Hellenic adventures

Warm sunshine, clear blue sea, swimming in it, an ouzo or a glass of retsina, delicious food, interesting places to visit, good roads... what more could we have asked for this part of our honeymoon adventure?

The last couple of weeks have been ace. In Lesvos we ventured north to Mithymna / Molyvos and experienced some proper hills (and thus a lot of sweating). Unfortunately part of this jaunt included Luke rather spectacularly falling off his bike at high speed on the way down a particularly steep and windy road. Thankfully he didn't have much more to show for it beyond a couple of nasty scrapes, a small hole in his favourite t-shirt, the shakes and a very pale face. We spent some time relaxing the following day in a remote and ancient thermal bath house right on the beach at Efthalou - alternating between a dip in the sea and floating around in a 46 degree pebble bottomed pool.

We then took a ferry to Chios and did some leisurely riding around and admiring some of the mastic villages and landscapes on the south of the island. We travelled overnight by boat to Athens and have enjoyed using up the last of our wedding present hotel vouchers. It is an impressive city, and great to wander about in. Ahead of us on the bike ride from the ferry port into the centre very early on Sunday morning was a view of the Acropolis at sunrise; tomorrow we will take on the weekday Athens traffic as we notch up some final kilometres on the way to the airport.

However, regarding the pipe dream of getting home overland... we did our sums properly and went for the easy option; we fly home tomorrow. This is not a bad thing, we are looking forward to spending a couple of months reverting to the van and touring the UK, catching up with family and friends while we have the chance.