Day 433 – EU – Greece [Xanthi to Komotini]

11/06/21

46.7km

  From Xanthi (Greece) to Komotini (Greece)

Europe

Rainy day, a broken bridge and an uneventful run to Komotini

Xanthi’s Orthodox cathedral

As I left Xanthi early morning, the skies were menacing but it was still dry. I was able to snap a shot of the Orthodox Cathedral before I left the city. Then the sky opened. It was not too bad, the air was warm and it was almost pleasant. It means though that I would have to keep my phone in its ziplock bag. I am trying to find a fully waterproof phone replacement for the current one (the current one is a model of Iphone that is supposedly waterproof – but is handling quite badly the humidity of the past few months).

The bridge with the missing bit

The run was quite uneventful today. To my left, the mountain range separating Greece and Bulgaria to the north. To my right, endless fields of cotton and tobacco, the pillar of the local economy. As I approached the Kompsatos river crossing, I followed a road that led to… a broken bridge! Quite scary really, it just stopped abruptly. I backtracked a little and added a 2km loop around, up the mountain, to bypass it. Glad I wasn’t completely absentmindedly running at that particular moment!

I stay in Komotini tonight. Like Xanthi, the city has a vast Turkish population resulting from the Lausanne Treaty population exchange. Komotini is also home to the Thrace University and is therefore quite a dynamic and bustling place. I have started to see a few mosques along the way. I will try to get a shot of one tomorrow if it’s not too rainy, they are beautiful. I’ll be back on the coastline tomorrow.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: