Especially in a country with such dense beauty like Greece. Sunny but cold early morning, the mist is just gone and I make my way out. Looks like I had a much better sleep than this cat:
Looks like it's "cats on bins" time so just 1 km later I meet this guy:
Not much happier than the previous one. I don't blame her. The night's humidity is still in the air and it penetrates my clothes as if they're non existent. Fortunately it's a sweet windless day apart from that, something that you shouldn't take for granted and if you doubt it ask those pine trees bent on their knees:
The upfill that follows this spot makes my heart pump like a baby and the downhill afterwards brings me up to 60km/h which combined with the penetrating wind chill makes my bones scream. All good as long as I can make stops like this:
Yep, that's my stupid shadow on the right but it was impossible to skip it and still have the sun in my favor. Every time I was passing by with my car or bike I was wondering what that sign is about and I was always like "one day I'll be back cycling". Not that much of interest though, it just says that this is a wet meadow and reads a few things about the local birds. The most interesting thing here is the local ancient site but I've done it before so I don't intent to redo it right now. Don't worry, you can check my post about it here (it's a must visit as you can see, do it one day and thank me later).
This is one of the times that technology cannot do justice for what eyes have captured:
I took the above picture and I was like "I'm sure the phone will overprocess this insane shade of red but still will be nice" and in fact it's the other way round as it looks just casual nice.
Fancy some ruins? Hellas is full of them. This next one is definitely not among the most important ones but I always feel for neglected structures, especially small ones:
Maybe because I instantly do a travel in time and making up stories about them. Look at its fireplace inside:
My little baby soul starts thinking how many people might have warmed themselves there, how much food was cooked etc. It looks tiny by today standards but betcha ours would look huge to the guys of that era.
I love a day like today cause it's almost impossible to sweat while cycling. Not a bad place to cycle either:
At the same spot of the above image, on my right lie the ruins of an Early Christian Temple:
Unfortunately this site is under reconstruction hence not accessible but you can find more pictures about it in the link above. It's 1500 years old but was discovered in 1951. If you have a look at the Google Maps pictures of the link I placed and wonder how come those Ancient Greek columns in that Christian temple, the answer is because back in the day Christians not only had a competitive attitude towards the Ancient Hellenic 12 God religion but where also either building their temples above Ancient ones or used pieces of them. You can see such cases in another trip of mine in the same region here.
In order to see these ruins closer I'd have to leave my bike and hike up behind the fence on the upper side so I'll leave it for a next time that I won't have to worry about my bike and just take a final shot before I go:
Pity cause this is the largest temple of that era but stay tuned cause I'll be back at it. The day only gets better:
In case you wonder what I'm doing here, Ι left the tarmac in order to follow a short trail up to a prehistoric cemetery from the era of the Mycenean civilization. It's totally neglected but still worth a visit to those graves that date back 3500 years ago:
Not much to see as they are covered by vegetation. Speaking of the latter, look at that tree:
Reminds me of how my hair used to look like at their full prime 🙂
A fig tree and an olive tree are the current residents of this grave:
Look how that olive tree almost grows in the air:
Of course, no limits in stupidity as usual. I mean, you carry a thing like that and you feel like ditching it right here:
The same "hairy" tree from another angle:
Gotta move on. Remember the downhill that effortlesly offered me 60km/h? Now it's time to climb it up. Tough. At its peak I take a steep deviation sensing that it will reward me with a nice view:
And it really does:
One more downhill and I'm back at the sea. To my surprise, I discover a real gem that I haven't seen before. Look at this super sweet small beach:
Gives me a hard time trying to capture the whole thing so I go for a panoramic which is far from my phone's strong points:
Fancy a video? You got it:
You see, nature is so generous here that it has also formed a tiny port:
I cycle towards it to take more shots. Feel free to caption this one "living on the edge":
Heaven is where you can cycle on trails like this:
And finally a full view to this tiny bay:
This gives you an idea about how many guys have tried to dock their boats here:
Of course rust never sleeps, especially at a place like this:
As I look to the bottom of the sea I see an octopus!
Not clear to you? There you go:
I haven't seen a live one since donkeys years. Super excited I capture it on video:
Time to leave this heaven behind:
At the end of my cycling I see that the "cats on bins" trend is still on:
This one looks the angriest of all though:
That's it for today folks. In just 5km (each way) I harvested all that stuff and I didn't even touched the highlights of that area. Only in Greece😉
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