For the fourth continuous time, MotoRiders Club organized its annual Members & friends meeting. This time the gathering point was Pyrgos (Ilia). Takis and Hara were our hosts. Giving hospitality lessons, they’ve allocated their house and yard to the people of the club, for the 2-days of 17th till 19th of October 2008.
This year’s gathering had lots of originality. First of all, its correspondence had overcome all the previous ones, since all the members were participating the event. All the members tried very hard to gather altogether, in this “special” for us gathering. Congratulations to everybody!
Another innovation was the participation of an Austrian motorcyclist. Alex, returning from his trip in Turkey and Syria, met by coincidence with Dimitris and George (Honda VFR800) – which were touring Northern Greece – in Aleksandroupoli. Dimitris, proving once again his Cretan routes, invited him to honor us at the gathering. So he did …
On Friday noon, the first one to arrive was Alex. By the nightfall, most of the members were gathered. Stakes – thanks to George’s barbeque – George’s wine as also Cretan rake from Dimitris and Ares were the major factors that made the cheerfulness go high. Time passed pleasantly since some of the members had a long time to gather together.
The next morning, the yard of the house looked like a camping spot. The 8 tends as also the many bikes that were parked there, made some locals wonder what was going on. As a matter of fact, a local asked Anta: “What have you planted in these small greenhouses?”. Of course the laughter after that question couldn’t be stopped.
Around 11 we were all awake and were enjoying our morning coffee. By that time, Kyriakos and Dimitra, along with Nikos and Vangelis had just arrived. Dimitra brought us the neckerchiefs which had the “MotoRiders Club” logo printed on them. The joy was very obvious for all of us, making us look like small children waiting to get their gifts from Santa Clause!
After a few minutes we got prepared to take a small visit to the magnificent forest of Foloe (25 km). Luckily, it managed to survive almost intact from the last year’s devastating fires. We drove through a thin provincial road that crossed the thick oak-forest. The wonderful landscape was striking for all of us!
Unfortunately, the weather was clouded and had the tendency to start to rain. Due to this fact, we were “obliged” to head towards a nearby tavern. After testing the tasty tidbits, some of us wanted to burn some fat by playing soccer at the tavern’s terrace! The motorcycle clothing didn’t stop anybody –men and women- to show their soccer talents!
On our way back we chose the road that lead to Ancient Olympia.Some of us wanted to visit the archaelogical place. Inside them was Alex. He wanted to see up and close the place for which he had heard so much! “It’s a one-chance only..” he said. It was already dark once we gathered all together again at one of the cafeterias of the village of Olympia. We returned home. In the meantime, Giannis and Ioanna had just arrived, completing the participation!
It was the time of the most important events of the gathering… the presentation of the European trip of George and Stergiani! Knowing the artistic talent of George, we all had been waiting with anxiety his presentation! Nikolai managed to bring his projection device in order for us to enjoy it even better. Dimitris took care of the sound system and in a few minutes all of us were seated and ready to enjoy it. The terrace reminded of a summer cinema! In the meantime, George had eaten all his fingernails from the anxiety…
As it was expected, the presentation surpassed every expectation! Having its personal artistic signature of its creator, made all of us to travel, laugh and feel the emotions of the travelers … For the ones that had already been there, nostalgic memories came to the surface, while for the rest, it was the reason to think as one of their future journeys to these destinations! The night continued with food, wine and discussions up to the early morning hours …
Sunday was the day of our departure. Unfortunately the time was too short. Before leaving we were given a chance to discuss altogether some of the matters that were bothering the motorcycle – traveling party. Around 4 pm, after thanking the magnificent hosts of this event, we departed. One more annual national gathering had reached its end, while the feelings were mixed …
At this point, I would like to thank everyone who contributed with his/her own way on the organizing and realization of the gathering. Special thanks go to Takis and Hara for their amazing hospitality, which did as much as they could, in order to make us feel “like home”. Also, Ares and Anta (Crete Island, Greece), along with George and Stergiani (Ioannina,Greece) that had to travel so far, in order to meet up with the rest of the party. Of course we also need to thank Alex for honouring us with his presence, but also George (from Nafplio, Greece) which his help on various activities – and especially on the barbeque – proved to be abolishing!!!
A big bravo to all of us and I wish next time to be all of us ok in order to meet again…
Motorcyclists : Sakis, Manolis, Panos, Aris, Ploumisti, Giorgos, Dimitris, Nikolai, Vangelis, Nikos, Kyriakos, Giannis, Takis, Apostolis, Panos T.,Giorgos Z. (Honda VFR), Alexander Rimser (Honda Africa Twin).
Copilots : Ada, Dimitra, Stergiani, Monika, Christina, Ioanna, Hara, Maria
Photos : Aris, Manolis, Takis, Giorgos, Dimitris, Kyriakos, Panos T.
Written by Manolis
Translation by Vangelis