Motourama Part 29: What do we say to death? Not today!

Hello family, friends and followers! In today’s Travel Story, we have a couple of trips to the workshop for you. One of them was not scheduled, to say the least.

Before leaving Thessaloniki, we had arranged for a new rear tire for Phoenix. The good guys at Agio Motors, the local Honda workshop, had acquired the very last rear wheel tire in all of the city, which would fit. On our way out of the city, they swapped the bald tire for the new, and we were on our way in less than 30 minutes.

If you are ever in Thessaloniki and need work done on your Honda, Agio Motors is the place to go.

Our plan for the day was to ride to a national park in a river delta, called the Nestos Delta, and just enjoy the scenery on the way. We drove along the coastline for as long as the road would allowed, and enjoyed every second of it.

Just 20 km out of the city, we were met with a stunning panorama.

The Lonely Mountain.

Out of Thessaloniki, we had made a short dip inland, but we soon had the sea in view again, staying with us for the majority of the day. The landscape was mesmerising, and we almost forgot to stop to take photos.

Tadaaa! The sea is there again!

The coastline had amazing spots like this hidden away down dirt roads.

As we had skipped breakfast to go to the Honda workshop, we stopped for an early lunch at a roadside rest stop. It was not the most fancy place, but it was more than enough. As we were preparing our food, Daniele – an amazingly positive, Italian guy on a bicycle – caught up with us. We had overtaken him just down the road and had given him the customary honk and a wave. We all shared our food with each other, and had a great picnic together.

Cutting tomatoes for a tomato salad.

Just look at that smile. Even though it was rather warm, and that it had been going up hill for a while, he had plenty of energy left over for smiles and a positive attitude.

We went on and slowly approached the delta, but we were taking time to stop now and take in the scenery. We went through a lot of modern, boring cities along the coast, which were hard to distinguish from one another, but there was always life at the harbours.

The old man and the sea.

When we arrived at the Nestos Delta, we went around for a while, looking for a place to pitch our tent, and found a nice, cheap camp ground directly in the national park. After the tent was up, we made it down to the beach, where Denise went for a dip, and Esben played with E2-D2.

They had wi-fi, so before even getting off the bike, a quick message was sent back home to mom and dad, to let them know how the day had went.

The sea was very shallow, and you could walk for several minutes in knee deep water before it got deeper.

The setting sun over the camp site and the distant mountains at the edge of the delta.

The local “harbour”.

A stork nest right next to the camp site.

Back at the camp, we got the pleasure of getting to know Peter and Birgit from Germany. They had been so kind to give us leftovers from their dinner, as we went to the beach, so we shared some Rakia from Bulgaria with them. It turned out they were living in Greece and were renting out their home to a family, so they were on a holiday of their own. We learned, that Peter had driven through Africa on an old Yamaha XT in the 70’s, which involved a lot less paperwork than it would today. We shared stories and laughs for the rest of the evening, and went to bed happy and slightly tipsy.

Peter and Birgit the next morning before we left.

Despite the drinks the night before, we got up early, as we had quite a distance ahead of us to reach Istanbul. The tent got packed and the bikes were loaded again, ready to set off. Little did we know that our plans to reach Istanbul that day would change drastically.

Our home away from home.

It was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, but a cool touch to the air, as soon as we got the bikes going, making for very pleasant riding.

Peter and Birgit had told us about a monastery in a lake, which we stumbled upon on our way out of the delta.

Not long into the day, we came across a river flowing over the road we were on. Esben went straight into it without slowing down much, following the cars ahead of him, even though he had never tried it before. This resulted in him being splashed all the way up to his stomach, making him drenched. It did make for some cool looking shots, though. Luckily, the sun and the wind dried him off in no time.

Splash!

The water spray reached quite high, and Denise had to lift her feet into the air, to prevent them from filling with water. A delightful sight.

Our route took us up into the mountains, which brought with it a nice change of scenery. After seeing the same modern cities dotted along the coastline for a couple of days, it is nice with new visual input.

Straight to the mountains – literally.

The road was carved out of the smooth mountain side, ensuring plenty of changing views.

On our way, we drove by a burnt out car, setting the mind to work; what happened here? Insurance scam? Vandalism? Getaway car? Mafia hit? We will never know.

We found the perfect spot for a picnic, and brought out our lunch for the day: old cheese and salami, hard bread and the rest of the tomatoes from the day before. Luckily our stomachs accepted the food without getting upset.

Peaceful spot in the shade of an old oak tree.

The view. Distant cow bells played a sporadic melody to accompany our meal.

Time to get going again.

The route out of the mountain was as great as the route in. Curvy roads and ever changing vistas, with the sun shining down, and the wind keeping us cool. It seemed like nothing could go wrong on this day, but it would.

The landscape was dotted with windmills from Vestas, a Danish windmill company, making Esben proud of the achievements of his fellow Danes.

Getting some mean lean into the curves. In one particular, nicely driven right bend, Denise heard a scraping sound, which made her wonder if she got so far down as to scratch the side bag. A quick stop and a look confirmed her suspicion. Ups!

The scratch on Denise’s bag. The light part underneath the black fabric is the kevlar built into the bags.

Down the mountains, just 30 km from the border to Turkey is when the day changed. One moment, we were riding through the small rural town of Nipsa, the next, Esben and Falkor were lying on the ground. In an intersection, Esben had been looking down at the GPS to see where to go, while a car had come from the left from behind a hedge. They had both failed to see each other because of the hedge, and despite of performing an emergency brake and swerve, the resulting and brief, but violent encounter changed the day completely. Luckily, no human bones were broken, but Falkor had seen better days. His front break disk was warped, the front suspension askew and the left handguard had broken in half.

The hedge that had blocked the view. The black line on the road is the skid mark from Esben’s braking attempt.

A better view of the skid mark. You can see where Falkor went from going straight to going left, and the lighter lines of the car braking.

High on a rush of adrenaline and polite as always, Esben had gotten right up, rushed to the emerging driver of the car and asked if HE was okay. From there on it became almost a competition of reassurances and concerned questions. Despite the amount of damage to Falkor, Esben had only received a bruise on his left shin. For those who don’t know Esben that well, he has a knack for finding accidents of varying severity, and always come away with just bruises, so far. Knock on wood!!

Getting Falkor back up to assess the damage.

Looking for damage, while the driver tries his best to make sure we are both okay.

Having finally convinced the driver, that we were going to be fine and that we could manage on our own, he went on his way again.

The warped brake disc meant, that Falkor wasn’t going anywhere, so we called for roadside assistance. Luckily we’re members of the ADAC, the German automobile club, who have partners in all of Europe, which meant we would be taken to the nearest mechanic free of charge. After a short explanation of what had happened and where we could be picked up, we started pushing the bikes to the church at the centre of town. It would be easier to find us there for the guy coming to get us, than on a road on the outskirts of town.

The broken handguard.

As we parked the bikes in front of the church, an elderly gentleman in an olive-grey tank-top and camouflage pants approached us, and beckoned us to sit in the shade of a pagoda next to the church. It turned out he was the mayor of the small town, and that he had been living in Germany for close to 30 years. When he heard about the crash, he insisted on helping us communicate with the Greek roadside assistance. The driver of the car was actually lecturing students just across the street and came out as well to see if we needed anything, and we decided to go with him inside the cool rooms of the community centre. He had a pupil coming, who was learning English, and we had a talk with her about our travels, to give her a different learning experience. Not long after, the truck came to pick us up, and we were taken to the nearby city of Alexandroupolis, where we could find a skilled mechanic by the name of Simos Makaronis, according to both the guy in the truck and the teacher.

The warped brake disc. The top should not bend to the left like that.

We got the bike loaded up on the back of the truck, and said our goodbyes to the mayor and the teacher. On the way to Alexandroupolis, the driver of the truck almost got into an accident of his own, as an oncoming car had cut into our side of the road in a bend. Luckily his reactions were quick, and nothing happened. That would have been a hell of a story, otherwise.

Falkor in relative safety on the back of the truck.

We arrived at the Simo’s workshop in the city, where the bike was loaded off, and the damage was once again assessed, this time by Simo’s colleague.

The truck driver.

The mechanic tasked with fixing Falkor.

After he had looked at the bike and made a few phone calls, we were asked to come back at 18:30 to pick up the bike. That was great news! We had feared, that we would have to spend a couple of days in the city. Relieved, we made our way into town on Phoenix to find a place to wait. A cafe with a bakery caught our eye, and we found a table, bought some cake, and relaxed.

This chocolate cake, oozing with liquid chocolate, was particularly delicious.

While waiting at the cafe, a woman from ADAC called us up and asked if we had been picked up yet. We confirmed, that the bike was in the workshop, and that everything had gone smooth, so far. She then proceeded to ask us if we had made any hotel reservation in Istanbul, which had been our goal of the day, and as luck would have it, we had. She promised us to arrange a room at one of the partner hotels in the city, and would call us back as soon as it had all been sorted out. We got a call back 30 minutes later, that a room had been booked for us at the Alexander Beach Hotel and Spa with breakfast included. The name sounded very fancy, and we thanked her for all the help.

The clock was almost 18:30, and we made our way back to the Simo’s workshop. Unfortunately, the brake disc they thought they could get, was not available after all, so they needed to make another one fit. We were told to come back at 21:00 again, and that the bike would be ready.

Falkor in “surgery”.

We decided to go check out the hotel in the meantime and set off on Phoenix once again. As we arrived at the address we had been given, we were not sure if a mistake had been made. The hotel in front of us had the right name, but under the name were five stars. That couldn’t be right, we thought, but we went in and true enough – there was a room in our names. We got some side-glances from the hotel staff. We were not exactly dressed for a 5-star hotel with our dusty motorcycle gear and sweaty t-shirts, but we cared little for our appearance, and went to have a look at our room.

The front of the hotel.

The room of a 5-star hotel.

A phone on the toilet!? What is this?

Oh boy, what an upgrade! The room had a lounging area, a desk, a huge bed, a bathtub, and a phone on the toilet. The decadence! A phone on the toilet! That was a first for us. We took a long shower and just relaxed until the time neared 21:00, and we set off again to pick up Falkor. As we arrived, they were still working on him, but we only had to wait a little while, and we could take him with us. Simo had personally re-fabricated a brake disc to fit onto the hub of the front wheel, but as they went to change the brake pads, we got a bit of a surprise. The front brake was not original, so the brake pads we had brought all the way from Berlin, only fit Phoenix. After a bit of detective work, they finally found some brake pads that fitted, and we could roll out.

The new, custom brake disc by Simo.

On the way to the hotel, Esben noticed they hadn’t straightened the front suspension, as he had to sit in an awkward manner to go straight. We got the tools out in the Hotel’s parking spot, loosened the top fork bridge, and twisted the suspension back into place by fixing he front wheel in between our legs and yanking the handlebar. A bit of duct tape took care of the broken handguard, so it wouldn’t flap around in the wind.

Satisfied, that all that could be done for Falkor had been done, we went to bed, exhausted from the day’s endeavours and ordeals.

The following morning, we were eager to try out the included breakfast, and we were not disappointed. There were several long rows of tables filled with a large variety of cereals, yogurts, breads, cold cuts, cheeses, salads, vegetable, fruits, cakes and beverages. There were even a cook designated to cook omelettes for you. Esben had three full plates without having two of any single thing, and he had only tried half of what was served. That was truly the perfect start to a day, to help soften the hardships of the day before.

The most ridiculously, enjoyable breakfast we’ve had on the trip so far.

Until next time, take your time to look before you go!