Our introduction to Pelopenese mountains was a difficult one, despite the rewards of great views and ancient sites. The road that snaked its way up the valley was steep. The lowest gear on our bikes is 18-gear inches. That is, with every revolution of the pedals, the bike moves 18 inches forward and this is what was on my mind as the climb progressed. Thousands of 18 inch segments strung together.

When my altimeter read 250m Susana asked how long this would continue, and I said that it couldn’t continue like this forever. At 1100m I was finally right, and we had only gone about 15km. More Portuguese curse words were uttered this day than any of the trip, and we finished the day in Kalavryta with 1590m of climbing and legs like wet noodles.

The next day continued much the same, up high on twisting roads, just specks on a mountainside, passing through villages and drawing lots of blank stares from locals. But a simple “Kalispera” (Good afternoon) is always met with an enthusiastic, friendly response. There are far more sheep than people in this part of the country, and not a tour bus in sight. We stretched the descent out of the mountains and reached Olympia in the evening. As we rounded a corner nearing town, we came upon the stone stadium and columns of the 3000 year old buildings — seeing this from our bikes will be one of the images I will remember for a long time.

We took a rest day the following day to check out the site and museums and recover from some brutal cycling. This has been the largest display of an ancient site that either of us have seen and were impressed with the display and organization of the archealogical site and objects.

>From Olympia we headed back up, on more quiet mountain roads. We’ve encountered every kind of livestock on the road — cows, pigs, donkeys and of course hundred of goats and sheep. Also plenty of crazy flying insects, lizards and snakes — one as long as I am tall — the kind which inspired many a Greek mythological tale I’m sure.

Today, starting in Andritsana, we were deliberating our route on the side of the road when a man stopped and offered some advice in broken English and German. He was raised in Greece but said he didn’t want to work in the fields, didn’t want to move to Athens or Patra, so instead moved to Germany. He led us to some great sites that weren’t mentioned in our guidebooks — a hidden monastary at the end of a trail that we certainly wouldn’t have found otherwise. The place was mostly in ruins, but the chapel was preserved and unlocked, and from the sunlight pouring in from the door we could see amazing frescos from the Byzantine period, when the monastary was originally built. We saw the Greek-German man several more times throughout the day, playing leapfrog from site to site as he was on vacation visiting familair sites in his home.

We continued on today from the river at the bottom of the Lousios Gorge at 200m, and 30-some switchbacks later, at 996m, got to the top of the ridge that took us on to Dimitsana, a nice village with a lot of stone houses and more Byzantine churches. Our daily mileage has more to do with meters climbed than kilometers cycled. We ended today with 1700m climbed (more than a vertical mile), our most of the trip, in only 66km.

Aside from the hills, we have the best tans, are eating great yogurt, olives, and feta cheese. We defintely eat healthier when we cook for ourselves, but we’ve also been staying in some private rooms belonging to old ladies, so that’s not always practical. World Cup games are on whenever and wherever we care to watch (how these mom-and-pop restaurants can afford several expensive flat screen TVs I don’t understand).

Tomorrow we plan on exploring more of the Lousios Gorge and heading towards Tripoli, all downhill.