6/11: day 2

 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 we were advised to walk our bikes, and a short but steep climb. We remembered the bridge and we walked our bikes (although it probably was not necessary, but out of an abundance of caution, we walked anyway). Obviously, I did not remember the climb since I was in the wrong gear at the bottom of the hill.

Mike hit the climb and made it to the top without a problem. I was in too high a gear for the climb, so I turned around and went down to the bottom, shifted to the easiest gear and spun up to the top. Stu's chain slipped halfway up the climb and he went down. 


He must have rolled because he got cut on both sides.


What you can't see is the hip.

Stu was a "maybe" on this trip because he has had some shoulder issues. He did fall on the bad shoulder. Luckily it didn't seem to be so bad that he had to abandon.

After a lot of concern, we walked through the Olive Museum.


The museum was nicely laid out with informational panels in two languages. It is easy to see that life was difficult without mechanization.



We pedaled a short distance to the main square in Sparti and found a place for a drinks. The young woman who waited on our table explained some of the things she had and I asked for a fresh orange juice since it was so good back in the hotel. That was a tourist move because no one in the area ordered orange juice. Almost everyone had orange trees in their back yards! I settled on a “Motion", having no idea what that was.

Here it is. Not bad.


Like most cultures, Greece developed gender roles where only men were out in public and women were at home. That plays out with scenes like this.


Even though it was Sunday afternoon, there were only a few families at the shops. Mostly it was an old men’s club.

Rick Steves says that backgammon is the national game of Greece. I was hoping to find a game at spots like this, but I didn’t see any. Besides, I’m not sure I would have been up for getting my butt kicked.

We finished the ride at the resort. Since it was a little on the short side, Mike suggested that we continue to ride up to the village and back. When we got to the village center, I suggested that we go back and get ebikes from the others who had completed their rides and re-do that ride to the village plus climb to the castle.

This is our new tradition. Although the stats aren't that impressive, climbing 1000' felt effortless. 

Note: pro riders might go up a hill like this at 15mph and that's after already riding 100+ miles. We couldn't average 15mph on ebikes!

Here's Mike letting the battery cool off.


Here's the castle that we would be visiting later with the rest of the group.


Here's proof that we made it to the top.


The afternoon activity was a trip back up the hill to the ruins. There we were met by a guide who walked us from the upper gate to the lower gate.


Some of the buildings were restored so you could imagine what they looked like when they were in use.



Some of the buildings were just piles of rocks.


Here's a nice scene for a wedding photo.

We had dinner on our own someplace, but apparently it was not memorable enough for pictures.

My stats for the planned ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/9245218367

My states on the ebike up to the castle: https://www.strava.com/activities/9245218367






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