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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
1391 km from Pátmos to Pátmos, about 23 h 59 of riding. On the way it passes Heraion of Samos, House of Virgin Mary, Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos and back through House of Virgin Mary. It crosses from Greece into Türkiye - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Patmos is a small island, only about thirteen kilometres long, in the Dodecanese, and it is famous for one reason. Tradition holds that the apostle John was exiled here by the Roman authorities in the first century and received the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation in a cave on the slope below the town. The Cave of the Apocalypse, with its rock cleft where the voice of God was said to speak, is still a place of pilgrimage. Above it, the fortress-like Monastery of Saint John the Theologian was founded in 1088 by the monk Christodoulos, with a charter from the Byzantine emperor, and it rises over the white houses of Chora like a castle.
Read the complete The Historic Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Historic Centre 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 253 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 488 km into the recorded legs you reach House of Virgin Mary. Next is Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos.
Two things that the ancient Greeks did better than anyone are on show on this corner of Samos, and one of them is a tunnel. In the sixth century BC, the tyrant Polycrates ruled the island, and he commissioned an engineer from Megara, Eupalinos, to bring water to his capital through a mountain. The tunnel is about a kilometre long, and Eupalinos had his workers dig from both ends at once, meeting in the middle with an error of only a few metres, which is a stunning achievement for the time. Visitors can walk through a part of it today, in a hard hat, and the sloping channel for water still runs beside the walkway.
Read the complete Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos, about halfway. Next is back through House of Virgin Mary.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete House of Virgin Mary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through House of Virgin Mary sits at 929 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 1141 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Historic Centre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Historic Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Historic Centre closes the day.
The Historic Centre → Heraion of Samos is 253 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Heraion of Samos → House of Virgin Mary is 235 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
House of Virgin Mary → Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos is 209 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos → back through House of Virgin Mary is 209 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through House of Virgin Mary → back through Heraion of Samos is 235 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Heraion of Samos → The Historic Centre is 253 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.