ATHENS
And some offroad
17th May - 19th May | 2023
In the morning I packed all up and then I went for a cafe to the nice bakery in town. After my breakfast, I started to get to the direction of Corinth to see the famous canal. First I went through Argos and after that, I set Corinth via unpaved roads on OsmAnd. What a fantastic decision! OK, the first attempt was again a turn-around, but I get now a bit into the swing with OsmAnd for Greece! Once I had the track set it was lovely farm tracks through valleys and over mountains. I couldn't get enough of the view and the track! Close to Corinth I saw a castle on the hill, so I went off the track to get there, which was a lovely place. After that, I went by street to Corinth.
First I had to go to Decathlon as I broke my sunglasses the other day and I was desperate for a new pair. After shopping concluded I went to the Western Bridge of the Canal. The colour of the water in the bay and in the canal is so unreal blue! It makes you think, once you have been in there you come out like a Smurf ;-) Then I followed the track along to the German bunkers but I couldn't get to the bridge as there is construction going on. So I went to the East Bridge and had a drink. Then I saw that the TET (www.transeurotrail.org) is passing another bridge, so I went there. Can you believe it, you can do Bungee-Jumping from there! Not for me though :-) This is all so surreal there! This canal is so narrow and so deep, not talking about that blue water! Simply wow!
After that, I again set OsmAnd on for "unpaved road" to hit the TET at some point. Again I was on a fantastic mountain track winding me slowly up to nearly 700m with stunning views! The only concern I had at some point was the really bad weather coming over the sea; so far the wind was blowing in my favour! After a while, I hit the TET section 4 (www.transeurotrail.org) and followed it nearly until the end. What an amazing track! A bit bumpy though, so my TFX suspension (www.tfxsuspension.com) had to work really hard! I had to stay focused most of the time to pick my line, but it was amazing! Obviously, they know here in Greece that I hate switchbacks with lots of stones and ruts, so they concreted them for me :-D However, at one switchback I lost again momentum and my short legs didn't help, so the bike was down. Not sure if it is the new luggage setup, but I got again the bike pretty easily up.
When I got it up, there came this old lady in her car on that bumpy track. She helped me to get the bike for me in a position where I can get my momentum to get it around the corner. She was really sweet, and even though we didn't speak the same language we knew what the other meant! No picture though, as enough to deal with at that moment! The only thing that concerned me was that she rode off after she helped me. What if I drop the bike again?! But after about 400m the track got much better, so I guess that was why she left me as the worst was done.
Once I came down to a village I changed the parameters to get by road to Piraeus to the hotel, where I arrived at 19h00: tired but with a big smile!
The next morning I took it easy to get by Metro into town, as there is not a big rush to get up on Acropolis until late lunch as Thursdays it is for free! My theory was to be there after lunch when all the group tours are through and done with it. I went by Metro from piraeus into the city centre. As I wasn't 100% sure about which one, I asked a lady and in the end, we chatted the whole way (25mins!) until I had to get off! That was an interesting chat as she is from the USA.
In the centre I visited the sights I pinpointed for me to visit and whatever looked nice and interesting along the way. I also was in touch with Tony, another TET traveller that was currently in town. We met then for lunch and we had a really nice chat. He is Greek but lives now with his German wife in Australia. We agreed to meet tomorrow am at the garage of Christos, where I will finally clean my chain and get rid of some tar I caught on Kelafonia.
After lunch, I made my way up to Acropolis and it was no problem to get in and roam around easily as not many people were around. Even though, the Greek people told me not to visit Acropolis, I am glad I did it! Even though my knowledge of history is really bad, you can imagine the size back in the day. Also, can you see the size of Athens and its surroundings which is a massive area.
Later on the day, I was texting with Yannis, a friend of Luiza and Tony, and we arranged to meet for dinner later on. As it will be out of the centre and late, I decided to take my bike. I just got it out of the parking space as some cars blocked me in. Guess that parking space is gone later!
We went to a nice Greek restaurant, a friend of Yannis, called Nikos, is also a biker. We had lots of fun and it turned out that he is a good friend of Christos, I will meet him tomorrow for my chain. How small is the world!
Arriving back at the hotel late, of course, all the parking spots were gone and as most of the drivers will catch the ferry early morning I couldn't leave my bike there. The very helpful receptionist suggested parking on the pavement in front of the hotel, between the scooters. Good idea, but being such a narrow pavement for a big bike with luggage it took me a good half-hour workout to wedge my motorcycle in place - so dinner has been worked off!
The next morning, loading the bike was easy as all the scooters around me have gone already. I went then just down the road to the workshop of Christos, where already Tony was. We had a fantastic morning, talking bikes, TET and travelling. While I was there, Nikos called by video call, so we had the giggles when he saw me! Especially as he gifted me last night a t-shirt with the Greek saying "Don't bother" and I was wearing it today!
At some point, we also cleaned my chain from all the dirt and whatever, my bike from the tar and we even had to top up some oil. As it was by then already lunchtime, we had lunch together and finally about 15h we hit the road to the mountain of Parnitha, from where we had a panoramic view of the area of Athens - very impressive as a huge area.
From there we went by street to Marathon, where we had a recommendation for (illegal!) wild camping at the beach. As there were still people, we first went for a dive into the sea to cool down a bit. As the water was still refreshing, it wasn't a long stay in the water for me ;-) When we got back to our bikes, Yannis already came with some cold beers and crisps. How cool is that! We thought he will join us camping, but he only came to have a beer with us - that is really cool man!
Tony and I had then some good motorcycle and travel chats, but as I was so tired, it didn't take me long to hit my inflatable mattress.
As you can see, social life is taking a bit over currently ;-) So this time it is me to blame, that there is not a blog (and it might be happening sometime in future)! This year on this route I have met already more interesting people than last year in 8 months! So my apologies if there is not regularly twice a week a blog! Trying to keep up with it within my social life ;-) In this case, in the meantime, you might have another Ouzo until the next blog will be published ...
Places | Cities:
Corinth, Piraeus, Athens, Marathon.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 5585 km
Information Border Crossings (in May 2023):
./.
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Cleaning and tightening the chain.
Cleaning the tar off the bike.
Health issues:
Migraine headache
Special thanks to:
TET (www.transeurotrail.org) to be so awesome.
OsmAnd (app) to find so cool tracks for me (once you set the right parameters).
Yannis, Tony, Nikos and Christos for looking after me and presenting the biker-spirit.