Day 63: Thessaloniki, Greece

Stats... 145km (90 miles) in 6hrs 57mins longest distance so far! We woke up and we thought it was still early until we realised that Greece was an hour ahead. We saw the sun rise over the lake which was beautiful. We followed the perimeter of the lake until it met the highway and we followed that to Edessa which was 40km away. This town is famous for waterfalls cascading around the city so we took a look and had a bite to eat. We continued along the highway past Pella like we were possessed! I was on a high for about 1 and a half hours at a speed of 27kmh and that was with no music! We crashed out for 10mins in the shade to recover but only to realise that we had sat on an ants nest as they were enjoying feeding off our stinking sweaty skin that has now been unshowered for several days! This was probably a good thing as it made us get back on the bikes even though we did not feel like it having already done 100km. We continued along the highway until it said no bikes and we took a diversion along some country roads that according to our map would cross a river. Half hour down this road it joined the National road which is equivalent to the M1! With no choice we dressed in high vis and put our heads down for 500m in order to cross the river. Still shaking we made it and after taking the first exit it turned into a gravel road with stray dogs barking at us left, right and centre! Kris was ready and waiting with his newly acquired dog battering stick. We made it through to the centre of Thessaloniki being the second largest city in Greece after Athens. We walked the main street until we found a niceish looking hotel that would take us in with our bikes. Thankfully it had air con which we wacked up full blast and showered until the water was leaking under the bathroom door! We dined up the road on Greek salad and meat and a couple of beers which was well deserved after the last couple of days.