The very best day of cycling in the Peloponnese Greece

We have now been in Greece for just over 3 weeks and today we had the most amazing day cycling from our parking spot on a tiny harbour at Gerolimenas on the Mani peninsula. Since we arrived we have had somewhat unpredictable weather it has been cool, cloudy with a bit of rain almost every day, but a few days ago the weather changed, the skies cleared, the sun came out and the temperatures rose.

We set out on our bikes and headed south towards the tip of the peninsula, as we rode we were blown away by the spectacular views at every turn. It felt like a magical experience and gave new meaning to the term breathtaking! We could only progress slowly because you just had to keep stopping to take it all in. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe bar overlooking the almost deserted village of Vathia with its distinctive fortified houses. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries this area was much more densely populated, the occupants farmed the steep hillsides with olive groves, cereals, goats but this area was also known for its pirates! I can imagine the people who lived here were pretty tough with the hot summers, cold winters, difficult landscape and invading Ottomans.

The village is now one of the most photographed in mainland Greece, a popular tourist attraction, but still looks just like it did all those years ago. It looks like something out of a storybook.
Our journey continued, winding along the steep coast road with the abundance of wild flowers on the verges and up the hillsides, the area also well known for the many and varied flowers. The roads were pretty steep and lots of hairpins, we were very glad of our electric bikes, in fact we wouldn't have undertaken such a ride without them, they really have taken our cycling to another level.

We didn't go far, only about 20 miles, but it was the most wonderful day out. We found a quiet place for our picnic and an even quieter one to have our flask of coffee (the cemetery!)
And when we got back I just had to share our fantastic day out with you.

We arrive in the Peloponnese 🇬🇷

Crossing over to the Peloponnese 

Heading south to the Peloponnese we crossed from the mainland using the Charilaos Trikoupis bridge, one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges, I think they must be still paying for the cost of building it as we were shocked to pay 20.30€ for the privilege!
Once we arrived on the Peloponnese,we found it easy to Free camp as it's just the beginning of the season, many of the places have plenty of space to park and the locals don't seem to be at all bothered by you being parked there in your motorhome. The weather just didn't want to improve much - we would have some sunshine for a few hours but then it would cloud over and start to rain again.
The roads in Greece are almost as bad at the potholed roads in Italy, poorly maintained and bumpy. The laid back attitude of the Greek people is reflected in their driving- they overtake on the double unbroken centre lines on the road all the time, they come round blind bends on your side of the road, the wide roads suddenly become extremely narrow when you arrive in a town or village (so much so you wonder if you missed a sign somewhere) and the rules on giving way to the left on roundabouts is a bit shaky, which is how I would describe my nerves after a day on the road! I even woke up in the night and wondered if all our affairs are in order and our insurances paid up!

The little harbour at Diakopto

We pondered briefly about giving up on Greece and heading back to Spain! But only briefly even though the weather refused to improve! After a week in Greece we arrived at a tiny harbour at the back end of nowhere called Agios Andreas and our friends Paul and Janice met us there, we whiled away a stormy afternoon in the one and only taverna catching up on our latest travels since we last saw them in Spain. They had arrived about a week or so before us and were able to give us some good tips on where to visit on the Peloponnese.

Whilst we were there this old Greek guy who lived in a house by the harbour came by the motorhomers parked up and offered 'something to eat' at his house, we had just eaten so we didn't take him up on his offer, but a Swiss couple parked next to us went. When they returned they were highly amused - he had served them up some very dry cooked fish, some greasy chips and a half carafe of cheap wine, a large proportion of the fish was discretely fed to the many cats hanging around. When they offered payment 'Grandpa' as we called him, asked for 39€! Rather a lot!! We had just paid less than 30€ for a delicious meal for 2 in the nearby tarverna - Greek salad, meat, chips and a couple of rounds of drinks - the moral of the story I think is 'Beware of Greeks bearing gifts' 😂

Our area for parking at the harbour Agios Andreas

A brief stay in Italy and then on to Greece! 🇬🇷

After a silky smooth ferry crossing from Barcelona we arrive in Italy and were soon bumping along their pothole filled roads. For those of you who have not driven in Italy it is quite an experience! We were careful to secure any loose items in the Moho and check the tyre pressures before setting out on our journey across to the ferry terminal at Ancona, the roads are quite frankly awful with frequent potholes large enough to lose a small child in! Add that to the impatient Italian drivers, driving in Italy is not much fun! What we did find on our short stay was a friendly welcome from the people we met as well as a really interesting medieval town where we stayed on their motorhomers Aire (complete with fresh water, waste disposal and even electric hook up!)
The town of Offagna is only 10miles from the ferry terminal at Ancona making it a perfect place to stopover before your crossing to Greece, if we visit here again we will definitely plan a longer stay to explore the town and surrounding countryside.

Our view from the motorhome

We checked in to the port and the whole experience can only be described as chaotic! Not knowing the procedure to follow at the port didn't help but by the time we had boarded the ship we heaved a sigh of relief when we entered our cabin for the night! Once again we had a smooth crossing and the time passed quickly, we soon landed on Greek soil and were heading down the road to our first stop at the quiet harbour village of Plataria, a few miles south of the port of Igoumenitsa.
Did I say quiet? It was for the most part, but on Sunday morning the whole church service in Greek was loudly broadcast by loudspeaker right next to our parking spot!

The Greek Orthodox Church Plataria

Fortunately is happened only once so didn't really cause us too much trouble! We were able while we were there to get out on our bikes and cycle along the glorious coast road to a nearby village where we
picnicked on the seafront. For those of you who have never been to Greece, it is a country of thousands of islands and mile upon mile of stunning rocky coastlines. All along these coastlines are many, many seaside resorts with apartments and small hotels for all the visiting tourists.

Distant snow capped mountains 

The sea when the sun shines is a beautiful turquoise colour and the water is so clear, but sadly we didn't see as much of the sunshine as we would have liked as we had frequent grey skies and rain, we wondered if maybe we had come to Greece to early in the season. Perhaps the snow capped mountains in the distance was a clue to the April temperatures!
Well, there is no turning back so with eternal optimism we headed south to the Peloponnese peninsula in search of warmer climes.

Greece - the next stage of our adventure

Fishers Farm Wisborough Green

Leaving Velez Rubio we headed back to Totana for a few days before heading on to our friends, Janet and Frank at Quesada (Murcia region) where we had arranged to have the motorhome serviced in a local garage and stored for the week whilst we headed home to the UK, flying Ryanair from Alicante. The return flights to Gatwick didn't cost a lot but all the regulations stipulated by Ryanair stressed us somewhat! Are the flight bags the correct dimensions? When do we check in online and why do we have to pay just to sit together? It's all so complicated.....
Nevertheless we made it home unscathed and enjoyed a hectic week catching up with our friends and family especially time spent with our gorgeous granddaughters- we had a brilliant day out at Fishers Farm park with all the animals and activities.
The week flew by and we were soon back on the plane heading back to Spain to start the next stage of our adventure.

Cambrils promenade 

There are a number of ways to get to Greece, we opted to take a ferry from Barcelona to Civitavecchia in Italy, drive northeast across Italy to Ancona and then to take a ferry from there to Igoumenitsa on the west coast of Greece.
The first crossing was 20 hours and the second 16 hours so we added a cabin for both journeys. You can opt on the Greece ferry to camp on deck in your motohome which we have heard is good fun but we decided to have the luxury of a cabin. Together the total cost of the two ferry journeys worked out at 635€ (about £600) which we thought wasn't too bad, it gave us a great feeling of excitement booking our trip to Greece- we have never been quite so adventurous before!
Having spent a lovely few days with Janet & Frank (which included a night out for fish & chips, a visit to the Saturday market at Almoradi and Janet cooked us her fabulous Paella which has to be the best ever - and has completely spoilt us for having Paella anywhere else!) we headed north towards Barcelona stopping at Cambrils enroute.

Our ferry to Italy was booked for 10.30pm so we allowed plenty of time for the Barcelona city traffic and getting checked in etc. Once we arrived at the port we parked up in the holding area and had time to eat our evening meal before we eventually boarded - that's the lovely thing about travelling around in your motorhome- you have everything with you (including the kitchen sink!)
The whole process of boarding was totally chaotic but we made it and were soon settling into our little cabin for the journey. We had an incredibly smooth crossing, slept well with the gentle rocking of the boat and enjoyed the sunshine on deck the next day. It would have all been perfect but for the couple of hundred Italian teenage students on board (quite well behaved but noisy) and having to wait ages after checking out of the cabin to disembark.
At last we arrived on Italian soil ready for a brief stay in the land of Pasta, Pizza and Pompeii.

On board the Cruise Ausonia - Grimaldi lines