What a fun way to see a country!
All the arrangements were made by a Greek company called Arcas Travel… e-bikes, hotel reservations, daily luggage transfer and best of all, a specially designed GPS guiding system that was foolproof. Navigating on our own was a piece of cake.
The GPS was tailored to our particular tour and worked beautifully, no need for a guide. Dave, Kim and Cyndi downloaded the app and had phones on their handlebars. The rest of the ducklings followed the leader to our destination each day.
The tour started at high elevation in the pretty mountain village of Vytina. We needed these jackets for the first few days.
This was last October 2024. The fall weather was lovely and the summer crowds were gone.
A little scavenging along the roadside, apples on the left, grapes on the right.
Then it was all downhill to the seaside on the Peloponnese Peninsula. Actually there were some hills to climb during the 8-day tour but we didn’t mind, the four levels of assist on the e-bikes were our good friends.
We rode by gnarly olive trees, orange groves, pomegranate trees, and palms as we neared the sea.
The tour company picked quiet paved roads and cycling paths for our route, very little traffic, sometimes none at all, as we meandered through rural landscape and charming villages.
I loved these colourful boxes along the road. My mom kept bees but her hives were always white. Canadian beekeeper style I guess.
I remember that climb you can see behind the white beehive. Only a little puffing, not the workout we suffered in past trips on regular bikes. We loved our ponies and faithfully carried the batteries into our hotel rooms every night for charging.
Roadside coffee shops, restaurants and bars called to us multiple times a day. There was no hesitation when it came to refreshments. If one bike turned in, we all turned in.
And finally the seaside!
I didn’t realize what a rainbow of colour we were until I saw all these pictures, but the neon kept us visible during the short stretches we were on highways.
I rode ahead of everyone to get this picture. Luckily, no traffic on that stretch.
If you like the idea of bicycle touring watch for my next post. There’s more on this trip. It’s Greece so we have ancient ruins, a cave, an amazing artists studio, Greek friends and Greek food! And one flat tire on a desolate mountainside.
Stay tuned for Biking with Good Friends in Greece - Part 2
