World Cycle 2014: Greece

Wet. Straight busy roads. Mad drivers. Wet.
Thessaloniki was nice visiting friends, and the sun made a brief appearance.
Wet

Overview: here

Last country: Macedonia (FYROM)
Next country: Bulgaria

	Day 56. 64km. Bitola – Sotaris: Grey, wind, gloom. Goce joined us to the Greek border before we continued along the straight, flat road into the headwind. It was totally uninspiring and we had to push ourselves (me especially) to get some kilometres done.
	Day 57. 48km. Sotaris – Edessa: Today we found the three wise men, bearing kajmak, Choco Lips and Šir. One of them gave us quite a shock. The Gods also delivered water in copious quantities today, direct from the heavens. James and I both agree, through, that rain is preferable to a head-wind. We are now snuggled up in front of a wood fire in Edessa.
	Day 58. 93km. Edessa – Thessaloniki: Sometimes it is not about the journey, but about the destination. Today was not as wet, and the road was straight and flat. Extremely uninspiring landscape under grey skies. We moved into overdrive, and steamed along the semi-freeway, though industrial areas to Thessaloniki. It is great to see Ioanna again from my past life working for Philips and the HeartCycle EU Project.
	Day 59. 24km. Thessaloniki: We ended up staying in Thessaloniki, not that it was planned that way. A slow start, cycle down to the centre, and an extended stay in the bike shop resulted in 2 happy cyclists, 2 repaired cycles and a lovely evening in Thessaloniki with James contemplating life, the universe, everything, and how amazingly happy we are with life.
	Day 60. 86km. Thessaloniki – Asprovalta: The mist and grey skies have returned. As have the busy roads and factories. Onwards as fast as possible watching the death wishes of the mad Greek drivers.
	Day 61. 80km. Asprovalta – Kavala: A day on the road. Cycling along the border between acceptable weather and crap weather, we missed the rain, but didn’t swim either. James passed the 6 megametre mark. We are staying at an almost closed camping ground near Kavala. A rather uneventful day.
	Day 62. 58km. Kavala – Xanthi: I love playing with the fridge magnet game – putting sentences together with the words provided. Here are the words for today: rain, grey, road-death memorial, Petropigi, Paradeisos, Virgin Forest of Libidoitis, screw, rubber gloves, dodgy sauce, musky oregano for young children.
	Day 63. 58km. Xanthi – Zlatograd: Take the road to Drama (a town in northern Greece) and turn right – into the mountains. We left the coastal plains, the factories, trucks, straight roads and the stress, and curved our way into a different part of Greece. Muslim. Rural. Beautiful.