Day six and in the land I am aiming for.

What a world of difference that crossing made. From a dark over cast rain wet Italy. Into a sun drench hot smooth tar mack road's of Greece. I was at this time in the north of the country. So it was still make my way south. Keep pushing south. The wet kit was well packed away. And with a light set of kit an open face helmet and a dark set of sun glasses. I was really looking and playing the part. To me this was going to be the best part of the trip. Remember I have no sat nav so I'm working the old fashion way of tank bag note's and a map tucked away in my back pack. The only problem I had was. Most of the road sign's have been sprayed painted over. Not with any kind notation or picture's. Just covered so you can't read them. I have no idea why they do that. Are they trying to say, If you don't know your way round Greece you should not be here. Go home we don't want you.

One of the boxes to tick on this trip was the crossing of the bridge at Petra. The bridge is a major construction marvel for Greece. If you have the time Goggle Petra and bridge and have a look. I end up crossing it three time's. There is a toll on the bridge. But for a bike it was round 3/4 euros. Car's where running at 20 euros plus. So I got a good deal.

                                      The bridge at Petra

Let's get back to getting off the ferry at Igoumenitsa. With the bike and route notes. It was off. I decide to ride the coast road rather that take the motorway down. What's the point of going all that way just to ride the motor way. The road I'm taking is the E 55 to Mesopotamo, and then on to Petra. An easy run to make in a day. And that's with stop's. One of the thing's I noticed was the next to total disregards to the wearing of crash helmet's. It law in Greece to wear one. But I never seen any one wearing one on anything of say 125 and below, That was all over Greece. In the city in the country, and in the capital. Even some of the big biker's rode with out one. Well not some more than half. But I had an idea if I tried it with a UK plate, they would be on to me like a tone of brick's, Making me lighter of a few hundred Euros. So I had mine on all the time. But I could be wrong. So if you are looking for a place to ride with the wind in your hair. This is the place.




I'm now stopping where ever I can just to see the place, In a few place's I am up loading video's to my net book. This for some strange reason I can get to charge on the system of multi plugging my charger up. So I'm thinking that the Tom Tom has sprung a leak. I try it a few more time to get a charge in to it, at different place's but to no avail. The E 55 to say is one of the better road's to ride, is right. But there are so many like this in Greece, France, Italy, and just about any country that is on the med coast line. It there fore pokes it head up in the top league of good biking road. You have the blue Med on one side, Usually cliff face on the other and smooth surfaces under rubber. With the add bonuses of as many coffee stop as you can manage. Word's can't tell you just how good it is. It's now I wish I had some picture's on my computer to show you.

The day's of Greece being a cheap place to go. Is on the wane or is altogether gone. Food is nearly a one and half or more costly than the UK. A loaf of bread is next to £2. And any pack up you wish to make for the next day may not be worth the effort. I found that eating out was just about as easy as getting it your self. So I worked my way round doing both. A bit of pack up and a bit of eating out.

I'll do the next bit about the bridge and the camp site on the way to the capital. In the mean time I'm going to have a look and see if i can find that picture disk.

John933