Ancona to Vergina

---

From Ancona to Vergina.

We managed to upload some entries from the ferry though the connection was very slow. We didn't sleep well though I usually sleep very well on boats. The room smelled funny, the beds were uncomfortable and very far apart and I was worried that I would oversleep and we would miss Igoumenitsa.

We got a cup of coffee before disembarking, proving we were no longer in Italy. I don't really understand why it's not possible to get proper expresso outside Italy as, in Italy, everywhere seems able to make it.

We met up with Mick (a biker from Ireland we met in Ancona) for breakfast n the harbour front then headed for the Via Egnatia. Which does seem to be almost finished. There was one, short technical section around Ionnana. There were a couple of unfinished toll booths, so no charge to use the road yet. Spectacular viaducts and many, many tunnels, some of them long but none of them magic as the weather stayed beautiful throughout. In the low to mid thirties and we are coping in the leathers. We made one brief stop for a rest and a lemonade, and got to Vergina before 2.

We were recognised at this hotel which is as lovely as we remembered it. quiet and out of the way, not that there is much in this town. There are some good archaeological sites, including the tombs of Macedonian kings which we crawled around at length last year. Today we just walked up to the 'nature site' which we found last year. Today we saw many frogs, a crab, an adder, fish, water boatmen and what we both thought was a scorpion (a very small one). We are now back in the hotel. I was going to sit in the shade on the balcony but the balcony is currently not shady. The washing we did in the shower less than three hours go is dry (as is the damp washing we brought with us from the boat).

So, this evening we relax. Tomorrow we race for the border...

(And, as a preview, we made it - İ have come to upload wıthout puttıng last nights entry from Alexandropolis onto the stick - we are now ın Çanakkale - but more on thıs when I get to the hard drıve of the Eee).

---