Greece 2001
		3 Summer bicycle tours: Halkidi / Drama / the island of Tassos / Kavala (see map)

The new tourist season started with the great news concerning the end of the Shengen visas so our plans were for going somewhere there. We used the days around 24 of May (a holiday for Bulgaria) for reconnoiters and the object was the near land of Greece. After hearing the rumors that the custom-house officers wouldn’t let you in freely we were pleasantly surprised by having passed quickly and without troubles through the frontier. Probably our “iron horses” buried under tents, sleeping bags and other attributes, which showed good enough what was the aim of our travel helped also for this.

My memories for this first tour are a nightmare. Our too ambitious plans for a tour around Halkidi were broken by the steep mountains of the peninsula and the endless “cradles” which teased us till the very seacoast. In spite of the lack of time we could splash in the salty but clean waters of Aegean seas. The trend some of us to be left jobless after this trip gave a sport’s look to our march. The last day we had to pass 175 km. It was not too bad for a first time in the season having in mind the hot weather and the luggage. This seemed to make us feel good. An evidence for that were the next trips in our South neighbor country…