On their way north to Bulgaria Mike nd Jo run into some unseasonable Greek weather and revisit a town with some good memories.23 Mar –30 Mar 08
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Sometimes you can put the mochas on yourself with the simplest things. All it took was a single mention of “spring” and a few photos of warm weather; that, and a natural talent for making silly decisions.
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We enjoyed a few days of improving spring weather at Nidri and did some much needed administration which included giving the Elephant a bath.
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A local lends a hand with the hose for washing the Elephant.
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We would have stayed on for a few more days except for the fact that the apartment complex we were staying at did not have any rooms with a double bed. Now call me old fashioned, but three days of struggling with the bedding on two singles pushed together, and I had had enough.
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The view across to the mainland from our room at Nidri. Shame about the beds.
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We did our research on the weather and decided that our best bet for dry weather was on the east coast and the quickest way there was straight over the mountains through the town of Karpenissi. The unseasonable chill that was sweeping across Northern Europe was yet to have any significant effect on Greece and we only needed one day to relocate to the other side of the country 340km away.
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The morning of Monday 24 Mar, we held off departure until 1030 to check on the weather. It looked good. We paid our bill, said goodbye to our landlord and headed for the hills. By the time we were charging across the causeway to the mainland 40 minutes later the blasting cross winds hit us and we were wondering about the wisdom of our decision. By the time we reached the foothills two hours later we had our rain-suits on, and by the time we reached the mountains three hours later we knew it was going to be a long day.
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I have never minded riding in the rain, or riding in gusty cross winds, or riding challenging mountain roads, but this was the trifecta. Rain turned the switchbacks into rivers and covered them in debris. The storm wind ripped down the valleys and hit the Elephant with a hammer-blow each time we were exposed from the lee of a spur. The camera stayed dry inside Jo’s jacket so there is no photographic evidence.
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We pushed on with nowhere to stop and nowhere to hide. Occasionally we closed on and passed a car or bus on the torturous road, but mostly we felt alone and exposed on the mountain. The only town of any size on our route was Karpenissi. The 240km to get there had taken 6 hours in the saddle and we were running out of light. The temperature was 6 degrees C and falling quickly.
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We decided to stay, found a deliciously warm hotel, changed into dry clothes, found a bottle of very good Shiraz/Grenache, some tolerably good take-away and curled up safe and warm in bed. It had been a hell of a day at the office.
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Tuesday 25 March is Greek Independence Day and a public holiday.
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Wreaths were laid at a monument in the central park on Independence Day which commemorates the uprising against the Turks starting in 1821. Interestingly it was international pressure led by the British and French that forced the Turks to settle a deal with the Greeks in 1829.
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We set the alarm early and opened the window to an amazing sight. It was snowing! Even the Elephant had a light covering.
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The view looking up the street from the hotel window in Karpenissi..
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Looking down the street was no better!
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We waited. It kept snowing. At 10:00 we told the hotel we were staying and settled in to read novels and watch some Greek TV. At 15:00 our town appeared on the afternoon news covered in its blanket of newsworthy unseasonable snow. They showed the main street where our hotel was located and there, in the corner of the screen, parked on the footpath, was the Elephant with a thick pad of snow on its grey cover!
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The Elephant with a covering of white stuff.
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That night the snow turned to rain and it thundered down without stop until the early morning. We had a fitful night’s sleep waking to look out at the rain each hour or so. In the picaninny dawn, however, the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. By the time we were packed to ride at 0900, the mountains around the town looked magnificent in the clear morning light,
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The mountains behind Karpenissi were spectacular.
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But we weren’t waiting around to enjoy the view. We tumbled down the mountain. In 20 minutes we were below the snow line and the road was drying. In 40 minutes we were on the coastal plain heading for the town of Lamia.
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We turned south and flogged the Elephant down the motorway to Athens. We needed to do some important administration and Athens was the best place to get it sorted. We booked into the same hotel we had stayed at on our last visit, the Pergamos. The hotel itself had nothing much to recommend it above the other tourist class places in the area except that the front desk was manned by Stefanos, who is a former teacher of politics and history.
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Mike and Stefanos at the Pergamos in Athens.
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Stefanos is a walking encyclopaedia on matters of Greek culture, history and politics, and is worth the tariff and the simple breakfast just to be there and answer our questions. We didn’t even mind staying an extra day when the weather closed in with heavy rain in this notoriously dry city.
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On the morning of 29 March we left Athens and pushed 450km north to the east coast area that the weather forecasts assured us would be sunny. We stopped at the town of Platamonas. It was not much different to a dozen other settlements along this part of the coast except that we had stayed here 18 years ago with Sarah and Nick.
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We walked up to the same castle we had walked to all those years ago and took some photos. The castle hadn’t changed but it now cost 2 Euro to get in. Last time the goat herd didn’t care if we wandered over the old rocks.
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The castle at Platamonas was still there, but much else had changed.
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We remembered a sleepy village with a couple of tavernas where fresh fish was always on the grill. We found a walking street (mall) and a dozen glitzy bars, coffee shops and restaurants. While we walked along the waterfront a private helicopter landed in front of one of the restaurants and the occupants disappeared inside.
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The new Platamonas was probably a good end point for our visit to Greece. Much of what we loved about Greece is still there and it is still a country where we feel completely at home. But the new Greece is also a modern country on the move with plenty of swagger and self confidence.
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We will be back. And we may even stay at the Pergamos again if Stefanos is still on the desk.