//Day 40 /20-04-22 /Thessaloniki-Leptokarya

Day 40….tempus fugit. 

When I Ieft this morning Thessaloniki the owner of the bar beneath the apartment I rented waved me goodbye. He spoke German and I used my best JM Pfaff German to answer his questions : where do I come from , why do I cycle,  do I have a family…Some questions I could better answer then others (German or not).

Today cycling was mainly to cycle around the Gulf of Thessaloniki. Once if does this I will mainly follow the coast to Athens. Cycling  around the Gulf of Thessaloniki was sadly following the old national route (today replaced by a new highway), still a road with a lot of commercial traffic. I tried to plot a route via smaller roads but I didn’t find a lot of options. Although the road was full of traffic and not so fun to cycle it offered a good insight in the Greek economy in the region. I passed numerous factories, businesses,gast stations, shops which were not longer in operation. The number of closed factories and businesses I passed was really astounding.  Along the way it was mostly  coffeeshops, car secondhand dealers, car services and small restaurants in operation.  Another thing I noticed was a sort of strange competition : when there was a hotel in the middle of nowhere , there would be a second one the other side of the road. This was trough for a lot of businesses. Not sure what the explanation is….

Today I cycled around 140 K, most of the time I spend on a busy road or nearby a busy road. I was able to follow some smaller roads close to the coast  but not more then for 30K. On the positive the weather is clearly changing. Still some clouds, sometimes a a cold wind but the next days I’m looking forward to the sunny 25 degrees. Tomorrow I have re-plotted my route following small roads in the coast hinterland. The disadvantage is that I will need to climb around 2200 meters. The extra climbing is a fair price to pay not to have to follow a busy road all day…

I had not booked any accommodation before. I was hoping to find a camping at/near Leptokarya, which I did. I found plenty of campings unfortunate they are not yet open. At one camping the owner said I could stay but it was a little bit in the middle of nowhere. Eventually I opted for a hotel with a room and balcony with view on the sea…where I’m currently writing this post. Most of the businesses are not yet in operation, except a restaurant across the street where I will have a dinner of squid and Greek salad…Based upon the number of shops, restaurants, hotels,…this now dormant place is clearly  a really busy tourist destination during summer. 

Today I also “met” the first time another cyclist. Well met is probably to positive. I was cycling on a small road when the fellow cyclist passed, touring cycle, fully packed,…. I said hello and braked to stop to have some chitchat…as I expect  o do when you meet a fellow touring cyclist in the middle of nowhere…..the guy looked at me and continued his route….haha. 

Maybe the big road was not such, no campings open, my encounters where not as social as expected…but simply looking and hearing at the sea from my hotel balcony and knowing I will have fried squid and Greek salad makes my day….Not to forget I had a great (literally and figuratively) ice cream.  

In addition I met today finally dogs which were not aggressive…the one behind was the cutest..

Lessons learned :

• It does not necessarily need to be a great cycling day to be a nice day. 
• Nice dogs exists (although this morning I was chased by a pack of 6 MF dogs again)
• The smaller the roads the more the climbing

Song of the day :  Seaside -The Kooks.