Bike Touring Greece

I was starting to get the awful feeling that we'd made a terrible mistake. The fresh Mediterranean breeze was slowly being replaced with a pungent disgusting odor. And it was getting stronger the longer we rode. We were rounding a bend heading towards a small volcanic peninsula in Peloponnese called Methana. This wasn't the most populous part of this region so there wasn't an obvious second option to head to for the night. The weather was also becoming a bit unpredictable so we knew we had to stick with the original plan. The smell kept getting worse. It smelled like eggs in the most unappetizing way imaginable. One more turn and we were almost there. We were able to see the town with it's tiny marina a short distance away downhill and the smell was approaching maximum intensity. I swore off eggs and couldn't imagine eating anything anywhere near this place. Just before the marina there was a beautiful though shuttered building that sort of looked like a hotel to greet us. Right in front of it was a pool of milky water — the source of the smell. It was a thermal sulfur pool. I fought off the urge to turn around and sped past it towards Methana's downtown. To my surprise the smell immediately vanished. As it turns out the winds pull all the smell south from where we came and the rest of the peninsula smelled delightfully normal. I would later learn people swim in that terrifying pool and that the minerals are pleasant on the skin. There's no way I would be able to hold my breath long enough to try it.

Our trip started in Athens, the capital. I've actually been here once before, in the fall of 2019. The city seems to split opinions. On the one hand everyone (I would hope) agrees the Acropolis and many of the other ruins in town are incredible testaments to human achievement. On the other hand most of Athens has a more modern feel with tall nondescript apartment buildings and busy streets. I loved it in 2019 and was thrilled to be back. Besides the obvious cultural institutions the city is bustling with some amazing restaurants and great nightlife. It felt young and vibrant. I was not bothered seeing the Acropolis a second time even though it was painfully hot even at the end of the day. My partners in crime were the same duo I toured Portugal with last year: Bobby and Natalie. We toured the architecture museum in Exarcheia and wandered the streets of Plaka. We didn't come all the way to Greece to hang around a busy metropolis but being a city person I always love starting my bike trips off this way. Once we were settled in and our bikes were assembled we needed to commit to a direction. We kept the planning open ended but the time was finally upon us to decide. We chose Peloponnese because it was close and wouldn't require a long complicated train ride. It was also famously full of cultural sites so we'd have plenty to see and do wherever we went. There were plenty of options to return to Athens as well so we packed up our bikes and headed southwest towards Piraeus.

We didn't stop in Piraeus, it wasn't our destination. We went past it towards a much tinier port called Perama. Actually we did stop for some ice cream and cold beverages because it was debilitatingly hot. The air had a thickness to it and the recent wildfires weren't helping. There was a noticeable haze in the air. Perama has a ferry terminal that runs to a large island just off the coast called Salamina. We rode the ferry and stopped in a marina for lunch. The heat drained most of our energy and we took an extended break to refuel. We repeated the ice trick we learned in Portugal (stuffing it in our bottles and then inside all of our clothes) and took off across the island. After a short climb we found beaches lining the other side of Salamina and we couldn't resist a dip. We rode literally into the sunset towards an even shorter ferry ride back to the mainland. As the daylight faded we found ourselves in a tiny seaside village with lots of restaurants setting up for dinner. I really didn't feel like riding any further. No hotels were open in town but I spotted a tiny sign on the side of a building with a phone number for a guest house. A nice lady came down to meet us and set us up for the night. We ordered way too much food and stuff ourselves before going off to sleep.

In the morning we made sure we got ice before setting off riding. It was going to be too difficult to motivate up any hills without it. The ride was mostly along the coast, heading west towards Peloponnese. We swam in the sea at another beach, still dressed in our cycling clothes. We found grilled sardines for lunch which were amazing, definitely worth the wait. We took a short detour to check out a small and rather unremarkable lighthouse before the final stretch to Ancient Corinth. Then Natalie got a flat tire. She had two the day before (we missed a tiny piece of a thorn stuck inside the tire the first time) and it was looking like her luck wasn't improving. This time we found a large goat head thorn piercing her tire and tube. We were running out of spares so we put a patched tire in. The patch didn't fully take and was leaking air but we decided to power through, stopping every few miles to top up the tire. We crossed the Corinth canal but barely left time to check it out. There was a small ruin site on the side of the road but we knew there were many more to come so we didn't spend much time here either. After a short ride through an olive farm we were faced with a huge glowing mountain in the distance. It was getting bigger as we got closer. Ancient Corinth, our destination, was right at the base of this mountain. We rolled into town right at sunset and watched a full moon rise over the town's ancient ruins. A free opera was being performed in the site but we were starving and went straight to feasting. In the morning we realized we had quite a lot to still see. We took a taxi to the top of the mountain we were riding towards the day before. On top are the ruins of Corinth's ancient acropolis, Acrocorinth. The views were breathtaking. We agreed to stay in Ancient Corinth another day to make time to see everything. Bobby took a short ride to properly visit the Corinth canal while Natalie and I strolled through the ruins in town. Plenty of tourists come through here to see the sights but at night Ancient Corinth had a more local feel to it. There were lots of restaurants open late with crowds gathered to watch the local soccer teams play (poorly) in the Champions League. I was perfectly happy to spend two nights here and soak up the culture.

Once we've had our fill of Ancient Corinth we continued south towards Mykines. We started out on a completely empty and steep farm road then moved on to much smoother pavement. We followed our GPS to a short detour to check out the ruins of the temple of Hercules. It was mostly just carved rubble in the middle of a large farm. The weather was swelteringly hot so we quickly kept going. Not much further we stumbled upon an even more impressive ruin site at Ancient Nemea. It was bigger than Hercules' temple but smaller than Corinth's sprawling ancient city. There was a well preserved temple with tall columns as well as the remains of an ancient stadium nearby. The site also had a well air conditioned museum that was a pleasant respite from the heat. Heading inland, away from the water, made it a bit more of a hilly ride. We found ourselves surrounded by beautiful hills in the distance the whole day. After a gas station lunch and a few more ups and downs we arrived in Mykines. It was a tiny town with just one main street. There were a few hotels and restaurants surrounded by olive groves and rocky hills. We chose this stop to be able to visit the nearby ruins of Mycenae. We booked the hotel closest to the ruin site called the Petite Planete. The manager there treated us like royalty and made the stay incredibly pleasant. We took in the remarkable views from the patio and took a dip in the pool before getting dinner and wrapping up our day in preparation for tomorrow. In the morning the manager offered to give us a lift to the ruins and we spent the morning strolling around under gloomy skies. The site at Mycenae is a bit less striking than Corinth and Nemea but there was a very good museum on premises. A short walk from the main site is the Tomb of Agamemnon, a creepy circular struture carved into the ground.

We got back on the road after Mycenae and headed south towards Argos. The city wasn't architecturally impressive with mostly modern residential towers like parts of Athens. As it turns out, though, Argos is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the whole world. There were ruins all around us of ancient and medieval kingdoms. We were becoming overloaded by all the culture and started skipping some of the sites we might have otherwise visited. After lunch our ride took us back towards water at the Bay of Argolis. We rode through a whole patch of goathead thorns and Natalie's tires immediately started leaking air. After a few repairs we rode along the bay to Napflio, a much more substantial city than the last few we stayed in. Natalie took the opportunity to visit a proper bike shop and get her tires set up tubeless. It proved to be a wise decision and she didn't have another flat for the rest of the trip. Once we were settled in we took a night time stroll through the streets of Napflio. My first impression was this town was a bit too touristy with the usual signs like gift shops, etc. My opinion softened a bit in the morning because I realized how much more there was so to see. There were two castles, including one at the top of a mountain overlooking the entire bay. Legend has it there are 1000 steps to get to the top. There was also a smaller castle ruin lower down next to an abandoned hotel. There were plenty of cobble stoned streets to explore and even a beach to cool off at. Not wanting to miss too much I pushed for staying another day and the crew agreed. It was getting to be the end of the busy season but still extremely hot. I was happy to take it slowly for a day. We strolled around taking pictures and eating our way through Nafplio.

We were nearing the end of the journey and needed to choose a direction one last time. Up to this point we were keeping our options open as much as possible but we needed to get somewhere with transportation options back to Athens. We decided on the north coast and headed towards Ancient Epidavros. Heading inland meant climbing but it wasn't a punishing kind of day, more of a low grade climb for a few hours. Epidavros is known for a huge theater with a beautiful mountain backdrop impeccably preserved for centuries. It was an awe inspiring sight. We lounged around in the seats for a while then carried on down the hill back towards the sea. The town of Ancient Epidavros was extremely charming. It had a sleepy seaside town vibe. There was a marina but it was tiny compared to most we've seen. There were plenty of hotels in town and the one I chose cost less than $40 for the night. It wasn't the epitome of luxury but I had a nice enough room to myself with my own bathroom and this awesome view for next to nothing by US standards. In town a nice older gentleman spotted our bikes and asked about our trip. We invited him to join us for dinner. He was a well traveled retired Dutch man who rented a small apartment in town because he liked to swim. He also enjoyed cycling and we chatted about all of our travel adventures over a few bottles of beer. Greece had a bunch of ordinary macro brews (Mythos, Alpha, etc) which were fine but my favorites beer was the Greek Island Pilsner from Nissos brewery. It was sporadically available and I ordered it whenever I could find it.

The thick heavy heat we were experiencing for over a week was starting to ease. Our ride out of Epidavros took us up overlooking the bay. There was a sunken city down there somewhere but we didn't take the time to explore it. We took a coastal road heading east which was absolutely gorgeous. We ran into a couple from down under who were in the middle of a lengthy European bike tour. They looked so happy, I hope that's how I look when I'm out on the bike in such beautiful settings. I definitely felt that way. Lunch was at a nearly empty huge restaurant in a small village and there was a strong chance of rain. We made up our mind that Methana was as far as we would dare to go given the forecast. After overcoming the smell we encountered riding in we found the town to be really pleasant. There was a tiny marina like in Epidavros but the landscape was more dramatic with lots of volcanic signs like dark sand and bright red soil. At the end of the low-lying road in town was a hotel that had just closed for the season. Literally the day before. There was a tiny beach full of loungers and a bunch of crates full of empty beer bottles that hadn't been picked up yet. We had the beach completely to ourselves. We met a French couple, Herve and Armelle who weren't biking but are also devoted bike travelers. They shared a cycle camping non-profit group they're part of and later some of Armelle's beautiful sketches and drawings from their trip around Greece. It didn't rain that night but got so much cooler than anything we've experienced so far that I bought a cheap sweatshirt from a small shop along the shore to keep me warm after sunset.

The following morning the skies finally opened up. We packed up to leave but ended up waiting out the worst of the rain. I find this happen every time I travel and this time was no exception; the best riding of the entire trip was on the last day. From Methana we rode primarily along coastal dirt farm roads most of the way to the town of Galatas. There were amazing views everywhere we looked. We spotted a small shipwreck poking out of the water and eventually the red roof covered hills of Poros, an island just off the coast of Peloponnese. We took a short ferry boat ride from Galatas to Poros and checked into the hotels we found in town that had vacancies. Poros had an enormous marina with boats and ships of all sizes (excluding the largest of cruise ships like we saw in Nafplio). There were amateur “sailors” on rented catamarans drinking champagne and hanging out at the tourist restaurants on the main drag. Just behind the marina, the town of Poros was beautiful. Between the rains I was able to walk around some of the narrow alleys and photograph the colorful doors and windows. It had a kind of old fashioned charm with mostly older residents and small tavernas for local dishes. We had a nice though slightly rushed meal in a lovely place that was named after (and served) snails. Overall we ate really well around the country on our trip. I mentioned in the video I wasn't entirely blown away by the food but I can't think of one disappointing meal in the whole two weeks. The seafood was always fresh and the souvlaki was incredibly tender. Service was generally better than pretty much anywhere else I've been in Europe. People were consistently going above and beyond what was asked. One hotel owner in Nafplio hand wrote over a dozen recommendations for food and sights all over town… even though we were only staying in his establishment for one night. Taxi drivers, hotel clerks and pretty much everyone else we met were friendly and helpful. We bought boat tickets back to Athens from Poros and after waiting out the rain got back to the city in the early evening. The boat ride was fairly quick and we had sunny skies the whole way, until we docked. Then the rains started and intensified all night. We ran our bikes through puddles as a deluge was engulfing the city. We went to a restaurant on the upper floors of a hotel and watched the lightning storms approach. It was so intense the Athens Acropolis completely disappeared when the rains got to it and the whole building shook from the lightning. We did a bit more sight seeing before packing up for the return trip. I felt like we got a good sense of what riding and traveling in Greece was like but at the same time we barely scratched the surface. I'd love to see the mountains in the north as well as some more of the islands. Hopefully there will be more trips to come to this beautiful country.

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