Wednesday, December 13, 2017 (evening)
The few comments I have received from family and friends have all asked for more pictures, so I will provide a couple of pictures for the day. It is worth noting that when I am riding the bike, particularly if I am riding hard, (that is, not being a tourist and enjoying the views), it is very difficult for me to take pictures. I don’t stop for them normally, sorry.
Today we did further cleaning on the boat. Jinhee did much more than me as she prepares for Megan’s arrival on Friday, but I cleaned windows and continued to work on the refrigerator. The boat fairly sparkles on the inside now, again, and that makes it ever more comfortable.
I mentioned that we backed into our spot when we arrived, and for those of you who haven’t seen Med mooring before, or experienced the process, I thought I would provide a couple of shots of Home Free from the rear – squeezed into her spot. Its a tight fit to get in and requires pretty good communication between Jinhee and I (we have headsets and I have a ‘backup camera’) and we are not afraid to ask for help from Marina staff, particularly if there are high winds.
This is the view from the front of the boat. Jinhee has been sitting in the pilothouse to work, and as she does so, this is her view of the world . . . not a bad view of the world while working. 🙂
After we finished the required work, it was time for me to set off on the the bike. Today I went East and found the roads to be no less crazy, although after an hour I ended up outside of the main areas, and following the coast to some nice views and climbs (picture worthy, sorry, I was working too hard). Interestingly, there were many people swimming in the ocean. I did note that the water temperature was around 18C, and is generally a bit higher than the air temperature here, so swimming doesn’t seem so bad (although not in Zea Marina, that would probably be pretty yucky).
When I turned to come back, I decided to try and find a route North, through Athens and set a goal to see the Parthenon as part of that search. Getting to the Parthenon on a bike from the Southern part of the city is not easy. Forget that it is uphill, the roads are not straight, major roads are nearly impossible to cross, and well, it is just not fun.
That said, I got to the Parthenon ‘area’, although I had no intention of going into the tourist area itself. I was surprised by the number of people; apparently people come to see the sights in December too! I finished with 75km ridden and over 3000′ of climbing, all in fantastic heat and sunshine, so it was a great day!
We will get to the Parthenon with Megan when she arrives and provide much better pictures.