(Editors note – I lost the camera during this stretch of the trip, so you may have to either use your imagination or excuse our crappy pictures taken with our phones)

Our two days in Thessaloniki were over in a flash. Not sure if it was the rain and cold, or we’ve been on the road too long, but we were both feeling a little homesick and found it hard to get into the swing of things. It was a shame because Thessaloniki was a really cool city. It’s densely packed, overlooks the ocean, has really good restaurants and there are shops galore.

It was also surprisingly easy to cycle around. There are no bike lanes, and the streets are crowded, but the drivers are generally courteous and slow (in fact we’ve found this throughout Greece so far – we had expected the drivers to be like Italians, fast and furious, but so far it’s not been the case).

We left Thessaloniki via the A1 motorway with rain gently tumbling around us. We were a bit nervous about taking on such a big motorway, but there didn’t seem to be any other easy way out. Luckily it was still holiday season and the roads were pretty quiet. This combined with some good shoulder meant we weren’t too bothered by the cars whizzing by at 120km per hour.

We did get a little worried when we came across a toll point, but the toll collector just waved us through. We weren’t so lucky at the second toll point, and a guy came out, flagged us down, and told us bicycles weren’t permitted on the motorway. Luckily there was a service road next to the highway from this point so it wasn’t a big problem.

It wasn’t long before we could see Mount Olympus rising out of the flat plain. It was shrouded in cloud, but with the sun occasionally breaking through it wasn’t hard to imagine how it could have been home to the gods. (Editors note – use imagination here)

The next day (6th January) was a national holiday known as Epiphany where they have a tradition of blessing the waters. We were lucky enough to be cycling through a small town to see the blessing occur. Basically it involves the entire village gathering to the edge of the water (in this case the sea) while a priest blesses the water, heads out in a boat and throws a cross overboard. At this point all the young men jump in and race to be the first to “rescue” the cross. The first to get it, is blessed with luck. The luck seems to involve him walking around the village with the cross and everyone giving him money or food.

(Editors note – we had great photos and video of the whole event until some cretin lost the camera)

Once we left the coast the cycling got a little crappy, with more bad weather and, in parts nothing but the main Thessaloniki to Athens highway to cycle on. After some nears misses with large trucks, we decided to give it a miss and caught the train to Larisa.

We were told that Larisa was was just an agricultural town with little to offer. Maybe it was because we were still relatively new to Greece, but we found it large and vibrant, with people out and about, crammed full of restaurants and bars, and best of all, a pastry shop on every corner (we had our first Greek crême bulėe from one of these, but that’s a story for another blog). Larisa is one of Greece’s older cities and it has a huge archaeological dig right in the middle of town, complete with a large amphitheatre, where you can imagine gladiators fighting it out to the death in front of cheering crowds.

We were a little sick of the weather, flat terrain and highways, so decided to take a detour to Trikala and the hilltop monasteries of Meteora. What seemed like a good idea the night before soon turned into a slog into incredible headwinds that left us barely able to move forward. We arrived at Trikala exhausted but happy to have a nice hostel to call home for a few days.

The next day the winds disappeared and the sun came out. We made a quick cycle to the monasteries, and spent the day lazing about in sun. Meteora is really impressive with huge tongues of rock leaping out of the plains, and monasteries perched precariously on top. Apparently they were built by monks escaping persecution and were originally only accessible by lowering a wicker basket from the cliffs above.

We were really lucky and were entertained by a couple tightrope walking between the huge cliffs.

After the really relaxing day in Meteora, we couldn’t face the idea of hopping back on the bikes straight away. For some reason, we were both feeling incredibly fatigued, and had both had moments where we simply couldn’t deal with the thought of finding a route to Athens (thankfully, these meltdowns happened at different times, so at least one person was somewhat in control).

I think that the fatigue had a lot to do with cycling in a European winter. The days are short, which means you have to rush the cycling, and you don’t really get time to eat (and it’s often not nice to stop). Once you stop, it gets cold really quickly, and if the rain sets in, it can be a little miserable. I think the next time we do this we’ll either avoid winter or move much further south.

Anyway, we decided to call it quits on the cycling and catch a train to Athens. With the pressure off we had a really lovely 60 or so kms to the train station, cycling through calm, but misty conditions through tiny agricultural villages.

We’re now in a really comfortable hostel, have spent a great couple of days eating and chatting with some new and old friends and we’re about to go and see some live music, Greek style.