The next morning, I got out into the lovely warm sun around 11 AM. Right near the hotel is the Agora (Roman Forum) of Thessaloniki. Parts of the ruins date back to the second century. Many of the important parts that indicate a viable culture there have been uncovered including a mint, archives, public baths, a restaurant, and of course a brothel. How civilized!

It’s always interesting to me how these ruins seem to exist almost everywhere here, in some cases they are uncovered and in some cases they’re built upon. Frequently you see integration with regular city stuff, such as a café built right on on the edge.

As I was walking today, I came across a main road that is under construction, they are building a bridge at ground level above ruins that have been discovered at some point.

Stumbled across a huge market today, with everything one would need! Including giant chunks of feta! That stuff is so so good!

Wandered around for a while in the market, then started thinking about lunch. Stopped at an ATM first, however it gave me €50 bills, I stopped at two banks to try and change them but to no avail. 50s are hard to use around here. 20s are best.

Had a Greek salad and some roasted potatoes with an unidentified meat bits for a very tasty and filling lunch.

Stopped at the grocery store on the way back, had the bright idea to get the makings for Gin and tonics, that is a tradition when traveling with Paul, so if they want one tonight after they get in and settled, I will have all the stuff.

We will meet with our guide Orlin for dinner later. Not sure if we will spend any time here tomorrow or if we hit the road right away.

And as it turns out, need to part first first thing after breakfast. An early start and into the van, about 90 minutes towards Halkidiki. We found a spot beside the road to pull off and get the bikes set up, there were some issues with the various pieces and parts and it took 30 to 40 minutes to get all the bikes set up, but once that was done we set off.

Halkidiki is made up of three fingers of land that jet out into the Aegean. We will explore all three on this trip, but our first is Kassandra.

Cycling today, often the Aegean Sea was directly to our right. An uneventful 35 km of riding to the town of Fourka. We had a delicious lunch in a little village beside the sea, then everyone I checked into the hotel room which is up above the beach a bit.

Orlin and I set out a few minutes later for an extended ride down a dirt road to some beautiful private coves directly on the sea. At one Cove there was a stack of rocks, a small cairn of sorts. I have seen this artist or worker whatever you would call him who stacks rocks in unusual and mind bending ways on the beach in Puerto Vallarta. So I decided I would try to stack a couple of rocks to add to rocks to the stack. And if you’ll note from the photo, they’re not just flat stacked, I tried to stack them more vertically. I was very proud of myself in case you hadn’t already noticed!

Back to the town and I went pretty much directly to the beach and got in the Aegean Sea, the water was absolutely perfect for swimming! It is a high salt content water so thus was very easy to float. What a delicious end to a hot cycling day, to swim in the calm cool sea. There’s a story to the weird photo of me on the beach in my biking liners and bum bag in the front… 😳

The next day we rode up across the spine of the Kassandra peninsula and back down to the beach on the other side. By the end of the cycling day, we stopped in Nea Fokea for a swim before we loaded up the bikes and drove up into the hills. It would’ve been a lovely ride, but it was not on the plan or in the time scheduled.

We arrived in Polygyros, a lovely little town built up in the hills above miles and miles and miles of all of olive tree groves. Looks like the hotel has been here quite some time; adjacent here is a nice pedestrian walkway, looks like during regular tour season it’s probably much busier than it is right now. We stayed in a beautiful little town.

Due to some sort of a mixup, there were only four rooms available, so I offered for Orlin to just stay in my room so he could save some money instead of buying a room in another hotel.

We had a nice dinner, but after dinner everybody headed to the hotel except me and Orlin. We stopped at Beeropolis and had a couple beers. We talked about his family, he is married, has one daughter three years old and her son is due in about 20 days. Very nice guy, interesting hearing about his history in Bulgaria, his parents, his business, etc. I always reach out and enjoy spending time with the local guides as they give me perspective that I would never otherwise get about their life, history, and culture. He asked me about the trumpster as well…

So it was getting close to 1230AM and I headed back to the hotel. Orlin was staying for another beer. (As I found out later, he met the Beeronio owner and they commenced to do some more beverages. Somewhere around 2 AM, for some reason I woke up and realized that I had the electronic room key card without which he could not get into the hotel. Same time I heard some voices outside, opened the little balcony door and looked down, Orlin was trying to get in the hotel. So in my underwear, I went down to the street level to let him in. Pretty damn funny, but I think you had to be there to appreciate the 2 AM hilarity…

The morning started with the nicest breakfast we’ve had so far in the hotel. And the days uphill started right away, heading out of town and up into the forest, on spectacular winding back roads, probably 1900 feet climbing, but not an extreme grade ever. But sometimes it was steep enough that I had to go so slow that I had mosquitoes buzzing my head.

Before that we passed an area that had many many beehives, at one place there was a partial swarm I had to ride through, got stung on my wrist but no problem from it. The others behind me freaked out a bit but they all survived. Plus occasionally that would be a car doing a Lemans rally on the road, it would be pretty surprised when they come down the center of the road at high-speed squealing tires around a curve and there I am on my bike. Assholes.

There was a bit of confusion by Orlin today, seemed like he really wasn’t sure where we were supposed to go, thankfully I had my iPhone GPS to help. At one point he thought we were definitely going to wrong way and in fact we were doing just fine. I’m not sure he’s ever done this trip before.

In the hills, somehow we missed the restaurant he was looking for and we ended up at a different one, a pretty strange place. There were stuffed boar head, a little fox, chicken, squirrel, all kinds of weird stuff taxidermy and hung up on the walls of this place. Very bizarre place. The woman spoke not a bit of English, we had to point at stuff that we wanted for our lunch out of her kitchen. But as usual, when it ecomes to exchanging money for food transaction, everything gets figured out somehow.

After lunch another six or 7 km of climbing that was not expected, but eventually we were rewarded with at least 15 km of downhill through miles and miles of all of trees as far as you could see.

About 13 K out of town from our destination, everyone else said they had had enough cycling for the day. I decided to carry-on while they look at all their bikes in the back. It wasn’t a very nice road, high traffic, but I want to continue to be a certified member of the REFI club. What’s that mean, you say? Ride every fucking inch!

Once I got to the hotel, everyone else was heading down to the beach. I had a leisurely shower, did my laundry, eventually walked down to the beach and had a beer with the gang on the waters edge.

Paul is doing a really good job of teaching Swati how to swim. Sometimes you forget that not everybody has the same life experience, that there are certain things that you just assume people know how to do, until you realize that swimming isn’t universal. She is so proud of her success at swimming, she is a very very kind and sweet person!

For those who haven’t read my blog back a couple of years, I first met Swati in Mumbai. Paul and I were there at the end of a cycling trip and met her and her parents. Her brother Prash lives in Nashville and I believe that’s where Paul’s connection to their family began. Swati and her family are perhaps the kindest lovable people I have ever met!

Did I mention there was a mishap with the sliding side door of the van today? Somehow it became unlatched, at some point when Orlin took off moving forward, the door slid back and off the track and onto the ground. None of us saw it, we just saw the aftermath of the sliding door strapped in to keep it shut. Orlin sheepishly told me that this is not the first time that this happened…

We were all a little tired of Greek food, so elective for a pizza stop tonight. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. But it definitely was pizza! 

It was a long day…

The next day will be:

Day 5 On this day we start exploring Sithonia peninsula, famous for its beautiful coniferous forests, olive gardens and hidden caves. We follow mainly isolated roads very near the sea, passing by secluded beaches and small sea villages set in rich green vegetation. We enjoy the splendid views of the small islands nearby, the rocky coast and the dense green coniferous forests, while we you cycle or swim and sunbathe on one of the many lonely beaches en-route. There is an option to visit the secluded mountain village of Parthenonas. We stay in the picturesque bay of Porto Kofu village famous for the scuba diving. 

Cycling: 50km, ascend/descend: 500/500m