Introduction

Welcome to my first ever blog! I chose to communicate this way because it is easy and fast. Also, I can publish photos and even videos - something that is very difficult, if not impossible, with emails.
To see a map of my intended route, click this link. Just how much of this I can do depends on my back - of course. I may have to abandon some of the climbs - or even abandon the whole ride altogether. We'll see.
Anyway, a comment about the route. On Monday I will simply cycle from the airport to my hotel in Thessaloniki. I will spend the rest of the day exploring the city, which is apparently very pleasant. It's one of the oldest cities in the world, so there should be a lot of interesting things to see. My tour proper will begin the day after.
First of all, I will do a ride round Chalkidiki and Sithonia. Apparently, this part of Greece is very beautiful -  I have  been warned that I might want to abandon the rest of my tour and stay there! The first couple of days will be mostly flat, which will give me the opportunity to acclimatize and find my cycling legs (I haven't been able to do much training.) There is a mountain to climb on the way back to Thessaloniki. This will help me to test how my back copes with a real climb and help to prepare me for the bigger ascents later on. It's only 600 metres, but I might need to abandon it and go back to Thessaloniki along the coast.
From Thessaloniki I will start to make my way to Kalampaka and Meteora. As you can see, the road is steep and the climb is quite long. This will probably be the hardest part of my journey and also the riskiest. I may very well have to take the train to Meteora - we'll see...But I'm determined to get there - Meteora really is an amazing sight and I don't want to miss it (it's where the backround photo of this blog was taken). See here for more information.
Finally, from Meteora I will head south toward Delphi. There are many tough sections here too - and the final climb to Delphi will probably be very steep. From Delphi, I will probably go to Patras - I don't think I will go to Athens as indicated on the map. I expect that I will finish the tour in Patras and then take the ferry to wherever Joan's parents are on their boat.