Greece part 2

December 13th to december 26th

December 13th, we were back to the mainland again, after 45mn ride and 45mn of ferry. After some foggy windy days, the sun was back, shining. 

We took a departmental road for some time when it stopped suddenly, at a gas station with some barking dogs... Well, we had no choice but to lift our bikes through the barrier and .... started riding on the highway. We didn't feel that "guilty" because all Greeks we talked to assured us that it was possible "highways are empty anyway". A police car past us and made no statement, which encouraged us even more. After some probably 15km, a "security car" finally stopped us and escorted us to the next exit point 2km further. 

So, we confirme that cycling on highway is forbidden, even in Greece (but we heard that you could really do that in Albania, where one can encounter cows, or make a U -turn on highway...). 

Our "escort" took some pictures of us with his phone, probably to make fun of us later with his colleagues and friends. Well, if we could entertain someone, it's a good thing :-) :-)

That day, we decided to stop at a desert beach and had a swim - the sea was so appealing: the water clear and heartbreaking blue, the scenery idyllic, just like the paradise :-)  

Next day, we did what we talked about days before: paying an hommage to Leonidas at Thermopyles, the famous battlefield of the 300. This is Spartaaaaaa!!!!

Of course there is nothing left but just Kolones, the hill where the last Spartans fell. And some nature therms where you can have a bath but we didn't care: we had much better thing in Evia :-)

December 15th, we had a great ride and arrived to Trikala with one day in advance, after some 106km. Our couch surfing host, Tommaso, is a very sweet Erasmus student from .... Belluno, 60 km from Alessio's hometown. The landlord, when he first saw our two bikes, was not very happy and asked that we'd leave the next morning. Wouah, it was a bit unexpected from a Greek, now that we'd been so accustomed to their generosity. We felt so sorry to put Tommy into troubles :-(

The next morning, we were ready to go when the landlord knocked to the door with a big cake "you can stay another day as planned, there is no problem". Apparently the night gave him some nice advices :-) :-). And we felt relieved, for Tommy but also for the Greek hospitality :-) :-)

 Tommy kindly invited us to a farewell party of some Erasmus students. It was really fun, especially when Adam tried to translate the famous czech song "Waldemar Matuska" into English, with his theatrical manner, punctuated with "I don't know" :-) :-)

There we also met Elena and Sorin, a very nice Romanian couple who graciously offered us to stay with them for the next days, when we'd visit Meteora. We had a very good time with them and Sara- their little playful daughter and Elena's mother.

Meteora is simply amazing. Now it's kinda easy to get there but we could imagine how it was difficult when the monasteries were first built and the only way to get in was by ropes that the monks may do not want to give you  :-) :-)

The Monastery of St Nicholas Anapausas

The Monastery of Rousanou

The monastery of Varlaam

!!!! Sorry for the absence of pictures below but my camera was stolen in Thessaloniki with the precious proofs of those last days!!!!

December 20th, the last day of autumn, the weather kept being to be so warm and sunny, we rode in t-shirt and had the most marvelous camp spot: up in a small hill with a "wide angle" of the paysage and an unforgettable sunset! The starry night was also oniric!!!

The next morning, just when we were ready to go down to the road, who did we see? A lonely loaded cyclist!!! It was Michael, an another Italian, on the road to India. We rode together half of the day. The first day of winter is really a disaster: cold, grey, windy brrrr. Around 3:30PM, it started to snow and we were still in the middle of the hill!!!! Oh my God!!!! We found refuge in a church, dedicated to Saint Christopher, the travelers protector!!! I saw in it a sign :-) As the door was open and nobody was there, we decided to sleep inside the small church. Hm not sure that it was a good idea because it was almost as cold as outside!!!! The only point was that we got ready the next morning much more quickly: at 8AM, we were already sweating like hell on the way uphill!

We rode for probably one km uphill when we found by the road side, Micheal's tent. He actually didn't see the "flag" we left for him but anyway, we found each other. 

We reached the highest point of 1450m at 9:30 and had a "one shot" downhill to 450m. It was freaking cold!!! I had to put on almost all my winter clothes and 3 pairs of gloves :-) :-)

And after almost 120km (118,5 precisely) we finally reached Thessaloniki where Dimitrios, our Couch Surfing host reserved a nice surprise for us: a fully equipped flat only for us!!! Wouah!!! We couldn't have dreamed a better thing for Christmas. Moreover, he invited us to join the Erasmus Christmas' Eve party (Erasmus again and forever :-) :-)) where we met for the first time someone from Bhutan!!!!

December 25th, we decided to play the tourists around the city. When we got out of Saint Sophia church, we crossed a couple of European with their bikes. Of course, we jumped on the occasion to talk: Karina and Tim are from Hamburg and are cycling to China.

We felt right away "on the same page" and prolonged the coffee break to a Christmas diner at home. We were really glad to have met them. We spent almost all day the next day on "their" yacht, lazying under the sun, talking and drinking beers :-) What a great day!!!!

We are leaving Thessaloniki tomorrow morning for some new adventures! The weather seems to  get worsened the next days. Brrrrr. Wish us luck and stay tuned!!!

Greece - part one

From 26 november to 13 december

Max speed: 68,9km/h at some hours outside Athens

We decided to go to Greece on a whim, after a wild camping night when we didn't feel very sure and comfortable at a beach in Fano, one day ride after Rimini. So we took the 24h boat from Ancona and woke up, on November 26th, at Gino's (Alessio's father) birthday on Greek land in Patras.

Patras is, let's say, not a great city to visit but just a connecting point before going to other places, i.e Athens :-)
November 27th, we started cycling under the hard rain, just to realize after some 25km that we took the wrong direction and went further and further from Athens :-). So we did the other 25km to go back to the starting point, wet to the bones. Fortunately that Georgia, a sweet student in engineering, accepted our SOS request and saved us from the pouring rain. The time we spent together was short but she was our first experience of Greek kindness and generosity. She received us with this warm smile that made us feel comfortable right away.

After Patras, instead of going to a couch surfing host, we went to Savvas - Georgia's uncle home, just to confirm that Greek people are so nice. It took us 3 days and 2 nights to reach Athens. At some point, we saw a open camping: 12 euros for a night! We would have jumped of joy if we had found that price at the beginning of the trip. But now, 3 months had past, we have now an another view of our budget and of what we can do. So we just smiled politely and moved 500m further to wild camp amongst some bushes. 0 euros and a campsite just for us two

We didn't like Athens that much, you know kind of big busy unorganized city :-) but we definitely felt for the Acropoles and all those antique monuments. Such a glorious past!!!!

Some people advised us to go to Santorini or Mykonos but we preferred some authentic greek experiences rather than just beautiful landscape and postcard view. So,on Savvas' advices, we took the road to Evia, one of the biggest Greek island where normal tourists don't go.
Arriving to Nea Palatia, we asked for the ferry timetable and the verdict was " No ferry in winter time". What? But we are not officially in winter yet!!! No panic, we just need to ride some 20 km more to reach Halkida, where the island is connected to the mainland with a trembling old bridge :-)

Among things we love about Greece is that we can wild camp everywhere. No body cares when we put our tent on the beach or some piece of wasted ground near their houses, the only thing they ever asked was "are you sure you won't get cold?" :-) :-)
And almost everywhere, abandoned dogs came and held us company. Those poor little things are so nice and playful, they just looked for someone to whom they can be faithful to.

It's quite sad every morning to leave them again and see the sadness in their eyes. At a beach, 3 dogs, probably from the same family, stayed a night with us and the next morning, we spent almost 30mn to "cheat" them so they wouldn't follow us on the big road, which could be dangerous.

Just before leaving Evia, the Great Fortune smiled to us and made us meet Anastasia and Angel. We crossed their home just at the moment they got out with their bikes. After exchanging a few words, giving us tons of advices, they.... offered to stay at their place. At first for a night, then we stayed for a whole week, the two last days for some weather reason - we got up with the wind screaming outside and the sea, so quiet and so flat ordinary, became dirty and beat the shore with raging waves. We felt so lucky to be inside, under the warm blankets :-)

Both Anastasia and Angel (he is Spanish) are tour guides and they were free when we were there, which gave us all the leisure of enjoying the Evia rhythm  of life with them. We went cutting wood with a "prehistorical" saw, picking olives in a traditional manual way, visiting chipuro's production, looking for mushrooms, tasting wonderful "mezhees" (something like tapas) in Cafeneo - the heart of the villages social life :-)

It was such a great experience, much nicer than to see those white houses and blue windows in the postcard. We felt the kindness, the warmth, the generosity of Greek people. We could never thank them enough to receive us, strangers by their doors, like close friends.

And those never-ending UNO games with " Red?No red? Look fire!!!! Plus 4!!! Very funny!!!" will stay in the Rolling Potatoes annals!!! We still laugh remembering how Angel squinted his eyes at me when I skipped his turn, for an Nth time :-) :-). Amigos, we miss you!!!!! 

December 13th, finally, we left Evia, sad of leaving Anastasia and Angel, who became so dear to us, but at the same time, glad to feel the asphalt again. I could finally pass a phone call home to wish my Daddy a happy birthday and to see that at the other end of the wire, my family was gathering together, preparing for the party :-)

After 45 mn of ferry from Loutra, we arrived to the mainland again!!!! Ayyyy, Potatoes continue their route! Stay tuned!!!!

Italy part 2, from Trento to Rimini

+1750km

Leaving the Dolomites was like to leave home the second time for both of us. Goodbye nonno, nonna and everybody. Thank you for everything and hope to see you all again soon.

So, november 5th, after almost 3 weeks of "beautiful life" with warm cosy bed and wonderful weather, we took up again our handlebars. It rained like cats and dogs but we were, in some way, too excited to feel the asphalt again to postpone the departure. We also wanted to test our "rain-proof" materials. And also the road is supposed not to be hard but a lot of downhill.

And it was a bad experience. I once told you how I felt uneasy to go down the road in the dark, well it is worse under the rain, especially after some time, our brakes were completely ruined. It was scary!!!
The material is "proofed" for 4 hours under the rain. But we had to ride for almost 5 hours, so we got quite wet (and cold) when we finally got to Trento. Brrrr. We promised to ourselves that unless it's really inevitable, we wouldn't hit the road on a rainy day again.

Well, the positive thing about the raining-rolling is that we saw wonderful views in a very different angle. Imagine those grandiose mountains covered with shining bright yellow and orange (leaves) trees under a heavy threatening grey sky. We didn't take any pictures, too concerned about the road and also too lazy to rummage among our bagage..... It was a odd feeling of going to Trento by bike, the place we had been to by car just a few days ago (it was damn faster and more comfortable by car, I tell you ....)

After Trento, we headed to Ferrara and had 2 successive nights of wild camping. Guessed we had to practice a bit before going really "into the wild". It was OK in fact, I just missed a bit the hot shower :-) :-)

In Ferrara, we succeeded to synchrony with Alessio's mum's schedule. Such a pleasure to meet again in this beautiful city

We crossed Verona on our way, always under a bit of rain. Juliet's house was soooo full of tourists that we didn't bother to stop by: caressing her breasts for whatever luck it may bring didn't seem appealing to us :-) :-)

                               (Verona's coliseo) 

November 11th 2014

Direction Bologna,  "the fat city" which is just some 50km away from Ferrara. Such a boiling city, with crows of students and young noisy people :-) :-) We liked it to stroll about in its sparkling streets, under its long porticoes, to take unexpected turns in unknown corners just to find ourselves again in the middle of an another "hype" piazza. 

There was a chocolat fair when we arrived in Bologna

But it was to see bella Ericuccia that we were here. We also experienced the extraordinary hospitality of Giulia who let us use freely her cosy apartment during our bolognese stay

From there, we took the train (yes, it happens that we do not cycle!!!) to Florence, the birth place of Renaissance, not only to visit the famous Duomo or to eat some lamprodotto or to see "Madonna with  the Child" in 50 different ways in Uffizi

 
or to buy window-shop some fancy jewelries on the Ponte Vecchio

But also to see some friends, so dear to our hearts

(With Pippo, a comrade in arms during their "military service" at Trussardi)

                            

(With Tommy, Gab-Gab and La Mita)

(Who is ze boss here??)

(And Peter, Alessio's first Chef, the one to whom Alessio owes his entrance into the gastronomy's world)

We were so delighted to see them all, to feel the friendship's warmth. But, "every season has an end", we had to leave, even it was hard to hear Gab-Gab murmuring "are you sure, dears? Are you sure?"

So tuesday November 18th, we headed back to Bologna, spent a last night there.

November 19th, after a huge breakfast of 500gr of pasta for two, we took a 100 km ride to arrive to Ravenna, the mosaic capital. 

                     

                                           (the baptism of Jesus)

Here, we were received by Massimo, our host from Couch Surfing. A very nice guy.

And we met up again with Alessio's mum. Seems like we could never say good-bye. 

Hum, I can hear people chucking and smiling "oh, la mamma italiana and her son!!!!". Well, they are not really the Italian archetype. Her mother takes always great cares of us without feeding us with huge pasta plates :-) Alessio doesn't speak with his hands (and not a womanizer neither, hopefully :-) :-) ). In fact, they are from the part of Italy that belonged to Austria before the WWI. 

November 21th 2014

We set sail, or rather handlebars to Faenza. It was a detour to see some long time friends.

In Faenza, we had a lovely evening with Lorenzo and his family. Simona was so kind to ask her friend in Rimini to host us. It was a salvation because we had no answer from Couch Surfing nor Warm Shower and the region seems not very easy for wild camping.
So the next day, November 22th, after multi good bye, we left Faenza. On the way, we made an detour to Cesenatico to pay an hommage to Pantani, aka The Pirate, one of the biggest cyclists of history, the Italian pride, died 10 years ago. "He was murdered because he won all the time", said to me a signore met at the cemetery

In Rimini, we were convinced by Raphaella and Andrea to stay one more day to discover more this so crowded seaside city in summer time. They are so kind to us. And the little Agata is such a sweet and fun girl and we can not help falling under her charm.

Tomorrow is an another day! We hope to arrive to Senigallia, an another town on the Adriatic coast. With no clue where to sleep this time! Please, pray for us that the wild camping would be easy :-) :-)

Italy part 1 - Potatoes in the Dolomites

+1300km or some 5% of road covered!!!!

Thursday, Oct 16

As promised, Alessio let us take the train from Innsbruck to Brennero. Those 40mn in train saved us probably 3 hours of suffering as the Astrian-Italian border is a horrible high pass, too hard to cover especially when we still have 100km after that.

So we sit comfortably in the train for the first 40km and started cycling around 11AM. We still have the cycling path for most of the first 80km. The nice weather is still with us. It was easy util we got out of Vipiteno. Then, it was the most horrible pass ever (I know that lots of worse things are still to come but this one was hard...). We struggled during 1h45 on a never ending uphill where I passed the worst tunnel, the longest 450m ever of my life, tunnel of which every meter was gained in pain and fear. I had to stop 2 or 3 times when cars approached because I couldn't even hold my handlebars straight.

Our suffering ended finally in Castelrotto after some 90km. The deliverance came along with 10km of downhill till Fie allo Schiliar. The counter showed 100,56km when we finally reached Alessio's mum's house. It was for the first time that we exceeded the fateful limit of 100km.Here, we had 2 relaxing days with nice walks in forests, good traditional sud-tyrol food, wine and hospitality. 

Saturday Oct 18

We left Fie around 5:30 PM. Alessio's mom took us through some horrible passes, from the car's window, I look out and feared for what it might be if I had to cycle over all that.

We started cycling for real :-) when the sun already set, the Rosengarten had lost its final flamboyant reflection and become paler and paler peaks under the darkened sky. 

We went downhill for most of the time of those 15km but I had to confess that I felt quite uncomfortable going down the curving road in the dark. I particularly hated cars arriving from the opposite direction with their dazzling lights. Fortunately they are not so many....

We arrived finally at home a bit after 7 PM. Here we started two weeks of "usual holidays" of hiking 

cycling

picking mushrooms

wonderful home-made food

going out with friends.... 

The Dolomites are simply an wonder. The hikes are sometimes quite challenging but I could not help myself from being amazed and feeling so lucky in front of such impressive views. 

The weather, as usual, is magnificent with beautiful honey-like sunshine; I feel like I could almost taste its sweetness. 

One negative point is that our budget doesn't allow us fancy restaurants anymore :-( :-(. But I think I should draw a cross on that matter (snif snif)

We decided to stay here for an another week, so still some more days before we hit the road again!!!!

Austria part 2 - Vienna

Sunday Oct 12

After 2 days in Munich, we arrive at Vienna at 4:30PM. As our appointment with Minah, our Couch Surfing host was at 8PM, we had some hours to walk around.

We crossed the Parliament, the City Hall where a circus was performing (!!!). 

The weather was nice so people were happy drinking and eating out. People in Vienna are less dressed than in Innsbruck. A lot go by bike. And the public transportation is very good. We had a stay in Museum Quarter, they had those very comfortable half seat half bed where you can be two on it, talking, dreaming, debating or enjoying the free wifi :-) :-)

Minah arrived with Lilith (!!!) her little dog. Minah, half Moroccan, half Korean, hosts us in the apartment she lives with her Korean mother. Student in medicine, she is also involved in a lot of alternative projects, talking with her is so interesting and we learnt so many vibrant things about this beautiful city that at first, looks so quiet

Monday Oct 13

We started the day quite early and headed directly to Belvedere to admire, amongst others, Klimt's work. Belvedere was prince Eugene's residence and reception's hall. As it was built into 2 parts: the upper and the lower castles, they decided to sell 2 separated tickets at the cost of 12.5E each (!!!!!). We stayed the whole morning in the upper castle, until hunger drove us away for lunch. I wanted a cheap hot place, so we ended up in Mc Donald (!!!!).

Later, with Minah, we went to Opera house and what a chance, we found two tickets for the next day's presentation of Mozart's Idomeneo at a reasonable price (still it was very expensive for our budget now) of 65E instead of 125E. (In fact we had to separated seats, one with the normal price of 33E and one of 33E instead of 92E).

Before going home, Minah showed us some quite interesting alternative places: the restaurants where you can eat then pay as much as you want

or the public fridge where people can freely serve what it's inside (mostly fruits and veggies collected from different places i.e supermarkets....). At home, Minah's mother had prepared already the dinner, for our joy, with lots of veggies and rice, and kimchi :-)

Tuesday Oct 14

We talked so much at breakfast that we left home finally only at 10 AM. Last day in Vienna. We visited the Schönbrunn Palace. It was very green and pleasant. and uphill, we had this nice view over Vienna.

Then, the highlight of the day: the Opera. 

We felt uneasy right away being the only two in sportswear among all those beautiful, dressed up to the nines people! The opera house is quite nice , but the performance was a disappointment, a bit far from our expectation (and everybody's....). It's a bit frustrating but we soon got over it :-) :-) We had our consolation with the wonderful pumpkin soup that Minah's mother had prepared for us. That's another fun thing about Vienna: you can have, out of town, a plot of land where you can cultivate whatever you want and be sure of your own organic food :-)

Wednesday Oct 15

We spent most of the day in the bus to get back to Innsbruck. At some point in Germany, we got a control from German police, they took all non-German and non-Austrian passports and checked it through-fully every page!!!! A bit further, some other policemen stopped the bus again but at the drivers protests, they let us go. It's so weird! We wandered if they may look for someone....

At the end of the day, we get to Innsbruck. Our bikes were still at the campsite, in good shape :-). We quickly set up the tent and prepared for dinner. In the kitchen, we got acquainted with Wayne, alias Gypsy who's been on the road for 38 years. He is an expert in clean water supply's solution and had worked and travelled all over the world. Impressive. He told us about Horizons Unlimited and started telling us his own adventures. We stayed with him till Morpheus dragged us back to our tent.

End of Austria. Tomorrow we will be in Italy!!!!