Thu, 29 Jan 1998 03:35:36 +0200 - Message No. 2084
From: Phoebus Katsanos

Subject: Re: ATIC Meeting 98 Tour to Greece


I see there is some confusion about how to get to Volos, so here is some
info.

Patras -> Volos

If you come from Patras you definitely don't have to go through Athens.
You will take the ferry from Rio to Antirio, (Rio is a small town east
of Patras,
very near)
and the ferry only takes about a quarter of an hour to cross to Antirio.
Then you go
to Amfissa (passing Galaxidi and Itea which are close to the sea and
then go North),
and then you pass the mountain going North, until you reach the highway,
a few km's
South of Lamia. The road from Patras to Amfissa is not a very good one,
but it poses
no problems for motorcycles, and it is a nice ride. If you have time
stop by
Galaxidi for a cup of coffee, but be careful, in the small harbor, where
the cafe's
are motorcycles are forbidden! (Stupid I know!!!)
Then, the road from Amfissa to Lamia is a mountain road, very twisty and
rather
narrow for a big part of it (be careful if it rains), but again no
problem for hard
motorcycle riders like us all ;), and as soon as you reach The crossroad
that goes
either to Amficlia or Lamia, near Bralos it becomes a big (mountain
always) road
with good asphalt and long , wide turns. Again the trip from Amfissa to
Lamia is a
pretty one.
Then from Lamia, go North and about 80 km's from it you find the
crossroad that
takes you off the highway and to Volos. This is about 20 km's, a very
bad road,
because although it is not very narrow for it's bigger part it gets
narrow in many
places, it has a lot of traffic and it's turns are not designed
properly, so be
careful.
Then Kato Gatzea is about 20 km's East of Volos on a small road near the
beach that
passes several villages and although i don't think it will have much
traffic there
unless you come Friday, still you should be careful, since it isn't very
unusual to
see a Tractor crossing the road to go to a farm or something like that.
Distances:
Patras -> Volos total is 299 km's
Patras Lamia 188 km's ~ 2:00- 2:30 hours (If my memory serves me)
Lamia - Volos 114 km about 1:00 - 1:30 (You can go really fast on the
highway, but
after that it depends on the traffic and you pass through the city of
Volos)

Igoumenitsa Volos
The rout is:
Igoumenitsa -> Ioannina -> Metsovo -> Kalabaka -> Trikala-> Larisa->
Volos.
The total distance is 326 km's
Other distances are:
Igomenitsa -> Trikala 238
Trikala -> Larisa  61
Larisa -> Volos  64
I haven't made this trip for a long time and I don't remember details
about the
road, but it is mostly small and twisty, but again no real problem for
motorcycle
riders, just don't expect to have a big average speed.
On your way you should definitely stop for coffee or even better food
(try the local
cheese) at Metsovo!

!!
Those of you coming from Igoumenitsa pass realy close to Meteora
and those coming from Patras pass real close to Delfi.
Those are 2 really interesting places worth visiting and there will be a
visit one of the days of the meeting to each one of them, but if you
have the time you can visit them also on the way to Volos.


>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<
>                   Phoebus Katsanos                  <
>          "mailto:phoebus@the.forthnet.gr" or        <
>            "mailto:pkatsan@med.auth.gr"             <
>                                                     <
>       Check out the official home page of the       <
>         Africa Twin Club of Northern Hellas         <
>                                                     <
>      http://www.med.auth.gr/~pkatsan/index.html     <
> Soon to become http://users.med.auth.gr/~pkatsan !! <
>                    mirror site:                     <
> http://www.netfiles.gr/sakis/public.html/index.html <
>                                                     <
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

dipper@normans.isd.uni-stuttgart.de