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.
843 km from Vrontádos to Vrontádos, about 73 h 15 of riding. It goes by way of Heraion of Samos, House of Virgin Mary and back through Heraion of Samos. It crosses from Greece into Türkiye - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Nea Moni sits in a fold of the pine-covered mountains above Chios town, on the Greek island of Chios in the eastern Aegean, and it is among the finest surviving Byzantine monasteries. The tradition says that in the eleventh century three monks found an icon of the Virgin hanging in a myrtle bush and had a vision, and that they won the support of the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, who paid for the building of a church. Its great treasure is the mosaics, made of glass and gold tesserae by craftsmen from Constantinople, which show scenes from the life of Christ against shimmering gold backgrounds. Together with the mosaics of Daphni and Hosios Loukas, they are the most important of their period in Greece, and the monastery is a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios is where the day begins. Next is Heraion of Samos.
Samos was rich in the sixth century BC, and the Heraion is the proof. This was the sanctuary of Hera, queen of the gods, on the south coast of the island, near the sea and the plain where the airport now sits. The first temple here was among the largest of the Greek world, the work of the architects Rhoikos and Theodoros, and it was reputed to be the biggest temple ever built in Greece. It was never quite finished, and it was damaged by earthquake, but a single column still stands to its full height, which is why the site is known to visitors as the place of the lone column.
Read the complete Heraion of Samos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Heraion of Samos comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is House of Virgin Mary.
High above Ephesus, on Bülbül Dağı, the Nightingale Mountain, there is a small stone house in a pine wood that Christian tradition, and a certain amount of nineteenth-century detective work, links with the last years of Mary. The story goes that John the Apostle brought her to Ephesus after the crucifixion. In the 1800s a German nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, described the house in visions, and a French priest set out to find it and identified the ruins. The Catholic church has never officially declared it authentic, though several popes have visited, and both Christians and Muslims, who honour Mary as Meryem Ana, come to pray here. A wall outside is covered with folded notes and strips of cloth bearing wishes.
Read the complete House of Virgin Mary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 422 km into the recorded legs you reach House of Virgin Mary. Next is back through Heraion of Samos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Heraion of Samos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Heraion of Samos, late in the day. Next is Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios. That is the ride.
Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios → Heraion of Samos is 125 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Heraion of Samos → House of Virgin Mary is 297 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
House of Virgin Mary → back through Heraion of Samos is 297 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Heraion of Samos → Monastery of Nea Moni of Chios is 124 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.