As we travel, we have begun making a list of the places that deserve a return visit. Even though our cycling trip is long, it’s just not possible to “see it all.” We’ve had to remind ourselves several times along the way that this is not the last time we’ll travel.
Greece is a country we put on the “return” list. When we originally made our plans for Europe, we hoped to come in from the north and cycle all the way down to Athens. Then we would take a ferry through the islands, which would put us coming into Turkey in Izmir, near the historical site of Ephesus. It all sounded so good. But alas, throughout Europe, we’ve had a dark cloud hanging over our head–the Schengen Agreement. I won’t go into much detail for now, but this is the pact that basically dissolved the borders between many of the mainland European countries–26 of them, to be exact. This agreement makes crossing borders a breeze–no customs, no immigration, you just drive (or ride) straight across.
This might not seem like a big deal, and didn’t seem that way to us until we started reading the fine print, which says this:
“Travelers for business or tourism are permitted to stay in the Schengen area for 90 days within a six month period. Once the 90 day maximum is reached, leaving for a brief period and re-entering the area does not entitle a traveler to 90 more days within the Schengen states. The traveler would have to remain outside of the Schengen zone for 90 days before reentering without a visa.”
So, basically, we got 90 days for mainland Europe. Fortunately, the UK and most of the Balkans didn’t count against our time. But when we parted ways with Dave’s parents in Italy, we knew we had to get out of Schengen quickly. By the time it was all said and done, we only had six days left to make it across Greece. Our plans to ride to Athens were a lost cause–it was just too far. We would be so rushed, we knew it wasn’t worth the effort. So instead, we came in from Macedonia and rode across what might have actually been the most uninteresting part of Greece!
All that said, we made the most of our six days and took one day off in the coastal town of Kavala. We stayed along the Aegean coast as we cycled from Thessaloniki to the border with Turkey.
Dave riding under the ancient aquaduct as we made our way out of the city of Kavala.
In our short six days in Greece, we had a chance to brush up on our Greek alphabet… and realized we didn’t recognize anything except the capital letters!
Fortunately, most of the signs were in English too! If they were all like this, we might have had a hard time getting out of the country!
And the picture we’re most proud of from Greece? We made the 450 kilometers in five days of riding and got our Schengen exit stamp! From what we’ve heard, we probably could have overstayed our visa limit by a few days without much issue. But for us, it wasn’t worth the risk of the high-dollar fines if they check and catch you. Also, it was an issue of integrity–we knew the limit was 90 days, and we wanted to respect that
We made it out–day 90! Whew!
