Our world bicycle tour started with an intelligent lockdown in the Netherlands. Now we are in a lockdown again. This time in Thessaloniki after 6,291 km, with a lot of experience and above all many beautiful memories.
In April we had no choice but to postpone our world tour. After all, the borders were closed. It was a strange feeling: we were all set to go, but we couldn't leave. We were locked up. In addition, we no longer had a place to stay. Our belongings were already stored and our apartment was rented to Eva, Ben's youngest daughter. Fortunately we were able to go to B&B Le Rêve, where we stayed until June 14.
The border to Turkey is open and you can travel as a bicycle tourist in Greece if you book a hotel in advance. However, that is not how we want to cycle around the world. We don't want to plan our days in advance and we certainly don't want to be tied to hotels. We prefer to sleep outside, in a church or chapel or at people's homes.
In addition, everything is closed in Greece except for supermarkets and pharmacies. Cafés and restaurants only offer take away. That’s also not how we visioned our world bicycle tour. The social contact while having a cup of coffee in a café is completely gone.
Finally, when we leave Thessaloniki, we are in Turkey in no time. We don't know what’s the situation like over there. It’s quite strange you hear little about the figures in Turkey in the news.
Fortunately, we are at a nice place in Thessaloniki. We met Katerina and Erastos in Pilion. They have an apartment in the middle of the city by the sea. We are temporarily roommates. They have another house in Pilion where they run Guest house Ghermaniko. They might go back there later.
We are still waiting for some packages. Then we have to go to bicycle shop Podilatis for some maintenance. When that's all done, we’ll decide what to do. Unfortunately, the packages take a long time, sometimes a whole month. Hopefully the lockdown will be over by then, the weather will still be good and the situation around Covid will be better. The lockdown is still in effect until November 28, the weather is still mild and a vaccine will be available soon.
So we aren’t cycling now. Unexpectedly, we are on a break after 6,291 km. We are going to adjust our logo, write blogs, relax a bit, prepare our annual report, update our website, relax a bit more and so on. In the meantime, we will keep you informed about what we are doing and what our new plans are. Check Facebook or Instagram twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.