Table of contents
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16 pictures
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Dream beach: Porto Katsiki on the Ionian Sea.
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At 600 years old, the Von Kipi Bridge is still young.
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Spring is at its best in the Peloponnese.
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… South Seas atmosphere on the west coast of Lefkas.
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Not a rare sight in rural Greece: farmers with their donkeys on their way to work in the fields.
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Playful pension advertising creates a special charm.
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Contrasts: Snow at the Vasilitsa Pass,…
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Monasteries and chapels are among the landmarks of Greece.
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Small paradises everywhere, hardly any traces of the crisis.
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The state budget of Greece is not looking particularly good, but the country itself is definitely worth seeing.
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Historically valuable: pillars of Olympia.
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Typically Greek: the port of Vlycho on Lefkas.
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In spring it is still quiet in the ports.
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Fantastic camping at the lake of Ioaninna.
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Meteora – monasteries between heaven and earth.
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Absolutely worth seeing: the rocks in the Pindos.
to travel
Out and about in Greece: motorcycle tour
Out and about in Greece
A motorcycle tour through Greece
Hellas! Greece is not only almost broke, but also fantastically beautiful. So why not go there in spite of the crisis and help restore the national budget in exchange for adventurous motorcycle routes and warm-hearted encounters? It is worth it.
Joachim Deleker
06/24/2010
The desolate financial situation in Greece is not a result of higher forces of nature, but a homemade problem. According to the opinion of the regulars, it has to do with the fact that many Greeks have ripped off their authorities and retire too early. In any case, it is true that not just the term “democracy” comes from the Greek, but also the words “chaos” and “crisis”.
Nevertheless, a motorcycle tour through Greece is terrific even in times of crisis. The pleasure begins as soon as you leave the ferry in Igoumenitsa. Robert and I are happy about the warm rays of the sun, learn that significantly fewer tourists are coming, that you can buy whole hotels cheaply at the moment and enjoy the old trunk road 6, which no longer drives because of the new motorway. It meanders into the mountains in long curves. Ideal conditions to arrive mentally in Greece and to let the mopeds run. The fluid driving style that was frozen in winter quickly comes back.
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A motorcycle tour through Greece
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We aim for the Pindos Mountains via Zagoria with its 46 historic villages. From the vantage point over the Vikos Gorge, we look 800 meters down. A view that degrades other famous canyons to nice valleys. The Pindos Mountains are a wild, alpine landscape with the 2637 meter high Smolikas as the highest peak. Bears, lynxes and wolves are said to still live in the valleys. Behind Kipi, a narrow road winds directly towards the snow-white, 2500 meter high Timfi massif, and solitude becomes the program. We climb over nameless passes, hide in dense black pine forests, pass tiny mountain villages and can hardly believe that this should still be Greece.
Deleker
Dream beach: Porto Katsiki on the Ionian Sea.
On the other side of the rugged Timfi Mountains, it’s almost 1000 meters high to Palioseli, a small village in front of the Smolikas massif. The road winds steadily uphill to the Vasilitsa Pass. Massive walls of snow narrow the track, the northern slopes are still completely covered in snow. We shiver downhill, find a nice kafenion in Grevena. “Where do we want to go?”, asks Angelos, the gray-haired innkeeper. “To Meteora, and then on to the Peloponnese.” “Are you sure? There is a bored depression off the west coast and I don’t know what to do with it.” We didn’t have that on the plan. “But it’s nice in the east”, he gives us courage. Two coffees later, Robert conjures up a map adapted to the meteorological conditions: Chalkidiki.
Sithonia is the middle finger of the Chalkidiki peninsula, a camper paradise in summer, currently free of tourists. We stroll along the coast and actually find typical Greek cliches: small bays with crystal clear water and gentle slopes with olive trees. The interior is wooded, criss-crossed by a network of dusty slopes. In Sikia we discover a path that winds into the mountains and demands all the travel of the enduro bikes. At 600 meters, the view extends to the 2033 meter high mountain Áthos.
Áthos, a mystical name. The semi-autonomous monastic republic occupies the entire eastern finger of the Chalkidiki. A world of its own, where 2000 Greek Orthodox monks live in 20 centuries-old monasteries. Visiting Áthos is just as difficult as North Korea: only ten male non-Orthodox are admitted per day, women and children have to stay outside. But without these restrictive regulations, the monastic republic would lose its mysterious aura in the age of mass tourism. Monasteries and mass tourism? Unthinkable on Áthos, but actually existing in Meteora, 400 kilometers to the west.
There towers and battlements peel themselves from a smooth, gray rock bastion. A crazy sight, because on some of these columns, which are up to 300 meters high, monasteries are enthroned in daring locations. Meteora is one of the most exciting scenes in Europe. In the 14th century the monk Meteoris had the first monastery built, called it Meteora, which means something like floating between heaven and earth.
Deleker
Meteora – monasteries between heaven and earth.
In the meantime, the bad weather over the Adriatic has said goodbye to the north. Time to head for the Ionian Sea. Gravel and nasty bitumen demand full concentration, rain showers also reduce the grip level. As we roll into Lefkada, the sun warms us. The street bars in the largest city on the island of Lefkada fill up quickly. Scooter and motorcycle riders whiz through the chaotic traffic, some riders even wear helmets – mostly cool on the wrist. The highlight of Lefkas is the steep coast of its southwestern tip, which stretches like a long finger into the Ionian Sea. Mountains overgrown with green maquis break steeply into the sea as yellow-white rocks, interrupted by bays with the finest sandy beaches. The most beautiful of them all is Porto Katsiki.
From the “Goat port” the narrow tar road climbs back up into the mountains, then prances along the steep coast to Petra Lefkas, the southern cape of the island. Out at sea, a Minoan Lines high-speed ferry rushes to Patras at 30 knots, drifting along the strait between Lefkas and the neighboring island of Kefalonia. The small ship that takes us over to Kefalonia barely manages ten knots, but is much more comfortable.
Deleker
Typically Greek: the port of Vlycho on Lefkada.
We roll ashore in Fiskardo. This place now fulfills all the cliches of a Greek fishing village: narrow, winding streets between colorful stone houses, atmospheric restaurants at the small harbor. The path that leaves Fiskardo southwards turns out to be the finest panoramic road. We alternately have views of the Odysseus Island of Ithaca in the east and the rugged west coast. Here, too, wonderful bays such as Myrtos Beach are hidden between the rocks.
Without any injuries we arrive in Samí, a nice port town on the east coast. With freshly caught fish we get into a conversation with Dimitrios, the waiter in a tavern. He looks forward to the quiet, warm May evening with us: “But it was high time that this terrible winter was finally over. It was cold and dark for five months.” But nobody wants to think about that anymore, just as little as about the empty state coffers. Crisis? It may rage in the capital, everything is beautiful here.
Info
Drawing: archive
Travel time: 14 days – Distance covered: 2500 kilometers
In the north high alpine mountains, in the south the Aegean Sea with hundreds of islands. No other country in southern Europe offers such diversity.
Getting there:
It’s about 2,400 kilometers from Cologne to Igoumenitsa. The fastest route is via Munich, Vienna, Belgrade and Skopje. Alternatively, you can also drive through Croatia and Albania, which is shorter but more time-consuming. The journey by train and ship is less stressful and more convenient, for example with the DB Autozug, which runs weekly from Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf to Trieste. A one-way trip from Dusseldorf costs from 196 euros per person and motorcycle in the off-season. Information by phone 01805/241224 or at www.dbautozug.de. Fast ferries run daily from Venice and Ancona to Igoumenitsa and Patras. (Ancona-Patras: one person plus motorcycle from 80 euros, one way), information at www.minoan.gr, www.anek.gr, www.superfast.com
Travel time:
In the Aegean Islands, motorcycle season is year-round, winters are rainy, summers are hot. In the Pindos Mountains, spring does not begin until the end of April. Ideal times are May / June and September / October.
Accommodation:
Along the coast and on the islands, the offer ranges from simple camping sites for less than ten euros to elite five-star resorts. In the hinterland, the offer is thinner, but there are also pensions and private rooms here. The spontaneous search can only take longer in the main season.
Literature:
Recommended guides come from Michael Muller-Verlag: “Northern and Central Greece” for 22.90 euros and “Peloponnese” for 24.90 euros. Marco Polo provides a good map on a scale of 1: 300,000 for 7.50 euros. The network offers further useful travel information at www.griechenland-infos.de, www.gnto.gr and www.fernweh.de.
Organized trip:
The MOTORRAD action team offers from 11.09. to 24.09.2010 a tour called Panadriatica from Italy to Greece. Phone: 0711/1821977, www.actionteam.de
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