Hate that it is so much easier updating Facebook than the diary! We arrived Thursday, after a pleasant SFO-Munich flight followed by a sardine-packaged Munich-Athens. 2.5hrs on a plane they couldn’t end soon enough!

Nice hotel (Athens Gate) that couldn’t be better located. Close to Metro, Acropolis, lots of restaurants etc.

Yesterday (Friday) we did an Acropolis tour followed by an afternoon Temple of Poseidon tour. The Acropolis tour was great; think I could have passed on the super-windy Poseidon adventure. 🙂

Today we’re on a long train ride heading north to Meteora, home of the Monasteries in the clouds. The pictures remind me of the city in the clouds in Empire Strikes Back. We get back pretty late, about 10pm, but get to sleep in if we can because it’s not until 2:30pm that we have to head to the central theme of this trip, a 7 day Greek Island Cruise. More later! -Mike-

Last Sunday Kevin set the world on fire, with a new PR for climbing Tunitas a full two minutes faster than he’d ever done before. 41-something, just two minutes off the best time of one of our wicked-fast customers, JeffZ. And Kevin’s not even in fighting shape right now, weighing about 10 pounds above his best. But last Tuesday Kevin slept instead of riding up Kings (said he didn’t get much sleep that night) and Thursday we took it pretty easy. So was it a surprise or not that yesterday (Sunday) I got the version of Kevin that could barely turn the pedals? My plan had been to do Redwood Gulch & Highway 9, one of the “ugly” rides. Kevin wanted no part of Redwood Gulch, and our slow pace through Woodside and Portola Valley reinforced the idea he wasn’t going to enjoy himself on such a ride. He suggested heading directly up Page Mill instead of continuing south; I said let’s just keep going and see how he felt a bit later, after stopping for fuel at Peet’s near our former Los Altos store. At that point I proposed two alternatives; one, continue heading south and check out the velodrome, see if anything was happening there, and take the train back home. Second option was to head back via Moody/PageMill/Skyline. He went for the second, which he later claimed was his plan all along.

It was interesting, climbing Page Mill “easy.” On a pretty warm day, Page Mill and “easy” are still a bit oxy-moranic. Temps ranged from 90 to 100 degrees, although it did “cool off” to 90-93F once on Skyline. It’s truly surprising how nice 90 degree can feel, after you’ve finished the main climb. It doesn’t make much sense, does it? And there’s that bizarre experience of riding on such a nice warm day on Skyline and looking out towards a fogged-in coast just a handful of miles away. We take such things for granted, but how common is it that temperatures vary so greatly over such a short distance? Bay Area micro-climates?

This was definitely a ride we finished much stronger than we started. Kevin takes all claim for it becoming an enjoyable ride though.