I am in Volos and will set out west for the beginning of trip number two as soon as I finish this post and my breakfast. The plan for this trip is to follow Titus Quinctus Flamininus' route home to Italy out of Greece in 194 bc. His full route involved starting from his base in Elateia in Phokis and visiting each of the three 'fetters' of Greece (Akrokorinth, Khalkis, and Demetrias) and removing the garrison from each and then heading back west to the port at Oricum in modern day Albania and sailing back to Brundisium.
On this bike trip I am only going to do the section from Demetrias to Ioannina, which is just over the mountain pass between Thessaly and Epirus. The other sections I will complete later this year.
This trip is interesting for many reasons, not least of which is that this is what I think is the fastest route east to west across Greece and not the route Paullus took and that I biked in Trip I.
I spent a great day here in Volos yesterday. The museum here is just amazing - and even better, there was a dress rehearsal for a junior high production of Agamemnon on the museum steps! It was so cute and awesome. Food here is amazing (fried fresh tiny squids were a highlight) and every business seems to sell their own (delicious) home made tsipouro. Also, there is a full size reproduction of the Argo in the harbor!
So I am now off to first photograph Demetrias then cycle half way across the Thessalian plain and investigate the different areas where scholars think that the battle of Cynoscephelae was fought, and then bike the rest of the Thessalian plain and end in Karditsa. I am so excited to see Cynoscephelae! Yes, the battle was in 197 bc and not on the 194 route, but it is on the same path so I figured that I would investigate while I am here!
On this bike trip I am only going to do the section from Demetrias to Ioannina, which is just over the mountain pass between Thessaly and Epirus. The other sections I will complete later this year.
This trip is interesting for many reasons, not least of which is that this is what I think is the fastest route east to west across Greece and not the route Paullus took and that I biked in Trip I.
I spent a great day here in Volos yesterday. The museum here is just amazing - and even better, there was a dress rehearsal for a junior high production of Agamemnon on the museum steps! It was so cute and awesome. Food here is amazing (fried fresh tiny squids were a highlight) and every business seems to sell their own (delicious) home made tsipouro. Also, there is a full size reproduction of the Argo in the harbor!
So I am now off to first photograph Demetrias then cycle half way across the Thessalian plain and investigate the different areas where scholars think that the battle of Cynoscephelae was fought, and then bike the rest of the Thessalian plain and end in Karditsa. I am so excited to see Cynoscephelae! Yes, the battle was in 197 bc and not on the 194 route, but it is on the same path so I figured that I would investigate while I am here!
