9th June - Maison Grecque
I was glad to have arrived at Maison Grecque in Patras where I had spent some time previously. I didn't feel any need to rush out and see the sights because I had seen several before so I settled in for some quality computer time.
After a relaxing breakfast I set up in the reception area with my IT resources, the Lonely Planet and the various pamphlets from ruins and museums that I had visited.
I spent almost the entire day on the computer working on this website.
The friendly staff at reception - Maison Grecque
I broke up the day by heading out for something for lunch and then later for dinner.
Looking back at my facebook updates I took 3.5hrs to prepare the update organising photos and typing text and it then took 4.5hrs to upload.
Not very exciting or touristy working on the computer for a day.
10th June - Diakofto - Kalavryta Railway
I was up early for breakfast to make the Diakofto - Kalavryta Railway for a morning run up, a stop for lunch then an afternoon run back down on the train.
The Diakofto-Kalavryta Railway runs 22km up (and back down) the Vouraikos Gorge in the Peloponnese.
About to depart Diakofto.
Vouraikos Gorge
When you purchase a ticket you are given an allocated seat. I only realised this after a sizeable group of women started to embark and discuss their seating arrangements within the group. I checked my ticket and I was lucky to be seated in amongst the group of women. It wasn't long before I realised I would be unable to hear anything else except whatever they were saying amongst themselves. Perhaps thankfully at least I couldn't understand them.
Fellow Trainspotters
The couple in the foreground indicated I should join them on the vacant seat opposite them since they too wanted to get off the train to get away from the women's incessant talking. We had no choice and made it to the top together.
It seems some people only paid for one way tickets….
The train crosses the river several times
The cog rail in the middle helps the train get up the steep bits
Kalavryta Station
Kalavryta is a beautiful small town set up in the mountains around 720m above sea level. It is a very pleasant place to stop for lunch and a look around before retiring to the coast again. Like much of Greece it seemed fairly quiet and I think the town's busiest tourist days are becoming a more distant memory to many of the shopkeepers.
The attractive main street of Kalavryta
The attractive main street and cafes of Kalavryta
After asking a few of the 'cafes' if they served lunch I managed to find one that did. I had an easy club sandwich. Again most of the cafes only serve coffee - or they might do ice cream or sweet crepes.
During lunch I suddenly remembered that there was more to my train ride that simply getting on, getting off, having lunch and then returning. I hastily finished my lunch and pad the bill before trying to find the Kalavryta Massacre Memorial.
Kalavryta is remembered for at least two significant events in Greece's history:
Firstly, the events of 21 March, 1821 which signalled the start of the Greek War of Independence, and
Secondly, on the 13 December, 1943 there was a Nazi massacre of almost every single male in Kalavryta older than 13yrs old. 696 were machine gunned to death and 13 survived. After the massacre the Germans then burnt down the town.
Kalavryta Massacre Memorial
Kalavryta below the Memorial
After quickly visiting the memorial I had to almost run back to the train for my return journey. Although the train doesn't go very fast I didn't fancy chasing it.
The river below.
The seat allocations on the return trip were much more flexible since the carriage was almost empty. I changed from seat to seat until I thought I had a good spot for a……...
Photo of me enjoying the train ride.
The rugged Vouraikos Gorge
Look what I found before I left Diakofto….!
Although the train trip is very enjoyable and cuts around 15km from the journey by road each way it is nowhere near as fun as doing the twisty mountain road on a fully loaded GS Adventure which I had done a few days earlier.
Back at Maison Grecque it was time to keep going on this website. I managed to get another day or two done bringing me up to the previous time I was in Patras…..
11th June - Bike Service and some old sites of Patras
Another reasonably early morning to get my bike to Patra BMW for my 20,000km service.
I was happy I had arrived around 9:38am but the Service Manager wasn't happy I hadn't brought the registration card….I sensed that he was going to tell me to come back tomorrow….which wasn't going to happen. I advised I was staying close-by and would be back before his 10am deadline. I returned to the hotel, quickly retrieved the rego. card, and returned to Patra BMW before 10am - done.
I decided I would walk back to the hotel to kill some of the time before the bike was ready to collect.
After returning to the hotel I headed out to see the Roman Odeon and Patras Fortress. I hadn't even considered that it was Monday and often such sites are closed….
When I arrived at the Roman Odeon, it was closed. There was a man at the gate and I motioned to come in and it seemed as though he gave me the OK to take a few quick photos. When I walked inside the Odeon there were a few people setting up some equipment.
I started up the terraced seating and was cautioned not to upset the equipment and of course I was careful not to. I started taking a few photos….
Of the theatre seating
Of me enjoying the show
Of them setting up their equipment
Then I was told that I wasn't allowed to be there and that the guard hadn't let me in….he certainly made zero effort to stop me.
Anyway the group there were setting up to do a 3D terrestrial laser scan of the theatre and obviously they didn't want me in it.
I headed off up the hill to see the castle/fortress.
I arrived at the gate that had been pulled closed but was not locked. I walked inside to the ticket booth and woke up the person inside (not literally) who seemed to agree to me having a quick look around since "it was my last day in Patras". I offered to pay too.
Thankfully I didn't pay - it was all locked up.
Some good views of back yards and distant mountains.
The grassy moat.
It was a quick visit to the castle so I was back on my to the hotel reasonably early.
Snapped a Church on the way.
I also called BMW and my bike was ready to collect. I changed and picked up the necessary bike gear and caught a taxi out to the workshop. My front tyre is a little low on tread and would have been good to change since my rear was replaced at the start of the trip. Unfortunately, and it seems to be the policy, BMW didn't have a tyre and the soonest possible time a replacement would arrive might be the next day. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a replacement along the way.
BMW Patra Service - a little different to Abu Dhabi
The only other question I had was regarding my rear brakes. They had felt a little soft going down the mountains, and most recently in Kalavryta. He said they were like new and they might have just been getting a little hot. I suppose after most of the kilometres being on straight roads in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman and the brakes rarely being used this is the first time they have been given a bit of hard work to do.
Both the bike and I are experiencing new things all the time.
Thanks Nikos and BMW Patra
After collecting the bike I took it for a little ride up the coast in the direction of Mariba where I had met Marios on my last visit to Patras. On the off chance he was there I hoped to catch him for lunch and a chat.
The bike was running and sounding noticeably smoother than before so I was happy with the service.
As I approached Mariba it was obvious that Monday is a very quiet day - there seemed to be nobody there.
I headed back to the hotel, via Psilalonia Square to see how active it was. I parked the bike at the hotel and walked back to Orient Express with my laptop to work on the website. I worked for close to 2hrs when the software crashed and advised that there was an "Unrecoverable Disk Error". The battery was running low and I used it up finding an autosaved version and re-saving a few files so that I could get back to it later.
A poor end to a pretty good day.
I stayed at Orient Express for dinner and a few drinks before getting back to Maison Grecque for bed.
Hopefully tomorrow would go smoothly……
12th June - Patras
I spent the early part of the morning organising a package to send back to Australia….After being advised by the Hellas Post Office that I would need to get Greek Customs to check and arrange the necessary paperwork I returned to Maison Grecque and asked to stay another day….I knew this would not happen quickly.
Maison Grecque were happy for me to stay another day so I went back and forth between the post office and customs (after I found them - old port, new port, old port again) trying to do all I could that day. It became obvious that I would need to get back to both Customs and the Post Office the next morning.
I returned to the hotel and set about completing the unsuccessful updates and uploads from the previous day. It took a while and during the process I met an Italian couple who had returned to Maison Grecque before they needed to get on the ferry back to Italy. We both had our dinners in the hotel and reminisced about some of the same places we had been to throughout Greece.
Obviously the day had not gone as smoothly as hoped. Another day in Patras - surely I would be moving on soon.