It was big day to get to Patra for the boat to Venice and make my way back to England. I had snow sleet and rain to contend with and map errors that forced me to go a the sightly longer route to rejoin the planed route further down the road. The sun came out after 15:00 and gave me spectacular views of the snow capped mountains. I did the last 20km in the dark with even more rain to deal with. There was even a few people cheering as I got to the outskirts of the city if only they knew what id been up to for the last 3 months. Once I got to town it really felt like Christmas with lights and Christmas shoppers every where the roads to get to town where some of the worst I've seen in Greece pot holes and crazy drivers everywhere almost got knocked off my bike with Mercedes SUV skidding to a holt just in time, with only a rear light I was probably in the wrong.
Trying to find a hotel seemed a nightmare as well but got here in the end phew. For tomorrows mission is to head over the the other side of town get a bike bag from the bikecenterpatra.gr shop so i can get on the euro star from Venice or possibly the Artesia night train depending on prices. Seems at this time of year the boat sails every 4 days it also cheaper to go on the 36hour boat to Venice than the much sorter boat to Bari. How they work that out I'm unsure but a trip to the ticket office will settle any doubts there.
I booked the boat to Venice with Minoan lines nice a easy as for the bike bag not so simple although i sent a email over a week ago saying that I was coming to town and in need of a bike bag and the hotel staff ringing to check there was one in stock when I got there he showed me a bike cover and looked at me blankly when i said about the email i sent he was kind enough to find another bike shop on the map on my GPS but when i got there they did indeed have a monster Scot bag for a mear 229 euros not with in my budget and probably way over size for the train company's that stipulate a bag the same size as a suitcase. Unable to find any bike shops in Venice so the next leg is a little uncertain. Milan for sure will have a bike shop so may have to get regional train to there and sort it out from there if it weren't so cold in northern Italy i might have been tempted to visit the chapel of modonna di ghisallo the patron saint of cycling you never now might make one last pilgrimage.
Location : Πατρόκλου 10, Patras 26442,
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