Our European Cycling Adventure 2019

By Johan - The border crossing from Greece into Albania was a breeze. Although Albania isn’t formaly part of the EU as yet, their application is in the mail so the border check point is a pretty relaxed afair.  It was nice to be back in the saddle. The rear view mirror has been very useful, keeping an eye on approaching traffic but mostly to admire my beautiful and wonderful wife (scoring points here.) That fluorescent shirt is pretty damn useful for keeping an eye on her too, I must say 😊 First impressions of Albania are good. Once again, as was the case in Greece, the people are very friendly and appreciate the effort of us trying to utter “hello” (përshëndetje) and “thank you” (faleminderit). It breaks most stern faces into a friendly smile, followed by their much more provicient English “hello”. English isn’t very common for people over 35 or so. Most younger people speak English pretty well though so when you get lost; just ask a teenager.  Arriving to Butrint National P...

By Deborah and Johan - We deserted the bikes for a few days. It seemed to make sense given those squiggly altitude lines all over the map between where we were and what we wanted to see! Anyway it felt pretty luxurious cruising into mountains knowing the effort it would have cost. Sunday was spent checking out the monasteries of Meteora - wow master engineers were at work here during the 14th century. The monks sought refuge from the Turkish invaders so went high indeed and to be fair you can’t see anything from the valley below. Checking out the eastern coast we decided the west coast that we were actually biking was by far the better choice. Although Mt Olympus dominated the scene revealing the home of the gods with no cloud coverage for 2 days solid which was pretty spectacular to drive around as this mountain with 52 peaks seems to rise up straight from the flat valley lands that surround it.  Grand Meteoro monastery just a stones throw from the nunnery... I’m not saying a...

By Johan - After hiding from the storm that never eventuated in Patras for two nights, we set of North over the Rion-Antiorion bridge. Pretty awesome feat of engineering. There is a bike lane alongside the main high way but no cycleway signage what so ever so it gets a little bit confusing on the on ramp and off ramp. Nevertheless it was a pretty easy crossing with some impressive views.  Moving North from here gets a bit more rural and less densely populated. It was a nice change from the fairly dense population we had along the roads from Athens to this point. Mesolonghi has a cool town centre; we enjoyed lunch there; one of the traditional Pita Gyros sandwiches which are pretty awesome!  After lunch we passed through Etoliko, which is a pretty little town; the center is an island between two bridges. A nice place to hang out for the night or lunch with some great seaside terasses. Unfortunately the timing was a bit off for us so we peddled through. There is a bit of a hiatu...

By Deborah - The weather forecast promised heavy thunderstorms, lightening and wild winds - not something you want to challenge yourself with on a bike! So we decided to spend some time in the next town (hence all the posts). Patras is a city of about 260,000 people - the 3rd largest city in Greece but it seems to have been claimed by many over the years - Venetians, Byzantines, Romans, Ottomans - truly a mix of ancient super powers! They all left behind a taste of their power which leaves an eclectic European city feel, completely different to Athens. It was fun to explore the cafes and their ancient beginnings but tomorrow we head off again. The view over Patras from the castle wall The Greek Orthodox Church - the sign said you had to be ‘dressed decently’ with no hints of what would be decent... I sweated it out with a  polar fleece (also doing the washing while in the city) Inside was both beautiful and intricate The prayer altar (yes I read the manual and I was allowed to take...