Ποδηλατικές εκδρομές από Λιμενικές πόλεις της Ελλάδας ve Türkiye By Richard Fox January 2024
Our Fall 2023 cruising adventures continued to the northeast Mediterranean region on Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam. We were in heaven, with beautiful ports to explore, pickleball fun back at the ship, great weather, and of course all of the delicious food. A smaller percentage of ports were conducive to cycling in this region, but the ones that were became great adventures. In Croatia, all of the tour guides had split from Split by November and Dubrovnik was all about the walking tour, no bikes allowed. No bike facilities were available in Sarande, Albania, and we were better served by walking around to explore Santorini (Oia, our favorite place), Mykonos, and Napflio, Greece. Kusadasi, Turkey was our portal to get to Ephesus, but also fun to walk around and eat Turkish food. The cruise started in Athens, and we did a marvelous morning e-bike tour of that city before boarding. On Crete, Chania was a lovely historic town to explore by bike and Corfu town turned out to be a very enjoyable place to ride a rented e-bike. Our wildest adventure was a two-continent bike tour of Istanbul, Turkey. We booked Athens in advance through GetYourGuide and the others direct from the shops.
ATHENS, GREECE
A few e-bike tours were available to explore Athens, but we were glad to have chosen Athens By Bike. One of the many features we rode by was the modern Olympic stadium, and they deserve a gold medal for finding such safe and scenic routes through this mostly bike unfriendly city. We just followed our excellent guide, Maria, like baby ducks, I couldn’t tell you the route if I tried. We enjoyed many views of the Acropolis and other historic ruins sites and cathedrals, plus iconic neighborhoods like the Plaka and some hip areas we wouldn’t know about otherwise. Maria, was thoroughly versed on historic and contemporary trends and attitudes. The only downside of the route were the many uneven cobblestone streets, some on hills, which were pretty and uncrowded, but I imagine could be dicey when wet. The wide city bike tires helped navigate them. There were a few hills, making us glad to have e-bikes, which were comfortable and worked well. It was a great way to see the highlights of Athens, and we had a wonderful outing on this sunny Greek Sunday morning.
We stayed overnight near the Acropolis and the tour started close by the Acropolis metro station. If you are here on a port day mid-cruise you could take the train in from Piraeus but most likely will need to take a taxi to make the start time. We dashed to the port after the tour in a taxi (20€ ) to catch our Holland America 25-day cruise. Cost: ~50€ each through GetYourGuide, perhaps less if booking direct.
CORFU, GREECE
In the BBC series the Durrells, the Isle of Corfu seems like an idyllic paradise, and it was for us to bike around. Large cruise ships can dock at Corfu town (Kerkyra), the main town on the island. A free shuttle takes passengers to a terminal building, although it is also walkable. The main attraction is the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 30 minutes walking from the port exit, or via city bus or cruise ship shuttle. No bike tours were available from near the port, but Corfu Port Bicycles was just a 10 minute walk from the terminal exit. We had reserved, then rented two solid comfortable e-bikes there. The proprietor, George, outlined an optimal route for us on a Corfu tourist map I had picked up. It was mostly on roads with traffic, first past the newer 1600’s Venetian fortress, then around to the impressive Byzantine Era old fortress topped by the 14th century Venetian Palaio Frourio, situated on an island east of town. Bikes are allowed all through the narrow winding streets of Old Town between the two fortresses, which is always fun, as long as crowds are not too thick, hence earlier the better.
After exploring all over town we followed the coastal route south. A brick bike path parallels part of the Leof. Dimokratias coastal road, which was a nice relief from riding on streets for a while. An attraction en route is Mon Repos Estate, birthplace of QE2’s husband Prince Phillip. A car-free lane leads up to it, through a wooded nature park. The property contains a small palace now housing an archeological museum, next to an Adriatic Sea viewpoint. Beyond is a dirt path that leads to the ruins of the ancient Doric temple of Kardaki. Back on the road we followed signs to the small town of Kanoni, and found an outdoor cafe that had tables overlooking Holy Monastery of Panagia Vlacherna, on an island, as well as the end of Corfu airport’s (Ioannis Kapodistrias) runway. We rode back to Corfu town, choosing some different streets this time, stopping for gelato and some shopping.
The speed of vehicles on our route was not fast, and we never felt in danger, although others may not feel comfortable with this type of riding. We gave the plethora of tour buses a wide berth in the most touristy areas. It was a beautiful day, and we thoroughly enjoyed riding around for 4 hours. Corfu is a large hilly island, and there are opportunities to bike elsewhere, where other rental companies and even tours may be available, although that would be trickier to coordinate with your time at port. Cost: 25€ each for the day.
CHANIA, CRETE, GREECE
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and offers some spectacular biking along the coast or in its interior mountain ranges. The two major cruise ports are Heraklion and Souda port near Chania, where our ship docked. An easy 20 minute city shuttle bus (3€ round trip) from the port drops passengers off in the center of Chania. Unfortunately, no tour companies offered adventurous coastal e-bike adventures to cruise passengers from Chania.
I chose to tour Chania with Ride Around Chania, whose shop is a 10-minute walk from the shuttle stop. They only offered regular city bikes but that was fine for this locale. Our local Greek guide, Dimitre, was passionate in his thorough depiction of the area’s rich history and description of more current events and controversies. This was exactly what I was hoping for, an immersion into the local culture, combined with a very scenic bike ride. Chania’s touristic area extends from the stunning crescent shaped Venetian waterfront harbor promenade, with a fort and city walls, several blocks into the old city with its narrow streets and alleys. Dimitre showed us all the highlights including the houses of worship, fortifications, and cultural points of interest including explanations of some significant graffiti. Being on bikes was the best way to get from place to place and cover the most ground. The route varied from crowded alleys and seaside promenades to wider streets and less crowds, with a couple of hills that were manageable without e-assist. We had a nice stop at an overlook of the harbor where Dimitre provided a special iced tea and nutrition bars. I really enjoyed this ride and thorough immersion into the heart of Chania thanks to Dimitre’s guidance. Cost: 40€ booked directly, also available through apps. Steve skipped this ride after recovering from a 24-hour bug, but met up for gelato in town afterwards, the important part.
ISTANBUL, TüRKIYE – TWO CONTINENT RIDE
Cruise ships dock at the new Galataport complex on the European side of Istanbul, where we had fabulous views of the city right from the ship. No shuttles are required but it was an epic walk to get out of there, right into the city, then about 25 minutes walk to the main attractions of the Golden Horn across Galata Bridge.
Istanbul spans two continents, and the prospect of a Eurasia ride could not be passed up, despite there being no e-bikes available for a fairly hefty 30 km tour. Since our ship was staying overnight, there was no issue with making it back in time, although the promised 2PM ending time would usually be sufficient. Getting to provider Istanbul On Bike in the Balat neighborhood from the port is not difficult if you can figure out the trams, but since we had a time constraint to meet the tour we took a cab from the taxi line at the port for 15€ to a meeting point with employees who escorted us up a hill to their shop. The city bikes provided were adequate with multi gears and comfort positions.
Our local guides Ramo and Ceyda led us through back streets to a ferry terminal, and we enjoyed a 30 minute uncrowded ferry ride to Üsküdar on the Asian side, taking in views of Galata Bridge, Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Maiden Tower, Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Bosphorus Bridge en route. In Asia we were greeted by very scenic waterfront promenades and bike paths as we rode generally south along the water. One detour involved riding over a small hill to connect to the next section of path. Bike paths continued around an inlet, past Kalamış Park and Yacht Marina, and then to Fenerbahce Park, where friendly feral cats climbed all over us and purred as the group sat on park benches. We stopped for lunch and Turkish tea (not included in tour price) at the waterfront Romantica Cafe in the park, which overlooks the Princes’ islands, a popular bicycling location.
On the return route we rode on sidewalks and city streets to a Kadıköy pier for a crowded ferry ride to Karakoy back on the European side. From there a waterfront bike path led to the Atatürk Bridge over Golden Horn Bay that offered stellar vistas from its wide bike/ped path of the Golden Horn sites described above. Escalators and elevators were available to transport the bikes to bridge level. We then rode through a matrix of interesting narrow streets in Balat back to the shop.
Our guides were very informative, welcoming and fun; we felt like we really experienced Istanbul with the locals. It was a wonderful exhilarating, fascinating 5+ hour outing on a beautiful October day. The trams were so packed in the late afternoon we just took another 15€ cab ride back to Galataport. Cost: 60€ each direct, cash only. (Both apps charged ~85€).
enCYCLEpedia Bicycling Blog 