Day 20 – Monday, August 25, 2025
The following day I was up early, had a tasty buffet breakfast. I went to the lobby to fetch my bike and there was another bike parked next to it. It turned out this belonged to Vasilis, the young and very sympathetic hotel receptionist – as cyclists, we immediately connected. He told me the bike shop I had noticed earlier, the one opening on that very day after a two-week vacation, is the best one in town, and that is the one he would recommended anyone. He was a regular there and the owners actually spoke German.
We chatted for a while, so I got to the shop, called "To Podilato" here is the link, I arrived only around 9:30 am, the shop having opened at 8:30. They were already quite busy and, believe it or not, a queue formed while I was being served. I explained the issue with my bike, and they told me they would look at it. The hope they would be able to find a solution was slim, but my ferry was to leave only at 9 pm. I told them to do their best effort and see what they could fix. I asked for a cheap rental bike and went on some errands. They told me they would call by noon to tell me the status of the bike.
Two days prior, I had a small accident in my tent. I wanted to get up and open the zip of the tent, alas, the sleeping bag got stupidly caught in the zip – and when I tried to free it, it tore. I asked Vasilis where a tailor could be found; he told me there was one right at the hotel. He led me up to the lady, who dropped what she was doing and within a few minutes, my sleeping bag was neatened. My tent also had some smaller issues (holes); she was able to patch those as well. I gave her €10, which she hardly wanted to accept.
On my ride into Patras a couple of days back, I had spotted an archaeological museum, so I rode there and spent a couple of hours marvelling at the ancient, two- to three-thousand-year-old mosaics, jars, and artifacts.
Modern museum building...
...containing ancient artifacts...
...including mosaics...
...and burial jewelry
Really impressive was the Tabula Peutingeriana, a roughly 4-meter paper map of the Roman Empire from 1200 AD. What I saw was a copy, with the original being stored at the National Library in Vienna.
Tabula Peutingeriana (note: this is a "borrowed" picture, not mine)
There was a seasonal exhibition of the American photographer Robert McCabe, who travelled around Greece after WWII – his photographs were amazing. It was the very area I was riding through he photographed, for example, the ferry crossing to Rio – that was way before the bridge was opened. Here you can marvel at some of his shots.
Amazing black-and-white pictures from post-war Greece
I left the museum around 1 pm - I can definitely recommend it, should you be in the area: then i discovered a very busy bakery not far from there, with a large number of cars parking anywhere they could to get close to the place. It had about 15 sales clerks, and there were goodies, both salty and sweet, all around, in abundance. I tasted the cheese sticks – amazing – and also the orange cake.
Both for modern and old-fashioned
It was now 1:30 pm as I was enjoying the cake and still had not received an update regarding my bike. I wanted to call them, then saw something unsettling – they were about to close at 2:30 pm, so I thought it was best if I rode there.
When I reached the store, the owner smiled at me and I heard words I hardly expected: “your bike is ready!”. It turned out the issue with the gearbox was just a loose screw in the cables - something that both I and the mechanic on Zakynthos failed to discover. The hub was a bit more complicated – a bearing had to be replaced. When I did a short test-ride, it was much better, but still clicking. I reported this and the mechanic agreed. He disappeared to buy a new bearing at some store , replaced it within 20 minutes – and now even that noise was gone. To my surprise, the total cost of the fix was just €29. In Austria, they would not even look at a bike below €80 or so. Ladies and gentlemen, I am back in business! Bike fixed, sleeping bag sewn – all systems green! This shop, "To Podilato", is highly recommended should you be in Patras and need anything bike-related.
The next order of business was to change my ferry ticket to an open one – I was told this would be possible. Near downtown, I found a large ferry office and I was removed as a passenger for that night, having an open ticket valid for the following 365 days. Next agenda point – find a bus that would take me back to the vicinity where I had stopped - it was out of question that I would want to ride on that unattractive road that I was on earlier. I had some trouble finding the correct bus station; there was both a long-range bus stop and a local one – I needed the latter and got there around 3:20 pm. There were lots of buses departing – and by the time I found the correct bus, it was 3:25, with the departure (without me knowing this earlier) at 3:30. The bus driver was not pleased; it was amongst the few unfriendly experiences in Greece that I have had. He complained “too late, too late”, shaking his head, made me remove the front wheel (which I almost forgot to load in the chaos; I still had to purchase a ticket), but somehow I was on the bus, with all my stuff – including the front wheel – at 3:29, allowing an on-time departure. I believe the reason for the stress was that the bus was to drive on the ferry – it, with most of its passengers, was headed for Zakynthos. The fellow travellers were young guys in a festive mood; I was just happy to have a working bike and was looking forward to experiencing more nice places.
At the port, they started asking if I needed a ferry ticket. I explained I did not plan to cross, so they let me out. The driver was a lot friendlier and we even shook hands. I rebuilt my bike (alas, the fender got bent a bit in the cargo hold) and was ready to head south at around 5 pm.
I now rode on the same road I had dashed towards the ferry a few days back, but decided not to hit the ugly main road, and to follow the coast on a small road instaed. I got to smaller villages, with lots of tiny, but relatively cramped houses on the coastline – not a magnet for foreign tourists, as far as I could tell – and also not too cramped by the locals. At a beach in Skafidia, weere I got to around 7:30 pm, I went in for a nice swim in the setting sun. Writing this blog, here is what I read about this beach: “Paralia Skafidia is a fine sandy beach which stretches about 700 meters and ranks the 20th among 181 beaches of the Western Greece region”. Not bad, by chance I found a Top 20 beach. It was getting dark, and the thought of riding on crossed my mind – but then I might as well stay for the night. There was a food truck and I ordered dinner – it was some lamb meat, really delicious. I asked the owner if I could crash on the beach on his sunbeds; he said it was absolutely not an issue, I should just hide my bike behind the truck for the night.
Sunset behind Zakynthos
From the beach, I could see both Zakynthos and the islands of Kefalonia. I assumed (me ass) that I could sleep on one of the sunbesd – it was anything but all too comfy. I struggled for a while, but my stuff (and even my good self) kept falling off, so at some odd hour in the middle of the night, I decided to pitch my tent – finally, I was able to have a good rest.
Just like the previous day, I did not measure the ride on my or the rented bike in Patras; it was around 10 kilometers, but whatever. From the bus station, I made only 35 km, with 76 meters of elevation.