon when a red pickup truck ground to a halt beside us, as we were walking up a large hill. First a stream of Greek came from the driver, a short, dark-haired man in his 40s, followed by a smattering of German. The usual questions followed and then we asked about a cafe in the next town. We’ve gotten hooked on iced coffees and were craving one as we pushed our bikes in the hot sun. Immediately the invitation came to have drinks with our host. At first we tried to politely refuse but there was a certain twinkle in the eye of this man that we couldn’t resist so – for the first time so far on this trip – we allowed our bikes to be loaded into a vehicle and rushed a few kilometers up to the village sitting on the peak of the hill.

The ride itself was rather funny: us with our two bikes, all in the back of the pickup truck (something that would be illegal in Canada), flying up a hill and around bends, bracing to steady ourselves for each curve. When we got to the cafe we realised we hadn’t just been invited for drinks. (more…)

When we first approached Meteora, coming down the Katara pass, both of us thought “that doesn’t look so impressive”. We wondered if we’d been conned into cycling into this town of hilltop monasteries for a landscape that wasn’t quite as good as it looked in the tourist brochures. But as soon as we boarded the local bus and started winding our way up the hill to the Great Meteoron monastery — the largest and highest of the monasteries — we were sold. The views are simply stunning and for once we did not mind sharing the space with the hundreds of other tourists also in awe not only at the landscape but, of course, at the treasures in the monasteries. We only had time to see two of the building and to slowly trek down between the rocks back to the town at the foot of the cliffs but  we could have spent the better part of a week here visiting each one. If you ever get the chance to come to Meteora, it is worth the trip.