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.
324 km from Litóchoro to Litóchoro, about 5 h 02 of riding. On the way it passes Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu, Church of the Holy Apostles and back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 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 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Holy Apostles.
Ask a Thessalonian for the prettiest church in town and a fair number will name the Holy Apostles, a small building from about 1310 to 1314 near the old Roman and Byzantine heart of the city, a few steps from the Egnatia Street axis. It was built, according to tradition, by the patriarch Niphon, and it is a showpiece of the Palaiologan style: five domes, a ring of arches, and walls where bricks have been laid in bands, zigzags and little crosses until the whole surface looks embroidered. On the outside, the pattern is the thing. Inside, mosaics from the same decade have survived in the domes, showing the Pantokrator and groups of apostles in tiny cubes of glass.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Apostles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 163 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Holy Apostles. 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 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 at The wider area of Mount Olympus. That is the ride.
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.
Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu → Church of the Holy Apostles is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of the Holy Apostles → back through Bronze Age settlement and Cemetery of Tumu is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through 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.