Day 29: Edessa-Thessaloniki (89,5 km, 200 m ↑)
We left Edessa on Sunday. After a quick breakfast and coffee, we passed by the Edessa waterfalls and confirmed that they are quite impressive even for the experienced Iceland visitor.
We hadn’t cycled long yet when we had our first unfriendly dog encounters of the day. The first we got into a fight with was kicked by Udo, but still continued chasing him afterwards. The second one got impressed by the stone we threw at him. Luckily, all other dogs we met that day, we managed to keep at a distance. But it’s unbelievable how often we get into such situations here in Greece.
The rest of the day should have been easy cycling. But at some point my bike started making a very nasty sound. It wasn’t rolling smoothly anymore either. We stopped and disassembled the brake that we thought might be the cause, but it wasn’t. Then we removed the back wheel and cleaned all parts that could collect dirt and dust. Initially we thought that this might have solved the issue, but after a few kilometres, the bad sound came back and got worse actually. I did make it to Thessaloniki, but in the end my bike sounded like it could collapse under me any time. So a new visit to a bike repair shop was necessary.
Day 30: Thessaloniki-Paralia Ofryniou (106 km, 820 m ↑)
My bike got repaired in Thessaloniki. I got a new chain, new crank and new cassette. Today, it was running fine again after the repair. Only the gear shift needs some fine tuning.
I bought two ultra-sonic devices that are supposed to keep dogs at a distance. Today, we didn’t have any unfriendly encounters with dogs. But when Udo tried one of the devices on an angry dog behind a fence, it did not seem to have any effect on it either. So we don’t really know if it would work in a no-fence situation.
Paralia Ofryniou seems to be a typical tourist beach town. There are a lot of cafés and restaurants, but most of them are closed for the season. There is not much to do here in the evening, but we had a nice Greek dinner – as always, we start with a healthy salad and then something with a bit more calories for the cyclists.
