WWII fortifications at the fancy side of Athens

The HIVE Tour - Episode 66 - Morning hilltop walk becomes rather URBEX

The more I stay here at this farm in Italy the more I thank myself for that choice. Have a look at my bedroom view:

 

One more day out for ruins

Ruins of a 19th century estate

Abandoned hilltop property

WWII fortifications in the heart of a pine forest

19th century silver mining ruins

Looking for a 19th century abandoned mineral railroad bridge

I ignore Google's recommendation about the most convenient route as I follow a more scenic shortcut instead. It doesn't make my car's suspension happy but it definitely fills my eyes with much better views than just tarmac and concrete. Right after the village of Agios Konstantinos I'm already happily driving through an olive grove:

19th century mining site

WWII fortifications SE of Athens

Abandoned marble quarry

WWII rock "art" sculptured on a hilltop

Underground marble quarry

How exciting that sounds right? Never seen one. Is it too good to be true to be the target of my next URBEX? Let's find out:

Winter has arrived here but my exploratory attempts stay on. Of course I'm speaking about South Greek winter hence things look like this:

Let me show you around my neighbourhood

You saw me moving in my previous post, time to show around now.

I start my walk relatively early in the morning and I love those days that you can still see the moon up in the clear blue sky as a bright white dot:

(One more) Birthday on the road

The title of this post used to be an unthinkable case before I started travelling intensively (mostly on 2 wheels) but for the last decade (plus) it has been rather a normality for me, unless weather sucks big time making it time to stay home. Well, "home" has also become relative as the saddle of my bike frequently feels more like home than my official one but that's another story (and another post maybe).

There couldn't be a longer middle finger to the energy war we all experience than this beyond superb weather that we still have here over Hellenic soil even in the beginning of November, embarrassing the summer days. Simply couldn't get any better under this bright was sunshine so I'm leaving the big city named Athens behind and head West.

West of Athens there's lots of industrial/dodgy areas so I'll spare you that part of the route but as the traffic drops after Mandra I start enjoying the good tarmac and the sweet bends on the E962:

Fancy a scenic ride by the sea peppered with some Urbex?

 

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Well, I got you covered for the whole spectrum from beauty to ugliness on this one 🙂

Wear your helmet and follow me on my most travelled but also my most favourite route or at least one of them. I had more than many so far so it's hard to tell the sole best one but riding from Athens to Sounio is guarantee money back hard to beat.

A wonderful day with super bright sunshine and a crystal clear blue sky escorts me as I ride and enhances the heavenly feeling as I leave the city behind and start enjoying the winding coastal rode. Countless corners around also countless swimming bays on the way. In case you're not a biker I have a few photos to show you how things look at an angle at those tight bends:

As attractive this road can be in the absence of heavy traffic never test the limits of your bike there cause you can become roadkill in no time. See a close call I had there many years ago recorded by a friend of mine who was following me:

Yep, that old lady just decided to casually cross a road with a double unbroken line in the middle of a blind corner as she had just finished swimming...

Fast forward now, no drama this time so here you can enjoy the whole route with my original music plus some view to the sea from Sounio at the end:

The only problem with a road like this (except stupid drivers) is that you have to leave so many places without stopping for pictures otherwise you will never make it to your destination unless you're fine with telling your friends that it took you 3 days to do 65 km.

Here's a short stop at Varkiza:

One more halfway:

It's impressive how easy it is around Sounio to find spots with a handful of swimming bays dead easy walking distance.

Here's just one of them:

I take the following path curious where it leads to:

It ends at what looks like a dead end:

However, on the left there's this hidden trail that I follow:

Which leads to this lovely little beach:

Makes sense to me now why locals don't take so much care in maintaining this trail 😉

As I head for the cape of Sounio itself I stop at one of ma favourite spots to picture the bay where Aegeon beach hotel is:

The above is among my favourite bays and as you can see it's not only me. The number of yachts docked speaks for itself.

Sounio is a well known masterpiece and it's not the first time I show you around but every single one is worth sharing undoubtedly. I'd better let the pictures do the talking:

Here is yours truly, at a rare moment of picturing myself, profoundly excited to be around though it's my Nth here:

And since Sounio is like the gift that keeps on giving let me share with you some more:

You had one too many of the beauty? Maybe it's time to meet the beast then. Let's go Urbex 🙂

The following one is the abandoned hotel Belvedere:

It must be 30 years now that it is closed, I have no memories of it being open but I do remember that when it wasn't fenced it was the heaven of an Urbexer. You could even find the notebook of the barman on the bar! Insanely beautiful property but left untouched ever since. Now it's all fenced around. I guess you can climb if you really want to but I have other priorities at the moment so let's move on.

Next to it is the relics of what used to be a police station and behind it you can see a rare case of an abandoned Greek Orthodox church:

Time to leave the neglected Belvedere behind and ride the iron horse for some more:

It doesn't take long at all to meet some more abandoned relics of tourism:

I leave the bike in the only shade available to check this thing out:

As you can see part of its view is what we saw before (you can see the church):

Obvious signs of visits from guys with spray cans:

In its primal glory this lady statue was welcoming the guests:

Now it's the last thing you'd like to book:

Here's one more picture from upstairs where you can see a few ruins we saw before:

Right behind it is its brother in loneliness. Same case, same shit:

Isn't it a pity to be like this with such view?

The absolute contrast - see what's behind me as I took the above picture:

I get a feeling I might have spoiled the sweetness of the first pictures a bit too much with all this ugliness so here's the last one for this time - an abandoned house a few kms later:

Rather odd to see it in this shape as it could be effortlessly cute if one was taking care of it. Let's have a closer look:

Looking as its interior I get a feeling I might be one the last lucky ones to experience it before the roof collapses:

However, the view of that thing is priceless. Have a look:

In case you wonder what you see on the top of that hill in the distance is the temple of Poseidon at Sounio. Makes such a contrast with this mess:

Hope you enjoyed the ride, I surely did and hope to see you on the next one.

Take care!