Hotel Pyrgos Xeniou Dhimitsana

... a few km’s and a few cooling showers, the vein on Brian’s forehead finally went down again. I did my best to cycle with limited gears and not complain (it was my own fault after all for not listening to him). Maybe this has been what I’e been working up to: cycling without first gear. Cycling was becoming easier for me, so I needed the next challenge! I have heard of people doing long trips ...

... collumns and ruins rising up all around. Dates of 7th century BC are hard to imagine&#8230;700 years before Christ? This is the ancient history he was taught in school?<br><br> Wandering around I tried to imagine the grandure of what is not basically rubble. The temple of Zeus was the most awe inspiring. Huge masses of collumns which had toppled in 500 AD. One collumn has been re-created ...

... wet and cold and not having any fun. I can&#8217;t see the scenery I so want to, and we have no desire to go to any sights in the rain. What&#8217;s going on?<br><br>Upon reaching the campground I couldn&#8217;t take anymore. It had only been 2 hours cycling in the rain, but the rain wasn&#8217;t letting up. Here we were in Olympia and I couldn&#8217;t see it! I didn&#8217;t know what to do ...

The port we sailed into was at Katakolon, Greece. From there it was about 40 minutes by tour bus to Olympia and the site of the original olympics. Dean was much more interested in this site than I was. I would much prefer to browse shops and buy stuff. The stadium where the foot races were held has the original starting line. And tourists like to reinact a ...

... of Atsiholo) that it was the vegetable delivery van. This is an excellent system really; each village would know roughly when to expect it and the music would certainly roust the customers out in good time - like the ice cream van!<br><br>Returning to our rooms we completed the packing. Our only concern was that there was no sign of Niko - he'd said to us that he would see us in the morning as he wanted to give us a CD of his ...

... This involved traversing some very bumpy road, crossing a small ford and finally negotiating a narrow spine-backed bridge... but all went well.<br><br> We explored ancient Gortys for about an hour. The main sites near the entrance were easy enough to locate, but further south it was more of a maze of unkempt paths and the usual spiky undergrowth. The previous year, we'd been considering a path shown through the Gortys site and along the ...

... Returning to the town centre we decided to follow actual directions this time. Once safely out of the town, it proved to be a great trek up to Lykosoura - firstly under the shadows of the twin Ferrybridges of the central Peloponnese (our local power station is Ferrybridge in Yorkshire). These are undoubtedly more picturesque from a distance, but still rather grimly fascinating. Then we made out way slowly uphill through rich green and ...

... of this one and slightly higher. It was a steep ascent as we trudged up about two kilometres, all uphill to a junction of paths: to the right, a well-marked track wound uphill to the high church of the Panagia, to the left a more sketchy track wended south towards our hill.<br><br>Our target was now plainly visible - a rocky cone steep on the western side and sloping more gently to the east. There was little sign of anything suggestive of a castle, except the hint (no ...

... having already decided that we would stop here for a break at the Hotel Kentrikon, where we had stayed for a few days on our last visit. We ended up having a large lunch of salads and plates of home-cooked thin-sliced potato chips. Langadhia was busy with many weekending tourists, including at least one other non-Greek couple; driving out of the town we fortuitously followed this pair and they were flagged down by the ...

... a puff pastry filled with feta cheese. Let me try making one _______________________________________ ____________________ 28 Oct, Friday Start point: Kalamata End point: Kefalovrysi Via: Odom(Km): 74.27 Moving(hrs.mim): 6.25 Ave(Km/h): 11.6 Total Ascent(m): 1833 Max Altitude(m) 931 Max Speed(Km/h): 50.0 It is a holiday and there is a festive spirit in the air. In the ...