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 Ágios Pávlos it runs 332 km to Ágios Pávlos; allow about 5 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu, The wider area of Mount Olympus and back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Vlatadon, or Blatades, is the monastery to see if you want to understand why Thessaloniki's upper town is the city's loveliest part. It sits against the old Byzantine walls, near the Eptapyrgion fortress, and it was founded in the 1360s by two brothers named Vlatas, with a church that mixes the brick and stone of the Palaiologan style. The monastery has been a centre of church learning for centuries and still houses the Patriarchal Foundation for Patristic Studies, so you may find priests and students crossing the courtyard with books. It is a place where life continues.
Read the complete Blatades Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Blatades Monastery is where the day begins. Next is Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Vergina is a small village at the foot of the Pierian mountains in northern Greece, and for most of history nobody outside the region knew its name. That changed in 1977, when the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos opened a great burial mound here and found royal tombs with astonishing grave goods. The site is ancient Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonian kingdom, and one of the tombs is widely attributed to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. The prehistoric settlement and the large cemetery of burial mounds nearby show that people had been living and burying their dead here for a very long time before the Macedonian kings.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is The wider area of Mount Olympus.
The gods chose well. Mount Olympus rises almost straight out of the Aegean, from sea level near Litochoro to 2,918 metres at Mytikas, its highest summit, in barely twenty kilometres, so that from the coast road it looks less like a mountain than a wall of grey rock and dark forest with clouds snagged on top. The ancient Greeks put their twelve Olympians up there, and on a stormy afternoon with thunder rolling around the peaks you can see why.
Read the complete The wider area of Mount Olympus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 164 km into the recorded legs you reach The wider area of Mount Olympus. Next is back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu, late in the day. Next is Blatades Monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blatades Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Blatades Monastery. That is the ride.
Blatades Monastery → Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → The wider area of Mount Olympus is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The wider area of Mount Olympus → back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Blatades Monastery is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.