Milan, IT 🇮🇹 to Lisbon, PT - Day 20

Today we spent the day, until it was time to go to airport, enjoying the city of Milan.
We walked around and saw the center of the city and saw the most well known sites like the Sforza Castle, The Cathedral, Galleria, Vittorio Emanuele II, Plaza Scala and much more.
Found the city very beautiful with very high level design.
We had a beautiful pizza as our last meal in Italy and then made our way to the airport to take the flight back to Lisbon and close this magic tour.

Make Life a Ride !

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 20 !

San Marino 🇸🇲 to Milan, IT 🇮🇹 - Day 19

Last day riding of our tour, would take us from San Marino to Milan, where we needed to be before 16:30 to deliver the motorcycle to be sent back by truck to Lisbon.
We woke up quite early and had a quick breakfast as we still wanted to see Tower 1 which is the highest tower in San Marino.
And we are so glad we did, the views are magnificent and we learned a bit more about the history of the country in the small museum inside the tower.
One of my favorite pictures is the view from Tower 2 from Tower 1.
As we had a long ride and a defined time to arrive, we left San Marino and got back on the Autostrada Adriatica where we also had our lunch.
We arrived in time and packed the motorcycle on the platform, removed the windshield and packed all the bags.
Our motorcycle trip had come to an end.
We loved it a lot and now have the thousands of pictures to go through and remember it again and again.
Our last day would be spent walking the city of Milan.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 19 !

Foggia, IT 🇮🇹 to San Marino 🇸🇲 - Day 18

Today was going to be a long day riding. Over 450 kms and it was very hot too.
We intended to take a quick detour from Italy and visit the Republic of San Marino 🇸🇲.
We would do it most on the way on highway. The highway system in Italy is pretty well developed and we would be traveling on the Autostrada Adriatica which runs north to south (in our case we would be traveling south to north) and it has the Adriatic Sea on the East, so you have many sightings of seashore towns along the way.
We got out in Pinedo, a small town by the Adriatic Sea for lunch.
On one of their very well developed gas stops, where you can buy gas, food and a myriad of other things, we met a group of Greek motorcyclists that were traveling to Santiago de Compostela, Spain 🇪🇸. It was fun to discuss our recent visit to Greece and exchange ideas. I always find it amazing how quick two motorcyclists can start up an interesting conversation without ever knowing each other before. It is for me one of the great advantages of our community.
The arrival in San Marino is amazing as you have to meander through a number of uphill turns to get right up to the top of the hill.
“San Marino is a mountainous microstate surrounded by north-central Italy. Among the world’s oldest republics, it retains much of its historic architecture. On the slopes of Monte Titano sits the capital, also called San Marino, known for its medieval walled old town and narrow cobblestone streets.”
That is where we spent the evening and walked the streets at night.
The Three Towers, castlelike citadels dating to the 11th century, are impressive structures and we looked forward to visiting them in the morning.
It is like something we have never visited before and it feels you are in a Disney Park depicting an old city with shops and restaurants where locals try to separate you from your money.
There are somethings I enjoyed (the buildings, the architecture, the small streets) but in others (people related) it felt like “it retains a curious lack of intimacy and lacks soul”.
It gave me this feeling of what beautiful places would eventually feel like if you removed the locals and let the tourists take over. The buildings would be the same but the vibe would be different. Not genuine. Not real.
Worth a visit, if you are in central Italy,
Because it is beautiful but probably not worth a specific travel to visit.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 18 !

Bari to Foggia, IT 🇮🇹 - Day 17

We arrived in Bari this morning and our plan was to go south to Lecce where we would spend the night.
On the way we wanted to see the towns of Alberobello and Ostuni.
We made our way south towards Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unusual districts of trulli. “A trullo is a small dwelling built from the local limestone, with dry-stone walls and a characteristic conical roof which you'll see dotted around this part of Puglia, sometimes in its most basic form used as a kind of shed among the olive groves. The story behind Alberobello, once a town of trulli alone, was to fiddle taxes and fool the authorities. The local feudal lord, Count Acquaviva, moved his peasant workers here to clear woodland and cultivate the land. To wriggle around laws and taxes, it was important that Alberobello didn't class as an inhabited settlement. So until 1797, when Alberobello was finally given 'town' status, the people had to live in trulli, which could be dismantled in a hurry when necessary.”
We then made our way to Ostuni, “The White City”. “Built atop a hill to protect from invaders, Ostuni is a certifiable labyrinth. A maze of alleyways, staircases and arches, of houses built upon houses, of hundreds of years of history laid out before you in a way no map can truly explain or capture. Dead ends and pretty little gardens, glimpses of the Adriatic sea, green doors and bright blue skies; everything and nothing may lie around the next corner you take.
Ostuni is a city for explorers, and a place to be devoured slowly over a couple of days.”
We only had a couple of hours so we tried our best. It was quite hot and moving slowly with traffic with high temperatures is not ideal for us not for the GSA so we eventually “got ourselves out of Dodge” and rode to the closest marina to get the sea breeze and also to have a good lunch.
Finding hotel for the evening was not easy as it seems the whole of Italy takes vacation on the Adriatic coast.
We eventually found a city far from the sea that had availability for the night and it turned to be a blessing in disguise.
Excellent stop for the evening, Foggia offered us an extraordinary evening.
We walked its old streets and saw the main sites, the three doors to the city and a number of churches. The highlight was the visit to the cathedral that had a service which we enjoyed even though we did not understand much.
For dinner we went to one of the best restaurants in the city and when we got in, the lady said we did not have to choose anything as they had a number of Italian dishes for us to sample. After the 10th one we called it quits and asked to move to the dessert. I believe we missed 2 dishes.
The food was phenomenal and we will always remember Foggia as one of the places we have had a spectacular meal. The highlight for me was a dish made with 3 different cheeses.
In the end the very hot weather together with Italian vacation traffic dissuaded me from going to Lecce but in the end we are happy we made our way closer to Milan. It will make upcoming travel days easier.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 17 ! 

Corfu, GR 🇬🇷 to Bari, IT 🇮🇹 - Day 16

Today was the last day of our Greece Tour.
We went around Corfu island and visited different beaches and places.
It was a good way to see how different the island is, some places are very remote and quiet where others are extremely busy. Depending on what you like, you can find the optimum beach and accommodation for you.
We were very happy with the choice we made and if you like quiet and reserved and sandy beach, we would recommend Apraos beach.
One of the most beautiful parts of the island is Palaiokastritsa and we arrived to it from Lakones which is on a hill that overlooks the beach. Quite an impressive view.
For lunch we stopped at the Akron Beach Bar in Palaiokastritsa which was very busy with young and beautiful people.
Next stop was the highest spot of Pelekas Village, and on a huge cliff, we visited a monument called Kaiser’s Throne, a name given from the German Emperor Wilhelm the Second, who used to observe Corfu’s natural beauty every time he wished to escape from his routine. The unique panoramic view is amazing from where you can see Corfu Old Town in the distance. A truly majestic experience.
Next we rode down the mountain and made our way to Agios Gordos and visited the beach which was pretty crowded. If you want a wild experience, how about the Pink Palace ?
We then moved on to see the longest beach in Corfu. Halikounas’ sandy beach stretches for more than 3 km and is considered one of the most beautiful coastal areas in the Ionian complex. It has sand dunes and wonderful crystalline waters. It lacks any kind of tourist facilities thus it almost looks deserted. There are some nice and isolated spots on either side of the beach for total privacy.
We then made our way to the east side of the island and visited the beaches at Moraitika and Benitses.
Moraitika village is a modern tourist resort that lies around a natural bay. There is a scenic sandy beach right in front of the village, which is ideal for swimming.
Benitses village is one of the original holiday resorts in Greece, a very old village, proud of its traditions.
Perhaps one of the most famous seaside villages in the country.
We found it too crowded and probably not ideal for us.
We then made our way to Corfu Town where we arrived at 19:00, did our check in and still had time for a milkshake in the town, watching the sunset before boarding the ferry at 22:00 to Bari, Italy 🇮🇹.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Corfu and only complaint we would have is the amount of trash that is left unpicked in the island. It seems this political issue has been going on for 3 years and during April-September time frame (holidays) the trash is just left to accumulate in the north and west parts of the island (the south seems to be ok). As you can imagine this is not very healthy and if you are wrong wind to one of these huge unpicked areas the smell is very bad. Without knowing about this, we managed to be in a non-smelly area but if you do go check this issue and ensure you are safe.
The ferry crossing was uneventful and we arrived on Bari at 9:30 in the morning ready for our Italian 3 days up to Milan where we will leave the motorcycle, to be shipped by truck, and go back to Lisbon.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE for all the photos and videos of Day 16 !

Corfu, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 15

Finally a day to enjoy the beach in a Greek island.
And enjoy we did.
Breakfast was brought to our veranda with a view of the sea and we enjoyed it before going down a set of stairs and just like that be on the beach.
We chose a sandy beach, as we prefer them so much more to stone beaches.
And as we looked around we noticed we were exactly opposite Sarande, Albania 🇦🇱 where we had been yesterday. We could actually see the city built on the hill.
The water close to the shore was just perfect temperature and as it has different depths you can actually choose which temperature you prefer (the shallower, the warmer).
We read, talked, slept and bathed many times. It was great.
For lunch we walked to a nearby restaurant and had a pizza, an home made pie and a Greek salad.
Fully nourished, we went back to the beach, and did more of the same, until about 18:00 when we left to get ready and travel by motorcycle to another part of the island to see the sunset.
We went to Logas beach to the 7th Heaven Bar and Restaurant. If you ever go to Corfu, we would highly recommend this place to see an unforgettable sunset, have delicious food and hear Brazilian chill music.
Great cherry on top of a great day.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 15 !

Aristi, GR 🇬🇷 to Sarande, AL 🇦🇱 to Corfu, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 14

After a fantastic day’s riding yesterday it would not be easy to beat it today, but we tried and in some ways we did.
The night before when we were down at the river by Vikos Gorge we met a German couple and when we asked where they would go next they mentioned Albania. We looked in the map and realized that we were quite North in Greece and less than 50 Ks from Albania. We then decided that we would go to the border and if there were not too many cars and things would be easy (we would be leaving the European Union) on the border we would go through and find a place to have lunch.
The way through the mountains to the border post was beautiful and when we got to the border we were very well treated on both sides (Greece and Albania). The biggest surprise was when we arrived in Albania, just after immigration, there was a group of young people welcoming us into Albania under the program Smile for Albania.
“Over 1,000 young people are committed to promoting Albania’s tourism potential through ‘Smile Albania’ project that will be implemented during the summer season in all cross-border points and tourist destinations. The initiative was unveiled on the International Day for Biological Diversity by Minister of Tourism and Environment Blendi Klosi. “Smile Albania is a project that will focus on the presentation of Albania’s natural beauty and on the hospitality shown towards the tourists visiting the country,” Klosi said.”
We took pictures and videos with them and who knows, may be the GSA and us will be in an Albania tourism video somewhere.
We then got lost in a very small village and were told that we were probably going the wrong way and after getting the GPS working again decided to go to Sarande, which is a resort town and being August it was full of people and there was a festive mood in the air.
The way there was interesting as we had to go up a pretty steep mountain road with switchbacks and caravan traffic.
We found Albania to be a country of contrasts, with people with lots of money and flaunting it very close to people that are extremely poor.
We also found the costs of things very low, by far the lowest we encountered in our travels this time. For lunch we had a pizza, two cokes, one large still water and a dessert all for 10€. Anywhere else it would have been closer to 25-30€.
We enjoyed our time in Sarande which was full of young vibrant people, lots of cars on the road and the beach totally packed.
As we had a ferry to catch we started back south towards Greece and went past another border post and also without any problems.
Riding in Albania is not easy as the roads are not in the greatest of shape and drivers are quite aggressive in their positioning on the road. They seem to prefer to ride much closer to the center of the road (sometimes over the line). One needs to be quite watchful and we found ourselves riding more on the right hand side of our lane but then one has to be careful with irregularities on the side of the road.
We arrived in Igoumenitsa at about 4:10pm and made our way towards the port where we were able to catch the 4:30pm ferry to Corfu.
By the time we sat on the boat we were exhausted. A combination of the heat, running around and the adrenalin of such a full day got to us. It was good to relax for 1.5 hours during the crossing.
As we arrived in Corfu Town, we decided to first do a quick tour of the main part of the city called, Old Town.
We could not resist a beautiful restaurant just by the water and as they had a good parking place for the motorcycle, we stopped and had our dinner enjoying the boat and walking traffic going by. We even had a group of Romanians and the accordion coming through and they knew a Portuguese song so we got our flags out and got a group of Romanians, Greek and Portuguese singing “Cheira Bem, Cheira a Lisboa”.
The sun was going down fast and we still had over an hour to get to our hotel, so we sadly finished our dinner and made our way to our accommodation on the northern part of the island.
It was a very nice ride at the end of the day as we went past many beaches that we had seen when we looked for our accommodation spot.
We got to our place after the sun had set but night had not come in yet so we were able to see the beach where we would be using tomorrow. Looks great !

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see first set of photos and videos of DAY 14 !

Click HERE to see second set of photos and videos of DAY 14 !

Ioannina to Aristi, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 13

The distance between last nights and today’s hotels was 48 Kms and it would take 53 minutes. But that was if you wanted to do it the shortest and fastest way and that is not really the motorcycle way. For us it is all about the journey, so we did “some” changes to the route and rode 175 Kms which took 4.5 hours.
And what an amazing ride it was. We saw some of the most picturesque villages of Greece 🇬🇷. There were hundreds of corners we had to deal with and probably the most beautiful scenery we have encountered on our trip.
For lunch we stopped at Kipoi and ate in a very beautiful garden in a local bed and breakfast and restaurant. We were pampered by the local owner who helped us choose our lunch, home-made chicken pie and veal casserole accompanied by a Greek salad. For dessert we had the almond cake.
To die for ...
On the way to Kipoi we passed a number of villages and my favorite was Fragkades, which is a picturesque village, built amphitheatrically at an altitude of 960 meters. The stone church of Saint Dimitrios (1779) with its imposing polygonal bell tower is an impressive sight of the village.
In Monodendri, while I sat in the village square, Paula walked to the Agia Paraskevi Monastery, which hugs the sheer rock of the Vikos gorge and it is a good spot to relax and visit the chapel or watch the monks painting the icons.
We then rode to Oxya Viewpoint and to see Vikos Gorge at the top and then rode all the way down to the Voidomatid river to feel the 7C cold water, which is supposed to be the cleanest in all of Greece and it is one of the most popular drinking waters.
We also rode all the way to the villages of Mikro and Megalo (Big and Small) Papigo where literally the road ends and you have to turn back down the mountain. They are probably the most beautiful villages in Greece.
The road is sinuous and treacherous but the views along the way are magnificent.
We stayed for the night in the village of Aristi and enjoyed the view from our room as the sun went down.
It was a beautiful riding day where we were astounded by the beauty of nature.
Not a very well known part of Greece, we would highly recommend the Zagori region with its gorges, rivers, dense forests, steep slopes, natural pools, rocky peaks and so much more.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of Day 13 !

Olympia to Ioannina, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 12

Today we woke and got up the earliest since we started our Greece tour as we wanted to see the Olympia Archaeological Site and its two museums before lunch. We then had over 350Kms to ride to our evening destination in Ioannina.
The Olympia site is quite large and we also decided to walk from our hotel, so we had a good exercise day today.
For me the highlight was the stadium and imagining how so many years ago they held the Olympic Games on that site for over one thousand years.
We walked the track, imagined we were athletes, judges and audience.
We sat in different areas of the Stadium and enjoyed watching as any tourists let their guard down and became like children and enjoying themselves.
The vast majority of tourists are Americans that do a daily visit from their cruise ship. The trick is to go in early before the buses arrive as when they do the walking traffic increases dramatically. We beat the majority of the crowd and were able to see the site and take pictures without much interference. We loved it.
We then went to see the museums and the one we enjoyed best was the one that had some history of the games. I am sure one can find this all information on the Internet but it felt very special to read it so close to where if happened.
There were a number of interesting facts but the ones that surprised me was that for one to participate in the games, one had to be Greek and that if you won gold you could have a statue made of yourself and of your trainer.
We had lunch at Olympia and let the presence of the gods wash upon us.
We then made our way north and crossed the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge (that crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese peninsula to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road), which is one of the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridges and longest of the fully suspended type.
We stopped at Antirrio to better look at the beautiful bridge while we looked at the Gulf and enjoyed a fruit salad with yoghurt and honey.
Our way to Ioannina was then made in a fast pace on the newly open highway.
Our hotel was very nice, perched on top of the hill with beautiful views and we had dinner in beautiful surroundings. At the end of the dinner we were offered different types of Greek liqueur to taste. Yamas !

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all photos and videos of DAY 12 !

Agios Andreas to Olympia, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 11

Today we turned north and started to make our way out of Peloponnese península and for the evening, we stopped at Olympia, the home of the original Olympic Games.
A short ride of just over 170kms where we would be seeing the sea from various places as we made our way through the peninsula.
On the way we passed the quaint town of Pylos, a small picturesque seaside town that has the largest natural harbor in the Peloponnese. Pylos was quite busy as each summer attracts many tourists who visit it to admire its historical monuments and landscape.
We also made a stop for a swim at Voidokilia beach on the west side of the peninsula. In the shape of the Greek letter omega, it is inside a natural reserve area and getting there is not easy specially since there is Greek traffic on a very narrow road.
But once you make it, the sandy beach and cool and clear turquoise green water was very welcoming after a hot ride. It is a place for lovers of nature as there is no commercial presence of any kind.
There were people but less than I expected and we were able to enjoy ourselves in the cooler than expected and highly refreshing water.
After getting dressed up with our gear we made our way to a nearby caravan stand where a couple of locals prepared us freshly squeezed juices, cut up fruit for a fruit salad and a fantastic Greek salad. It was by far the healthiest and one of the best meals we had. It is called the Olive Garden and we were surrounded by olive trees, so typical in this part of Greece.
We stayed at a very nice hotel and in the evening sat under the stars and had a beautiful dinner. It was great watching the hills of Olympia and seeing a beautiful sunset.
We will not forget our beautiful evening in the lush green landscape so close to the most celebrated sanctuary of ancient Greece, that every four years held the greatest national festival to honour Zeus, the Olympic Games.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all photos and videos of DAY 11 !

Nafplio to Agios Andreas, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 10

One more day in the Peloponnese peninsula and we moved more south to a small picturesque fishing village.
We wanted to stay as close to the sea (our hotel room had a sea view) so we could feel how Greeks spend a summer evening on an August vacation, go to the beach in the morning and walk in the evening by the seaside. It has a boulevard and a small harbor that get full of Greek tourists sitting down with their large families in the many open air restaurants.
The trip was very nice and it was probably the best riding day we had in Greece. We had to do a number of mountain passes and the temperatures were great and the views magnificent.
On the way we stopped at Sparta and had lunch with the Spartans to see if we could get a bit of their character.
“A perfect representation of Spartan character. As Philip II of Macedon was conquering Greek city-states left and right, Sparta was left alone. Philip had achieved a crushing victory, and Sparta was relatively weak and without walls. Philip sent a message to the Spartans saying “If I invade Lakonia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.” The Spartans replied with one word, “If.””
The many views of the Mystras castle as one leaves Sparta and makes our way up the mountain were great.
And then we got into Route 82, that links Sparta to Kalamata, and takes us to Langada Pass which is a high mountain pass, located in the Taÿgetos Mountains. The road to the summit is one of the most scenic routes in the region. It’s one of the most stunning routes in the country with overhanging cliffs on the drive. As you steadily climb the dips and inclines of the mountain road you can readily enjoy a great view of the mountain and the landscape and seascape below and it is clear why this road has been called one of the most breathtaking in Greece.
We also stopped in a very quaint little place on the way and had one of Greece’s favorite deserts, yoghurt with honey. With many different ways of making yoghurt and different region honeys you know every time it will be a different taste, always sweet.
As you approach Kalamata from the mountains the views are also very nice and then it was a quick ride to our accommodation for the evening.
We enjoyed shopping at the local mini market for a true Greek experience and walking the promenade in the evening.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 10 !

Athens to Napflio, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 9

After a very good day in Athens, it was time to leave the capital and make our way towards the Peloponnese.
We would stay the night at Napflio, one of the most beautiful towns in the area of Argolis (in eastern Peloponnese) as well as one of the most romantic cities all over Greece, Nafplio was the first capital of the newly born Greek state between 1823 and 1834.
We were pretty close and it would take us about 2.5 hours and we would still go past Corinth. The weather was quite hot and we had to stop to hydrate and put gas in the bike.
The way was mainly on highway but as we got closer we went into country roads to go past Mycenae, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Once we arrived in Napflio, we rode through the city centre and later on came for a late lunch and our daily walk.
The town is very nice and there are many different small roads for one to explore. The views of the surrounding mountains over the sea are also very nice.
We also took many photographs of Bourtzi, the Venetian small fortress standing on the rocky islet of Agioi Theodoro.
In the very heart of the city stands the Italianate Syntagma Square where we admired a number of important historic buildings and monuments. We also took a stroll around the so-called “Arvanitia Promenade”, the most popular walk in town (1 km in length) dominated by the rocky landscape of Akronafplia.
There were a lot of daily tourists as the town is a favorite stop for cruise ships but towards the late afternoon the town calms down and it can be enjoyed.
We recommend a visit to this quaint little town.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 9 !

Athens, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 8

In 2012, when we did our trip through 20 countries in Europe, Athens was very much in the plans. Unfortunately, things were not the best at the time in Greece and we decided to skip it. So today, 6 years later we were ready to discover Athens.
We only had one day so we went back to our favorite way to see a city in a short amount of time, which is the Hop-on Hop-off bus.
We found a city bustling with energy and activity and could not see many remnants of the crisis that the country went (and some Greeks still say it is going) through.
The highlight is magnificent Acropolis, perched high on a hill and visible from many parts of the city. It is majestic and the views of the city from there are breathtaking, specially at the end of the day when the sun is setting. The actual site closes at 8pm and the sun goes down st 8:50pm, and as we were very lucky to have the sun out, we witnessed absolute magic around the Parthenon. We were able to appreciate different Acropolis moods as the sun shifted in and out of cloud cover.
We also loved the Stadium area where we walked the National Gardens and saw the Panethenaic Stadium which was built in the 19th Century on the site of ancient Athens and hosted the first modern games. It is made of granite and it is grandeur.
One of our favorite things to do in a city is just walk around, see the people hustle and bustle, watch the colors and smell the smells and it is hard to beat the Monastiraki area. I just could not stop taking pictures. The colors are vibrant and the street art is raging. We ate lunch in a local restaurant and just people watched and talked. We then walked many streets and saw the flea market. Highly stimulating.
Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods of Mount Olympus so it is fitting that there is a Zeus temple in Athens. It housed the statue of Zeus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Known as the Olympieion, construction began in the 6th century BCE and it included 104 columns. Today only 16 columns remain (one is lying on the ground) and it does not take much imagination to realize this was a monster of a building.
Nearby is the Arch of Hadrian which was erected in 132 AD as a gate between the ancient city and the Roman city of Athens.
We saw the Agora Market that spreads many streets from the safety of our bus.
We walked through Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens, and saw hundreds of shops from kitschy tourist to the workshops of some really great artisans. There are ancient Greek and Roman ruins scattered around as well as some beautiful 19th century and older buildings and several Byzantine churches.
We enjoyed the sunset on a massive rock in the Acropolis and finished the day with dinner in God´s Restaurant at the pedestrian street of Makrigianni, at the foothills of Acropolis.
We will be sad when we leave Athens tomorrow and will be reminded that
“In Greek you don't really say "I miss you". You say "μου λείπεις" (mou leipeis) which is closer to "you are missing from me”” !

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 8 !

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of the Acropolis on Day 8 !

Delphi to Athens, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 7

Today we left Delphi and made our way South East to Athens.
On the way we passed Arachova, nice little town built the mountain.
We visited the Monastery of Hosios Loukas where we met a Swiss couple that is traveling by bike and went to lunch with them in Livadia. We then rode into Athens together.
Traffic as we arrived was quite heavy but we just followed the Greek riders without helmets and got pretty quickly to our hotel.
We are looking forward to visiting the Acropolis and other sites tomorrow.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 7 !

Delphi, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 6

“Zeus is said to have released two eagles at opposite ends of the world, and commanded them to fly across the earth to meet at its centre. It was at Delphi that the two eagles finally met, and Zeus placed the stone under the glens of Mount Parnassus as a sign to humanity.”
As you can imagine after reading that, we had a quick breakfast and made our way to see the Archeological site. After all, apart from the stone, the Apollo Temple, the Athena Temple, the Amphitheater, the Stadium among others waited for us.
And what a great day it turned out to be, walking on the same ground that thousand of years ago was so important.
Until 1892, a small village lay on top of the ruins and after getting paid the inhabitants left and escavation started.
And we are happy that it did.
Letting the imagination run we heard a Greek philosopher present his theories at the Amphitheater, listened to the carriages and shouted with the audience and athletes at the stadium, but best of all, we sat and enjoyed Pytha, the Oracle foretell the future at the Temple of Apollo.
We also had the opportunity of meeting a group of Italian students that have been following Paul’s trips and as it is believed he was in the area they sat on the shade reading their bibles and telling their theories to each other and whomever wanted to listen.
We then went for lunch and sat on a terrace overlooking the valley.
For the mid afternoon went to the museum and relived the many stories they had to tell.
As the day came to a close and the temperatures decreased, I put on my motorcycle suit and helmet and rode to the small town of Itea by the sea.
Could not resist and took a dip in the warm and clear water.
For dinner we went back to our favorite restaurant, Vhakos Taverna, and enjoyed the sunset and another fantastic meal.
Delphi is very much worth a visit ...

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 6 !

Meteora to Delphi, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 5

After spending a couple of outstanding days in Meteora, we made our way south towards Delphi.
On the way we took a detour to see Karpenisi, which is in the center of Greece surrounded by mountains. We first went to Lumia and then turned west and went through the mountains. I have been amazed how many roads there are in Greece and they are ideal for motorcycles and are in pretty good shape.
We then came back East towards Lumia again, through the lush green forest and on the horizon saw heavy rain clouds and lightening. We stopped for about one hour in Lumia to let the storm pass and made our way to Delphi.
The road was very beautiful and Delphi is situated in a gorgeous place, on a cliffside overlooking the Gulf of Corinth. It had to be, as it was chosen by the gods as the navel of the earth and home of the Oracle and where the ancient Greeks erected the Sanctuary of Apollo and Athena Pronea.
We will stay in Delphi one more day and are looking forward to visit the archeological sites.
Had one of the best meals in Greece overlooking the valley as the sun went down over the mountains.
At night we walked the town and met 3 Spanish motorcyclists and went back again to dinner with them to speak about what we love ... travel !

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 5 !

Meteora, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 4

We knew this would be a special day. We had been warned ... but it does not matter ... whatever our expectations were, Meteora surpassed them.
The main reason is that there is no other place on earth like it, or at least that we had been to. There are not many places that are better than the imagination, Meteora is one of them.
“Humble men lived suspended for centuries between the heavens and earth, perched on the edge of sharp cliffs, glorifying God for He made the earth and heavens by His power”
“Serene, spiritual, magical, mystical, extraordinary, breathtaking, immense, inspiring, impressive. These are only some of the words people very often use in an effort to describe the Meteora phenomenon. A trip to Meteora offers the unique experience of nature’s grandeur in conjunction with history, architecture and man’s everlasting desire to connect with the Divine. From the early Christian times, the Meteora vertical cliffs were regarded as the perfect place to achieve absolute isolation, to discover peace and harmony and, thus, to support man’s eternal struggle for spiritual elevation. Meteora is a truly inspiring and sensational setting of overwhelming rock formations, but one must also be prepared to expect that this trip is much more than merely visiting an exquisite landscape. It is a pilgrimage to a holy place for all Christians around the world.”
There are 6 monasteries and we visited 3, 2 with monks and one with nuns. Access is through steps carved on the stone or/and suspended bridges. Although there are a lot of tourists you quickly forget about them and go about the business of experiencing the divine. Whatever that is for you, Meteora has an answer.
We used the motorcycle to move us from monastery to monastery and the experience of riding that road is in itself unique, so we went up and down 3 times (before lunch, after lunch and for sunset).
We finished the day with an outstanding dinner at a restaurant that was suggested by a Greek motorcycle friend.
During the day every time we said we were Portuguese we were very well greeted. The reason is that Fernando Santos (current football coach for Portugal) coached Greece from 2010 to 2014 (although he coached other Greek since 2001) and it seems he came often to Meteora and left a great impression in the local people. It shows that whatever one does is noticed and other people will be impacted positively or negatively by one’s actions, eventhough we may never meet those we impact.
We took many, many pictures but none can really show the grandeur of the place.
Enjoy !

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 4 !

Thessaloniki to Meteora, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 3

After two nights in Thessaloniki we made our way East and then South towards Meteora.
Before leaving Thessaloniki we needed to buy some oil so we looked for a BMW Service shop and found Peter. Spoke some motorcycle shop talk and then started our trip that took us first to Vergina where we had lunch in the oldest tavern in town. Great spread and very well treated by the owner which has left his previous job and came back to the restaurant business as Greece 🇬🇷 is getting more and more visitors. Loved the offer “anything you do not like you do not pay” as we hear that less and less these days and it is of course the ultimate trust in your product. We paid everything we ate as it was very good.
To get to Vergina, we rode through lots of peach farms. We felt like stopping and eating some but they were still a bit green. The area used to have a lot of peach, sunflower and corn farms but they have now pretty much focused on peach.
Vergina is known for the Royal Tombs of Aigai. The tombs were a pretty recent discovery (1970) and were untouched since 300BC. It is a World Heritage site.
The next stop was Metsovo. The town is in the middle of the mountains and it is a gem to visit. To arrive there we rode on the Egnatia Odos.
This road is 670km long in its entirety and was one of the largest and most ambitious civil engineering projects in Europe at the time (finished in 2009). The motorway runs across Northern Greece from its starting-point at Igoumenitsa to the Turkish border. The road is a key route in developing the trans-European road network and forms an integral part of European route E90.
We really enjoyed this highway. Majestic views, lots of tunnels to burrow through the mountain. But since a highway is not the ideal playing field for a motorcycle we left it and took National Road 20 that twists its way through the mountains to Metsovo where we stopped to see Greek families and friends just mingle together. We were even lucky to find a group of 7 elderly gentleman seated on a bench in their favorite spot overlooking the plaza commenting and reminiscing times gone by.
Highly recommend the detour to Metsovo.
About one hour away through another twisty road Meteora was waiting and we made our way there.
The rocks coming out of the earth sight is impressive and you see it over 20kms away as you come down the mountain and as you get close the rock formations get bigger and bigger and pretty much dominate what you see.
These formations were used by monks in the 14th century as they sought somewhere to hide in the face of an increasing number of Turkish attacks on Greece. At this time, access to the top was via removable ladders or windlass. Nowadays, getting up is a lot “simpler” due to steps being carved into the rock during the 1920s.
We are looking forward to visit the monasteries.
We finished the day with a very nice dinner and the owner who is also a GSA rider came and spoke to us about motorcycles in Greece.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 3 !

Thessaloniki, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 2

Today, the motorcycle is parked and we visit the city. We have done many travels and in each one we adopt a different style for the trip, depending on which country we are visiting. As Greece 🇬🇷 has so many places with lots of things to visit and see, usually better done by foot, we will adopt a two (or more) night stop strategy in same place and travel maximum of 300 kms. This takes more time but we believe it is the best for this trip.
It also gives us an opportunity to do our washing with plenty of time to dry 😉.
And that is what we spent our morning doing, as well as catch up on emails and a number of other tasks that had taken second priority in the last two weeks as we made our way here.
Had lunch in a very typical Greek restaurant and had mezes (like tapas). It is fascinating to watch Greeks interact with each other. They are unique and I had never encountered a culture like this and I am enjoying their intricacies and learning how to recognize them. Restaurants are full and there are many people on the streets just walking, many with their large families. I expect that unemployment is high. Waiters are helpful but they do things on their own time. Most people speak English (much more than any other country we have visited on this trip). Prices are quite high and the Euro has had an inflation impact in everything. During the day we did the hop-on hop-off tour (which takes 80 minutes if you do not stop) and stopped in various locations to take pictures and visit some churches and well known sights.
The architecture of the city is very nice with an old part of the town with narrow streets on top of the hill and a newer section with wide avenues, close to the sea. Everywhere you go there are a multitude of cafes and restaurants where locals sit and talk.
I was totally surprised by the amount of graffiti in the city. Reading about it, it started as street-art, some of it is supposed to be political and even humorous (although we could not understand any of it). But a lot looked disgraceful and in my opinion it is excessive and has a bad impact in the city.
If you can look over this though, we liked our day in the city, the second largest in Greece after Athens.
The city is great for street photography and we took hundreds of pictures that we will cherish and come back to them to revisit Thessaloniki.
We ended up our day, sitting in an Italian restaurant and having a pizza while we watched the Thessalonians walk by the seaside and thinking about Paul, as he wrote the two letters to the Christians in this city.
How much time has past and things have changed.
The fitting end of a full day was given to us by nature as we watched the blood moon, on a cloudless night, over the White Tower which has been adopted as the symbol of the city.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of DAY 2 !

Sofia, BG 🇧🇬 to Thessaloniki, GR 🇬🇷 - Day 1

Greece Tour Day #1 in Thessaloniki, Greece 🇬🇷.
Today we started our Greece 🇬🇷 tour when we crossed the Bulgaria 🇧🇬 border into Greece.
Started the day with a walk through Sofia, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, then went to pack and had lunch before leaving the city.
We enjoyed our visit to Sofia which is very different from the rest of Bulgaria 🇧🇬. We were very well received and found Bulgarians much more friendly and ready to help than we expected.
The roads south are in much better conditions than the ones north of Sofia and there was much more traffic on the road. Strong police presence and a number of cars around us were stopped for speeding.
Got some showers but all in all we were able to side skirt the rain.
Just before entering Greece, we met Dilbert, an Englishman that was riding a 1969 Triumph Bonneville from London. After listening to all the issues he has had with his bike, I am glad we are in the GSA.
We were surprised by a toll booth just as we entered Greece and they only accepted cash. It was the first toll road I have ever been on that was in horrible condition. At stages they brought the speed right down to 50km/h because the road was full of holes.
The ride was very beautiful as we approached Thessaloniki, with the mountains in the distance covered with dark clouds.
It was great to arrive to a city that borders the sea (the Aegean Sea). Life is so different in these cities as people spend time walking by the seaside. Lots of boats around and heave-based café lifestyle.
We have a good Airbnb apartment right in the center of town and had a good dinner based on fish.
Looking forward to spending one day exploring our first Greek city tomorrow.

Make Life a Ride !

Facebook post with some photos of the day

Click HERE to see all the photos and videos of Day 1 !