CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Díon it runs 298 km to Díon; allow about 4 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Archaeological Site of Aigai, Church of the Holy Apostles and back through Archaeological Site of Aigai. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Mount Olympus rises straight out of the plain behind Dion, and on a clear morning its snow-streaked summit seems close enough to touch. The ancient Macedonians built their most sacred city here, at the foot of the home of the gods, and the kings came to sacrifice to Zeus before going to war. Philip II celebrated victories here, and Alexander the Great is said to have held a great festival at Dion before setting out to conquer Persia. Walking among the ruins, you can see why they chose the place: water bubbles up everywhere, the plain is fertile, and the mountain looms like a living presence.
Read the complete Archaeological site of Dion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological site of Dion is where the day begins. Next is Archaeological Site of Aigai.
In 1977 the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos lifted the stone slab of a vaulted tomb under a huge mound near the village of Vergina and found a gold casket holding the cremated bones of a man in his forties, with a golden wreath beside them. Most scholars now accept that it was Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, murdered in the theatre of the old capital in 336 BC. The mound, the Great Tumulus, is the centrepiece of Aigai, the first capital of Macedon, and today the royal tombs are displayed underground in a museum built inside the tumulus itself, in a half-light that makes the gold glow.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Aigai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archaeological Site of Aigai comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Holy Apostles.
Ask a Thessalonian for the prettiest church in town and a fair number will name the Holy Apostles, a small building from about 1310 to 1314 near the old Roman and Byzantine heart of the city, a few steps from the Egnatia Street axis. It was built, according to tradition, by the patriarch Niphon, and it is a showpiece of the Palaiologan style: five domes, a ring of arches, and walls where bricks have been laid in bands, zigzags and little crosses until the whole surface looks embroidered. On the outside, the pattern is the thing. Inside, mosaics from the same decade have survived in the domes, showing the Pantokrator and groups of apostles in tiny cubes of glass.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Apostles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Holy Apostles. Next is back through Archaeological Site of Aigai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Aigai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archaeological Site of Aigai, late in the day. Next is Archaeological site of Dion.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archaeological site of Dion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Archaeological site of Dion. That is the ride.
Archaeological site of Dion → Archaeological Site of Aigai is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Site of Aigai → Church of the Holy Apostles is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of the Holy Apostles → back through Archaeological Site of Aigai is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Archaeological Site of Aigai → Archaeological site of Dion is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.