greece 2023

 We are flying home. We said more goodbyes and promised to stay in touch although the chances are slim that we will see any of these folks again.  Here are the three stooges, I mean amigos. New hotel, new breakfast. Cute pass-through so you can see the kitchen. The flight from Athens to PHL was 9.5 hours and while it's always easier flying west than east, it was still grueling. I went through three movies, snoozed a little, took ibuprofen to take off the edge and I expect to crash soon. Mike wants to ride tomorrow and I find it hard to imagine feeling up to it, but we'll see. If you've been reading along, let me know what you think. Or post a comment.  Either way, thanks! 

Day 3: Gytheoi to Mystras Today we left the resort and headed to the coast. After two days of very short segments and abrupt turns on very rough roads. it was nice to be on some longer stretches and better pavement. My sense is that the route planners prioritized traffic safety over riding enjoyment. It is hard to get into a rhythm when you're constantly checking your devices to see if you missed a turn.  Here we are near the top of a climb. One of the sights on this route was an old ship that became unattached and started drifting. It ended up beached here. Here's another view although Mike is in the way. We ended up in a little fishing town before getting on a bus to the next hotel in Monemvasia.  The hotel sits on a rock and is nicknamed the Gibraltar of the East. There are ruins at the top of the rock (the upper castle) and a functioning village below (the lower castle). You'll see better pictures of the rock and the ruins in tomorrow's post. It is a quirky hotel (o...

 Day 2: Sparta Valley to Mystras Disaster! But first, more amazing breakfasts. Day 2 was our first real ride, although it turned out to be a lot of what Mike likes to call a “scavenger hunt”. In an effort to stay off main roads, we rode on a lot of small back-alley kind of roads. They were generally very short segments on poor road surfaces and we often missed turns because they were no bigger than alleyways. if you look at our ride maps, you can see that on Day 1, the route was designed to give us a few miles to test out our bikes without going too far from our hotel. It wasn’t until the second half of today’s ride that we got out on to some open roads. Every morning, the guides would give us a brief overview of the route, highlighting unexpected turns or hazards. There are often too many for me to remember, so it is nice to have multiple minds working on the things we should be remembering. There were two landmarks on the route that we needed to remember: a walking bridge where w...

DIY pre-tour Tourpiotec - that's "tourists" in Greek but without the Greek keyboard. Today we were full-on tourists complete with sensible footwear, shorts and sporty t-shirts. No one could possible mistake us for locals. The only thing we were missing were fanny packs. But first, breakfast at the hotel's rooftop restaurant. Europeans know how to do breakfast. Breakfast was laid our in the shape of a "U" near a tiny kitchen. Here are three or those views. I skipped the area with the warmers because you couldn't see beneath the covers, but they had the usual eggs, bacon, sausages, etc. Fresh breads (the Greek "bagels" were a curiosity, but not enough for me to try one because there were better baked goods). Nut butters, jams, pastries, yogurt. cereals and toppings. A complete honeycomb. Fresh veggies and fruits including a greek salad that I was really loving. More pastries including the requisite chocolate croissants. After breakfast, we waddle...