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 !
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 !
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