Chris's space

Olympia to Patras, Greece – short ride along the coast, no freeway, 90kph speed limit with many towns and traffic lights, 115 km in 1:40 hrs.

Patras – is a port not a tourist destination. Nice place to wander around and experience Greek culture with no tourist frills, cheaper than the tourist towns. 

Kokkala to Olympia, Greece – the same narrow winding road as I came in on for a while, slow going not my favourite kind of road and it was wet in parts from recent rain. Then onto the broad 2 lane road to Sparta, and a short bit of freeway only 2 tolls 10 minutes apart hahaha, then a 2 lane road with a few towns and some local traffic.

Olympia – this is where the Olympic flame is lit every four years before it starts its journey to the Olympic Games. There were many French and American tourists here, the museums and the Archaeological park were crowded with tour groups.

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Sparta to Kokkala and Cape Tainaron, Greece – this is the Southern most point on the European continent.  Initially good roads then narrow, winding and a rough surface, one lane through the villages but no traffic, beautiful views of the sea.

Kokkala – tiny village in a beautiful spot overlooking the ocean. I rode to Cape Tainaron, after the road ends at a small village there is a 2km walk over rocks (no defined path) to the end of the peninsula. After I fell a couple of times I decided to go back, a young French guy helped me, thank you. In 2016 I went past the Eastern most point in Europe when I travelled across Russia. In 2022 I visited the Western most point in Portugal and in 2023 I visited the Northern most point in Norway, both of these places are popular tourist attractions with hundreds of people travelling there from all over Europe. Greece has not taken advantage of this opportunity.

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Delphi to Sparta, Greece – the first 140km on two lane roads, a few towns along the way to spoil the fun and then onto the dreaded toll freeway, 6 toll stops in 210km which took me all the way to Sparta.

Sparta – gave us the word “spartan” meaning no comfort or luxury, austerity. This was a warrior nation that practiced Eugenics which means they killed babies that were sick or defective in any way. It was the dominant military power of its time. There is a small museum and the Archaeological Park with some ruins, you have to use your imagination.

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Kalabaka to Delphi, Greece – the first 140km towards Athens was a freeway, this is the road that brings in the hordes of tour busses from Athens to Kalabaka. There were 5 toll stops in that 140km €0.60, 2.05, 2.35, 1.35, 0.45, which is one stop every 28km or 14 minutes, at each stop I have to take my gloves off get my phone out to pay the toll and put everything back on before I rode off. This is a complete waste of time and it must be very expensive to maintain such a system and the inconvenience to motorists. I was lucky there were no big queues at the toll stops only 1 or 2 cars ahead of me. I rode from the French border near Monaco all the way to Milan with only one stop at the beginning to collect a ticket and one at the end to pay the toll. The same in Croatia all the way from Zagreb to Bosnia. To not have a computerised system in this day and age is ridiculous. After that off the freeway and another 76km through the mountains to Delphi, good ride.

Delphi – considered to be the centre of the world by the ancient Greeks. Pythia the Oracle of Delphi was widely known and consulted by the rich and powerful. There is a good museum and the some well preserved ruins. As with most places in Greece it is on a hill and means yours knees will take a beating hahaha.

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Durres to Kalabaka, Greece – This was the best ride of the trip so far. I was expecting the Albanian part to be stop start chaos but it was not. Possibly because I decided to leave at 08:00 instead of 09:00, normally rush hour ends at 09:00 but in this area it only starts at 09:00 hahaha. Straight onto a 4 lane road with a few traffic lights for about 100km, then onto a broad 2 lane road SH4 with little traffic and easy overtaking as people moved over to let me past, great ride through the mountains. Stopped to fill up and the guy said no card so rode on to the next station. Arrived at the Albanian border at 1145, 3 cars ahead of me the guy looked at my passport and bike papers and waved me through 10 min, next the Greek border and the road narrowed all three lanes full no place to squeeze through, queue barely moving. Took helmet off and then put it back on due to the hot sun, opened jacket up, then some guys started to help me get through the queue asking cars to move over a bit to let me squeeze through, front wheel got stuck in a gutter and they lifted it out, finally got to a point where there was a lane for spraying cars no longer used and went down that to the front. The immigration guys were checking everyone in each car, asking people to get out and show themselves at the booth, taking ages, only took me 2 minutes, stamped my passport. Next Customs and had to show passport and bike papers zipped up jacket and rode off, took 45 minutes all up. If I had waited in the queue it would have taken 3 hours, noticed the time jumped ahead one hour, Greece is GMT +3. Another good broad 2 lane road through the mountains great ride all the way to Ioannina then had to go around the city and a few traffic lights. After that a freeway paid two tolls €1.30 and €1.10, many tunnels one after another until I turned off onto a narrow winding road in poor condition for the last 50km, 35c now, arrived at 1400 or 1500 local time. A memorable ride.

Kalabaka – I came here to see the monasteries perched on top of huge rock pillars, astonishing. I went on a 4 hour tour that cost 15 euro to visit 4 monasteries. Access to the monasteries is via steep steps which I could not manage so I only visited the one which did not have any steps. Also 4 hours is not enough due to the queues of people waiting to enter. There were hundreds of tour busses and cars parked along the road.

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