From the lake to the sea, there are mountains in between

...before that, of course, a really delicious breakfast. Once again different and yet typically Greek, served with a slight French accent. Our messengers of the gods manage to arrive almost on time this time, which, according to our experience, has not been a problem with the Greeks so far. At this point, we would like to mention that not only the service in the hotels and restaurants has been extremely friendly and attentive, but also all the Greeks we have met so far have received us with honest friendliness, not artificial like you might know from some chain restaurants, and genuine interest. That's a completely different league. In this respect, even a skeptic of Europe could learn to believe. Without preempting the destination, all the English people on vacation on the coast are another story.

From the waking city of Ioannina, we head west into the mountains with a wonderfully blue sky and no clouds. Everything seems perfect. We make a stop halfway at a romantic and seemingly completely remote tavern and enjoy a real Greek coffee. It should be mentioned that the E90 - not a component of the Coke exclusively drunk by the XT driver - is always in glass bottles, by the way - rather than the former trade route between the western coast of Greece and ancient Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This Odos Ignatias has lost its significance with the construction of the highway. With the positive side effect for us that the beautiful and curvy stretch of road is almost free of traffic. Only the locals, who daily drive between the picturesque, sleepy villages, manage to overtake you, no matter how fast you are, in order to use the saved time for a coffee with their friends at their favorite tavern. We should also make our next stop at such a tavern because we have learned - through trial and error - that you can also use the time of rain sensibly. A black cloud appears in the sky. Tiny raindrops drip onto the visor while the sun still shines behind it. So we drive to the next petrol station in the next town, where we can leave the motorcycles under the local shelter, directly at the petrol pumps, with an understanding smile, in order to eat an ice cream in the tavern on the opposite side. We wait for the rain and beyond until the sun has dried the wet road again. Siga siga (from the Greek perspective for the Northern Light: "Slowly, slowly")

On the further way through the mountains towards the coast, you soon feel more of the smell of the sea in the wind than of the mountains. With great anticipation, we meet a motorway before the coast for the first time, and the endless grin under the visor of the sports car driver wakes up for the first time. Endless 22 km of fun and speed frenzy. Annotation of a minority opinion: "Over 120 on the XT is like a gravel bed with a sports car, really stupid". The traffic towards the coast is slowly getting denser and there are more and more signs for Italian pizzerias; have we gone astray? No... that's how it is here. While we are still thinking about it - or maybe some aren't - we catch sight of the first tip of the sea. Shortly afterwards, you can see the Ionian Sea from the coastal road and have a clear view of Corfu. After a short stop to enjoy this view - Aphro has found the brake - we continue to our hotel in Sivota. Private pool and small, dreamy bay and cocktails on the beach. It's working out! We will stay here for two days and maybe exchange the motorbike for a motorboat to explore the idyllic bays from the water side, guided by Aphro, who worked here for four summers during her student days. This evening, we didn't have dinner in a tavern in the village, but in the nearby club hotel, to give Aphro the opportunity to greet her former colleagues and have a chat - annotation by Aphro: "In a land of Socrates and Plato, we don't chat". Even though a buffet dinner does not have the charm of a romantic evening in a tavern, the view of the sunset from the terrace of the facility, with a good bottle of wine, could not be topped by anything. Not to mention the short walk back to our hotel. Yia Mas!