May 20, 2012
Samos
We arrived in Pythagorio right about sundown. Our hotel, the Samaia, lies a few blocks uphill and back from the harbor and was a bit difficult to find - it made us glad to have taken the time to map it out on our GPS in advance, rather than wandering around in the dark hoping to stumble across it.
We were sorry at first to have missed the extra day on Simi, but it worked well. It was great having a second night in Samos - it gave us time to take a lengthy (65 mile) loop ride through the colorful, lumpy west end of the island. We took a dumbbell-shaped route, with loops at both ends of a connecting strip. The main spots, in order: Chora, Pirgos, Platinos, Karlovassi, Marathokampos, Koumeika, Skoureika, Pagondas, and back again to Pythagorio. The whole ride was terrific, but the highlights were probably Platinos where we stopped for lunch in a central square with tremendous plane trees, and the coastal stretch at the end of the ride.
On the following morning we cycled to Vathy on the north coast for the departure to Chios. We had all morning so we took a roundabout way, beginning with a sometimes paved, sometimes not ride along the south coast to tiny Posidonio on the southeast corner of the island and seemingly only yards from Turkey.
We arrived in Vathy with time for a late afternoon lunch on the harbor; and after a 4 hour ferry ride arrived in Chios a bit after 9 at night. Once again we were glad for our GPS maps to our hotel in Chios, about a mile or so north of the terminal along the waterfront. It made for a memorable arrival.
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Today's ride: 85 miles (137 km)
Total: 779 miles (1,254 km)
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