Oh my. There’s an ashtray on my table in my room at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Nafplio. It’s so unusual to see ashtrays anymore.
But I digress. Let me start at the beginning. I left the beautiful house in Nemea at about 8:15. I finally had warm water for a shower before I left and fixed my own breakfast from all the good food they had left in the fridge for me. I decided against another piece of chocolate pie because I had had one last night, but I did squeeze some oranges and make fresh orange juice. Lordy, that tasted good. There were even patches of frost on the road in some of the shady curves. After a short climb/push I rode downhill past the archaeological site which was closed for lack of personnel and headed to the old fortress/palace of Mycenae. I had a bout one one road with no shoulders for maybe 30 minutes, but I have never encountered more courteous motorists anywhere. Nobody honked angrily. Everyone took there time behind me and when I had a chance to pull over and let the trucks and cars by, I did. Many motorists waved and many will just generally give a short honk when they are passing me to let me know that they are there. I had to climb/push up to the site. It was early and there weren’t many people so it was great to explore without feeling hassled. The view from up at the top was spectacular.
When I got to the site, I noticed that the GPS app had drained almost all of my phone battery again. What to do? I gave it to the lady at the ticket counter and asked her to plug it in while I was visiting. She was great about it. When I tried to give her some money later, she refused! But now I at least had enough juice agin to power the GPS to Nafplio.
It was a beautiful ride throw acres and acres of orange groves. I saw a few lemon groves around and a few olive groves, but the main crop in this area seems to be oranges. They just look so colorful hanging orange on a background of dark green leaves.
And the dogs! I’m surprised the organizer doesn’t have any mention of the hundreds of dogs in her info packet. (No im not. She’s a first class ditz.) These guys are good. They chase cyclists in relay squads. Two or three will start after you when you come into town. They run after you and bark at you until the next house, where the first dogs drop out and a couple more take of the chase. I didn’t get chased by this many dogs while riding across the US. I never look them in the eye. I just pedal all the harder and outrun them. After a not to strenuous ride I got in to Nafplio. What a gorgeous little harbor town. I was speaking with the receptionist at the hotel and he told me that on the weekends in summer they will get 10,000 visitors. I’m glad I’m here in December.
This place is classy. Check out the Grande Bretagne Hotel in the internet. It’s a nice room and my bike is stored in their side room. But before I can in for the evening, I pedaled around town. The first thing I did was to go to the tourist office to get a map of the city and then I went in search for an external battery for my phone with the GPS downloaded on it. Damn, I won’t find some one to plug it
in at every archaeological site. I was successful so then I went all touristy. I find a bike path/walkway on the cliffs along the shore line. It was a gorgeous ride, very peaceful and quiet. I came back, parked the bike and went out to eat some spinach ravioli. Very good.
The onLy negative thing I can say about the countryside is that it’s covered in garbage. The sides of the roads are lined with plastic bottles and bags. What a shame. It’s such a beautiful area.
I’m in for the night. Have another ride tomorrow which brings me back in the evening to this hotel again. I’m not complaining.
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