Greece 25 - Rio-Antirrio bridge /sails across the water/crossing the Little Dardanelles

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As a child growing up in post war Britain there were less of the flashy toys to play with. We made our own fun playing in the sand in the local quarry, watching the trains speed by, putting coins on the line for them to run over. We collected car number plates. There were not so many cars on the road then and it was easy to sit on a wall with a pencil and paper and write them down. We lay in the grass watching the butterflies in the meadow . We collected wild flowers. We dipped our feet in the icy cold water of the river. We had I- Spy books. I Spy Castles. I Spy Bridges. We collected points for seeing various road bridges or features on them. If we were lucky enough we could pay a few pence and fill the book to send off for a metal badge.

Over many years we have seen some of the more famous bridges. The bascule Tower Bridge in London, Shropshires Iron Bridge, the first bridge built of iron, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and the Firth of Forth roadbridge plus the mighty Millau towering over the Tarn gorge.


Today we ride over the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge better known as the Rio-Antirrio Bridge spanning the channel between Central Greece and the Pelopennese.

Approaching it the bridge looks magnificent . It's metal holding it up looked like ships sails gliding across the water known as the Little Dardanelles. A 2 km passage which separates the Gulf of Patra from the Gulf of Corinth. It would look even more magnificent if the sun were shining . For only the second time in our holiday we have spots of rain hitting Suzy’s windscreen. Not heavy rain just a gentle pitter patter. In stark comparison to last years trip in May we have been blessed with wall to wall sunshine this trip.


As we approach we can see the Venetian castle. The Castle Morea was built in the 18^th century. It lies at the foot of the bridge overlooking the passage. I don’t know if you can visit. It is a prison so I guess not but even so with all the roadworks in the area we would never have got to it. It was like a maze of cones and roads closed. Greece has been a little like that all through the holiday. Some roads we have given the nickname of Poggibonsi which must be the worst road for potholes in the whole of Italy. Greek roads equal it with the number of bumps and ruts which give us a headache and Suzy a severe bone shaking. There are many new roads paid for by EU money and they are impressive but expensively tolled. In between are narrow old roads just about fit for a horse and cart and roads that have been started but left in a state of incompleteness. The guess is that the money was there from the EU and the road idea was mooted . It was started , sand laid and levelled and the first layer of the road completed . A barrier erected in the middle and then abandoned. The roads go nowhere. The filling stations half erected. There is nothing in between – it is either good or bad. Suzy rattles like an old boneshaker over the bumps at times.


The toll to cross was 10 euros 50. Suzy just falls in to Class 3 here. Normally at just under 3.5 ton she falls into the class below. For some strange reason the Greeks make Class 3 start at 3 tons so hit all the motorhomes with a hefty toll compared to a car. The locals refuse to pay the price for crossing the bridge and still use the cheaper ferry which plies its trade beneath the bridge. I can’t blame them really. The bridge was built in 2004 in pre-austerity times by a French consortium. It was the worlds longest bridge visible from 30.000 feet up. Remember when you are next in an airplane flying over Greece and pass this way remember to look down.

As we drove over we realised a number of things.

1) that we no longer find the Greek alphabet strange. Road signs seem oddly familiar and we can work out where we are going from the Greek. It soon became clear to us that P’s are R’s and H is I so once that was mastered that became easier to work out what they were saying.

2) that in this part of Greece we are beginning to lose the beauty of the spring flowers. They have gone over .

3) That we are becoming a touch Greeked out. We have done all the major sites and virtually everything we wanted to pack in and now we are just tryng to fill in time until we get on the ferry. We had thought to ask if we could try to get on an earlier ferry rather than hanging about but that was difficult as there would be a surcharge and also the ferrys only run on certain days. So we soon forgot about that one. Had we got a Green card no doubt by now we would be heading for Albania and coming home by the land route but we don't so we are just ambling from seaside town to seaside town until we arrive back at Igoumenitsa. It is rather hard to work dates out right. We guessed how long it would take to get from home to Ancona and got that just right. We know how long it will take to get home but the unknown quantity was how much time to spend in Greece. We just about got that one right.


4) that this part of Greece is all about beaches and we are not really beach bums.


5) We are struggling finding somewhere to go in September. The history and beauty of Greece has spoilt us and we cannot get our heads round what to do and where to go. Sicily was in the pipeline but it’s a long trip after this trip . We have places we have not seen in France but they are on opposite sides of the rather large country.


As we get to the other side we look back at a another wonderful bridge and ticked it off our bucket list of bridges to visit.

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