Lamberg Travel: Bike Ride in Greece May 2019

This was a 10 day bike ride in the Peloponnese from May 2-12, then a few days in Athens to see the sights and eat more moussaka and baklava. We covered a lot of ancient battleground, as this is the region where the Spartans and Athenians fought the Peloponnesian Wars for 37 years, about 400 BCE, especially around Corinth, Sparta, and Olympia. The war ended without a decisive victory, although large numbers of people died trying, and death must have been especially cruel in those days, as a losing force and the city they came from might be cleansed of all men and boys and the women treated 'poorly.'

The bike tour was fine, and we did see a lot, had a readily available SAG wagon for water and snacks, and a ride if it rained. However, the Greek tour leader was poorly trained as a tour leader and had no bike mechanic skills, so, fortunately no serious accident occurred, although one of the members ruined her rear derailleur, probably from poor stacking of the bikes and the bending of the hanger. The hotels were good, and the positives made up for this amateur tour. We did cover a lot of ground and saw as much as I could imagine we could have seen, so I am glad I did the trip. It is never easy to fly trans-anything, so I figure it took 24 hr of flying to get there and another 24 to get back (stops in Charlotte and Frankfort going and Frankfort, Iceland, and Boston coming back).