Thassos to Komotini (Greece)

This morning we were up before 7 am in order to get our luggage onto the van, eat breakfast, and, walk our bikes down to the 8:30 am ferry to Keramoti. At least we were about the only ones on the ferry, so, I was able to curl up on a bench seat and nap the 40 minute ride. When we got off, we only had a 15 km (9 mile) ride to our first coffee stop. There were many coffee shops at the same roundabout but none had pastries! Our hotel had sent a flakey pastry with custard along for this morning; and, a piece of that gave me the energy to walk over to three “pie shops”, which all served similar items.

Leaving with the “turtles”, we slowly but steadily cycled to our next coffee stop. Today, we did encounter a pair of chasing dogs. They chased the cyclist in front of me. Then, the tour leader and I went by the dogs more slowly; and, the dogs didn’t find us quite as interesting to even bother chasing. A few kilometers before the second stop, all the strong cyclists zoomed by and passed us. The next coffee stop wasn’t even open, so, we snacked from the van: bananas and rice puffs (which are slowly starting to grow on me) and some sweet, sesame-coated peanuts.

Fava beans for lunch

Only 20 kilometers on to lunch. The strong cyclists stayed together in a tight line; and, I tried to keep up with them a few yards behind. (Riding on someone’s wheel without being able to see what’s in front of me still makes me anxious.) At one point, they picked up the pace; and, I fell behind by a football field’s length but at least I could still see them to chase after. At lunch, I enjoyed a bowl of beets and a fava bean dish with capers and green onions.

Monastery of St Nicholas

After our lunch stop in Porto Lagos, Diane, Claudia and I left last because we knew that we’d be stopping to take photos. The tour leader stayed behind to ride along with us. We were cycling through a marshland. Along the way, the tour leader pointed out the Monastery of St Nicholas on the water. We stopped to walk our bikes along the wooden dock out to the church. However, the man running the entrance came hurrying along to tell us “no bikes!” and that our knees had to be covered. Instead, we turned around our bikes and got quick photos before heading back to the road.

 Greater Flamingos!

Continuing on, we stopped to check out a large flock of large white birds with pink spots. They were very noisy; and, the Merlin app was able to identify them as Greater Flamingos. After this point, we were less than 20 km (12 miles) from our hotel. It was a great day of riding flats!

Roman mile markers

Tonight, we lucked out in finding a self service laundry. We were able to wash enough clothing to get us through the rest of trip. While we were waiting on our laundry, we walked over to the entrance of the Archaeological Museum of Komotini. There were a few stone mile markers and a sarcophagus sitting outside on the front lawn. The mile markers were for a road that went through Komotini around 200 AD. It was interesting to read about the history of these almost 2000 year old Roman stoneworks.