Goodbye Athens, Hello Aegina

We left the hotel this morning in a gentle rain. It was 12 kilometers down hill to the port of Pireas in relatively light traffic as it is Sunday. Although Athens scenery is uninspiring, it felt great to be out on the bike. What traffic there was gave us plenty of room. There was maybe only a couple of horn honks! Horn honking in Athens seems to be a form of communication akin to yodeling.

Aside from it's antiquities, Athens is a rather unlovely city with very little charm. It consists of almost entirely of concrete buildings shaped like squares or shoeboxes with no architectural art applied (or paint either). From what I have seen, I would have to say that the people of Athens are it's greatest resource. They are energetic and busily bustling. The men are manly and the women are beautiful.

The port is very busy with ferries large and small.





The ferry ride to Aegina took about an hour. Even during a storm, this part of the Mediterranean Sea seems as flat a mill pond to those of us used to the long Pacific swell and the waves whipped up by our afternoon onshore breeze. The rain however had developed into a steady downpour by the time we arrived in Aegina. It seems that we just can't start a tour without some challenging weather. In 2008 we were subjected to two days of 100+F and then it snowed on us as we crossed Carson Pass in the Sierras. I hope we won't face anything that extreme on this trip, but it is raining pretty hard.

We took a room in a funky little hotel just off the waterfront. It's old, but it's warm and dry.





We went out with lunch in mind and found a nice place where we had a delicious meal featuring what was billed as a Greek taco. Well... It wasn't anything like what we call a taco, good though!





Oh, those brown squiggly things are fried squid tentacles, mmm!

Later we took a nice walk down the waterfront and back through the alleys. Aegina looks like a nice place, though it is clear that in the summer this place is inundated with tourists from Athens, and many homes appear to be vacation homes. We speculated that with the ferry ride to Athens taking an hour, perhaps people commute back and forth daily. Tomorrow we will have to ask someone about that. Which brings us to our plans for tomorrow. If the rain lightens, we will go for a bike ride around the area. Then, at a little past 2:00 pm, we will catch the ferry to Methana on the Peloponnesus peninsula.

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Still in Athens

We didn't get out of Athens yesterday after all. When we went to check out the hotel had misplaced Belinda's passport. Yes, instant redline stress. The clerk claimed she had returned the passport when we had checked in, she hadn't. It was only after calling the US Embassy and going to the Police to make a report (required by the Embassy) that the hotel found the passport. All's well that ends well. By this time it was to late to make the ferry to Agina.

So we spent another day in Athens. We wandered the Saturday market, where there was every kind of produce; vegetables, eggs, fish, and of course, the best olives.





On the way back to our hotel we found a liquor store (stress relief, ya know). There we found some of the original, and much better tasting, Budweiser, a product of the Czech Republic.





Well.. We'll try to get out of Dodge again this morning.

Location:Αραχώβης,Athens,Greece

Arrival and assembly

At the airport, we had a rather full cart.


The plane ride was long, but not too uncomfortable. Then there was the challenge of catching a taxi into central Athens. The airport is 35 miles outside of Athens and the rapacious reputation of the taxi drivers is legendary. After the fourth offer, we loaded up and commenced our wild ride into Athens. Exceeding the speed limit, driving in two lanes simultaneously almost the whole way, running one red light, and with the gas light beeping frantically we made it to the hotel.


After a night's rest, bike assembly time had come.



The bikes survived the journey undamaged. We went to bike shop for some extra supplies. Tomorrow we face the trial by Athens traffic. Note: Greece has a population of 10 million, 5 million live in Athens.

The Route

This is our intended route, but it is subject to change depending on local conditions.


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Getting Ready

Route Mapping Central

Colorado, then Home

On the return trip we stopped in Colorado to visit Belinda's parents and we saw the the fall colors in Colorado. The aspens were resplendent. We are home now and want to thank everyone who followed the blog; your comments helped us keeping going day by day. We really felt we were sharing our journey with others.

The Black Hills of South Dakota

On the way to the trailhead for Harney Peak, we passed over the Needles Hwy. The picture above is of the 'Eye of the Needle'. After a good hike we came to Harney Peak, highest point between the Pyrenees and the Rockies. At the top is the fire lookout built by the CCC. It is really like a little castle.

On our way out of Custer State Park we saw a herd of buffalo. This cow caught our attention as she is some what askew.