Best Of Greece - BOG2402
It’s always a pleasure to start a tour with a hotel like the “SAY“. Great accommodation, excellent food and a stunning rooftop view while having our welcome dinner. Everybody arrived save in Athens. And the whole group is looking forward to our first riding day! Let the „games“ begin…
Our first riding day took us out of Athens straight to the mountains. Almost 70% of Greece are mountain landscape. The beautiful sunny weather guaranteed the best conditions for our first kilometers on the road. Soon we entered more remote areas. Little villages in the mountains and endless curvy roads. Our main topic of the day was Delphi with his ancient history…unfortunately we didn‘t get an appointment with the „Oracle“. Maybe next time;-)
This morning we left the ancient sight of Delphi and the Gulf of Corinth behind us and made our way into the Pindus Mountains. Having Mt Parnassuss on our right we couldn't resist to do a short visit at the ski fields and were rewarded with a cracker of a road. After some fun time on winding roads we had to make a bit of miles across some of the flat plains before we could once more enter the mountains and reaching our destination Lake Plastira. All in all this was a fantastic day with the focus on the riding. And to top it all up we had blue skies with comfortable warm riding weather.
The highlight of today were the amazing floating monasteries of Meteora. After a short coffee stop at the ancient stonebridge of Pyli we arrived there at noon. Although it was Monday, the roads were overcrowded with people from all over the world. The UNESCO world heritage has its magic and is a magnet for travellers, pilgrims and of course motorcyclists;-).
We had the pleasure to have one of our rest days in the lovely mountain village of Metsovo right in the heart of mainland Greece. The morning started a little chilli and the riders were thankful for their heated hand grips. However, the bright late summer sun did it's best and warmed up the surroundings for a comfortable riding temperature. Our morning leg took us on a tiny back country road were the 6 remaining riders could enjoy one twisty after the other all the way to the Vikos Gorge, which was for sure the highlight of the day. It is the deepest gorge relative to its width in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. From there we took a short ride to a coffee stop before we made our way home on wider roads with fantastic swooping corners. What a blast it was and the perfect length for a rest day! The other part of the group decided to visit the local winery and stay for the rest of the day in Metsovo. This little village is a busy and very beautiful place. A popular area for skiing in winter and for hiking and and relaxing in the summer season. Absolutely recommendable!
What a cracking riding day we had!!! The morning started of on a little back country road, that put a big smile on everybody's face - twisties galore and an unbeatable scenery. We crossed the Mparos Pass at over 6000ft which was a highlight in itself, on empty roads we climbed steady towards the top only greeted by a herd of cows and their sheep dog. On top the mountain vista was breathtaking. On our way down we had a coffee stop at a very hospitable and cute cafe with the best Baklava and some smooth blues tunes. While sitting on their terrace enjoying a coffee we were again lucky with a fantastic view over the valley. With new strength we continued through the mountains towards the south and the sea. A lunch spot turned out to be hard to get by but in the end we ended up in this lovely family run place in the middle of nowhere. The owner feed us well and presented her homemade sweet pickled fruits as a dessert to us. We are still not sure what we ate but it was good! The last leg of the trip took us along the coast to the peninsula of Lefkada, where arrived just in time for a little sun downer before dinner.
This day braught us back to the Peleponnes. We took the coastline down and passed the “Superbridge” from Andirrio to Rio. After our enjoyable lunchbreak at the Mazarakis fish tavern, with a spectacular view to the gulf of corinth, we went straight back into the mountains and took the twisty roads to our final destination Vytina.
Today was our second rest day. While some of us took the chance to visit ancient Olympia, others took a massage and spent the rest of the day with shopping and relaxing in Vytina. Great mountain roads on our way to the ancient sight compensated the sweaty climate with temperatures up to 33 degree Celsius.
Today the weather gods weren't on our side. The morning started off with some heavy rain and we decided to delay the start. So after a lazy breakfast we gathered together to leave at 10:00am accompanied by light rain, but the worst had gone through. The first leg took us again through the Pindus mountain range on a fantastic and remote country road. The wet surface was quiet slippery and cautious had to be in place. Nevertheless, a great ride. We left the mountains near Sparti, were the Spartans fought there famous battle and joined the motorway for a little while to make some kilometers. A bit of speed and less concentration needed was a welcome change to the challenging riding in the morning. But we weren't done with the twisties yet. The afternoon we went on more mountain roads over the Langada-Taygetos Pass towards the Middle Finger of the Peleponnes. At Kalamata we met the sea and the road opened up to provided gentle turns and stunning views. The road takes you from bay to bay climbing the cliffs in lovely switchbacks. If the weather would have been better it would have been a ride hard to beat.