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.
A 404 km round trip from Vergína - roughly 6 h 05 in the saddle. The stops in between: The wider area of Mount Olympus, Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of and back through The wider area of Mount Olympus. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
The wider area of Mount Olympus comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of.
Thessaloniki has the odd distinction of being a Roman city, a Byzantine city, an Ottoman city and a Greek city, all at once, and the churches that UNESCO listed in 1988 tell the earliest part of the story. The Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments include the Rotunda, a huge round brick building put up around AD 300 as a mausoleum for the emperor Galerius, and later converted into a church. Its walls are about six metres thick, and it stands beside the remains of Galerius's palace and triumphal arch. A minaret from the Ottoman period still rises beside it.
Read the complete Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 202 km into the recorded legs you reach Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of. Next is back through The wider area of Mount Olympus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The wider area of Mount Olympus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The wider area of Mount Olympus, late in the day. Next is 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 at Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu. That is the ride.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → The wider area of Mount Olympus is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The wider area of Mount Olympus → Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of → back through The wider area of Mount Olympus is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The wider area of Mount Olympus → Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.