CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Chaïdári it runs 558 km to Chaïdári; allow about 9 h 45 of riding. On the way it passes Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, Archaeological Site of Mystras and back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus. The line favours views over speed.
Daphni sits beside the Sacred Way that ran from Athens to Eleusis, on the western edge of the city, and it is one of the finest Byzantine monuments in Greece. The monastery was founded in the early Christian centuries on the site of a temple of Apollo, and the present church dates from about the eleventh century, with a dome set on a square plan and eight sides inside. The mosaics are the reason to come. In the dome the Christ Pantocrator looks down with a stern, brooding face, and around the walls are scenes from the life of Christ in gold and deep colours. The best are the Baptism, the Crucifixion and the Anastasis, with figures drawn with grave dignity.
Read the complete Monastery of Daphni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of Daphni is where the day begins. Next is Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus.
Drop a coin in the centre of the orchestra at Epidaurus and people sitting in the top row, fifty-odd rows above, will hear it. The theatre of the sanctuary of Asklepios, built in the fourth century BC, is famous for its acoustics and its almost perfect state of preservation, and it still hosts performances of ancient drama during the summer festival. But the theatre was only part of the sanctuary. Epidaurus was the most famous healing centre of the ancient Greek world, where the sick came to sleep in the sacred buildings and hope that the god Asklepios would visit them in a dream with a cure.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus comes up 103 km in. Next is Archaeological Site of Mystras.
Mystras is a whole Byzantine city draped down a steep hillside, a few kilometres west of modern Sparta, at the foot of the Taygetos mountains. It began in 1249, when William II of Villehardouin, a Frankish prince ruling the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade, built a castle on the summit. Within a few years the Byzantines had taken it back, and Mystras grew into the capital of the Despotate of the Morea, a centre of learning and art in the last centuries of the empire. The philosopher Gemistos Plethon taught here, and in 1449 Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was crowned here before leaving for Constantinople, where he died when the city fell in 1453.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Mystras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
206 km in you reach Archaeological Site of Mystras. Next is back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus, late in the day. Next is Monastery of Daphni.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of Daphni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Monastery of Daphni. That is the ride.
Monastery of Daphni → Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus → Archaeological Site of Mystras is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Site of Mystras → back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus → Monastery of Daphni is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.