Not the best day

I had already decided I would not ride today because it was so hilly, but then the rain continued so I was happy to jump in the cab with the guy who was taking my luggage. He took me straight to Olympia, where a tour guide was awaiting me. It was cold and nasty, but we took a two hour tour, and I’m glad I did. I learned so much about the first Olympic Games and how they were religious-based. They ancient games only ceased to exist when the Romans, who by then had taken over Greece and had made Christianity the accepted religion, banned the games. When we exited the stadium to the parking lot, the taxi driver was waiting for me. He was worried about snow in the mountains on the way to the next hotel.Hmmmmm, I’m thinking this doesn’t sound good.
We headed out and everytime we passed through a town, he’d stop and ask a local how the road was. By the look on the local’s face I could tell it wasn’t great, but the the driver kept telling me everything was ok. We climbed and climbed and climbed. No way I could have done it in the allotted time on my bike. Lance Armstrong would have had a hard time. We’re talking steep climbs, hairpin turns, often no guard rails and straight drop offs. Oh yikes. As were climbing to the summit he says that after this 6 kilometers everything will be good because then it will be downhill. But that 6 kilometers was still straight up and the rain had turned to snow. Snow started collecting on the pavement. When we got to the very highest curve, there’s a Mercedes and another car parked at the edge of the road. Everyone’s out of the cars throwing snowballs! And, here’s where the driver starts slipping and sliding in the slush. He can’t make the turn! So he starts to back down the road to get a running start. Oh Lordy. He finally did make it around the curve and a bus is coming up the other side of the mountain. The bus driver flicks his lights so my driver stops and they discuss the road conditions in either direction. Lovely. I don’t see how the bus could have made that curve that we just came through. In any case, as we descended, the snow turned back into rain. It took us another hour to get to Kalavrita, which is a ski resort town! Tomorrow it’s expected to snow here! I’m not bothering with my day trip ride of it is. Crap. But Wednesday I come down off the mountain. I first have to climb a little (maybe 5 miles), then it should be downhill to the coast. This trip at this time of year was not the best idea I ever had.
I did walk around time for a little bit but there certainly wasn’t much going on in the rain. There were a couple of ski tourists and a few tourist shops were open. I did have a nice dinner of lamb chops, which the taxi driver had recommended. I don’t even feel like going out in the streets for New Years. I think I’ll just chill out.