First cycling day in Greece!

This is our third day in Greece, but the first "real" day of the bicycle tour. It was a great start. Leisurely riding around a beautiful little island called Spetses, in the southeast corner of the Peloponnese peninsula. It was a good chance for Cath to try out a road bike for the first time since college, including her first real ride using pedals and cleats. She didn't fall even once and had no trouble keeping up with everyone, even on a couple bumpy stretches.

Since it was just a 15 mile ride, we took every detour to various beaches, and stopped lots of times to take in the scenery and take pictures. Once we got away from town and its buzzing motorcycles, there was almost no traffic around the whole island. And the road surface -- not counting the short detours to the beaches -- ranged from good to excellent. One slightly hairy stretch took us down a super steep road, on a very bumpy surface with a mishmash of grooves and layered concrete to a nice little beach. It was tricky riding both directions and a couple people in the group walked it.

At one beach, Colleen led us along a path to a cave. The cool thing is that you could approach the cave either through a hole in the rocks, or by swimming. It had a low ceiling, and went back about 50 feet or so. There was one strange large formation in the very back, with a kind of large depression carved in the top. It made me think of a throne and creatures that Ulysses might have had to fight off!

There's no question that we came at a good time. The weather is warm enough to swim, but not too hot at all. More importantly, the summer crowds are gone. Apparently most of these beaches are pretty crowded, and there must be a lot of cars on the road. Today the beaches were nearly deserted. Lunch was at a perfect little cafe overlooking the water. We wound up eating in town. We did stop and check out a couple other places around the island, but they were closed now that it is off-season.