Day 86 - August 6th: Alexander The Great

Palefinto to Anchialos: 30.8 miles / 2,465 total

After yesterday’s late 8 AM start which for me was late and anxiety inducing and the rain, I was glad to close out the day with 50K at a fast pace before 5 PM. The cool weather made a massive difference but from here, it’s back to the heat.

Christina booked us at the Pella Hotel in Giannitsá, 15 km from where I left off on the E86. The town itself was unremarkable, but the hotel was one of the warmest welcomes of the trip—truly family-run. A grandmother, her daughter, and her son greeted us like old friends. When we asked about laundry, they said they’d take care of it that night. I asked if we could do breakfast at 6 AM (knowing they typically serve at 7:30am), and they replied, “We’ll be ready.” And they were—cheerful, buffet laid out, all for me.

Dinner was at a small taverna down the street. Jax had a new animal friend—a cream-colored cat who sat under our table waiting for a scrap to fall. The ever adventurous Tina tried the beef cheeks. The plate looked like it came from an autopsy with a cow’s head and she only finished half of it and of course Jax was thrilled to finish off the rest. I slept well and was on the E86 by 7 AM.

The road was exactly what I expected—noisy, fast, narrow, and stressful. At 22 km in, I noticed a sharp curve in the road and what looked like an old straightaway. I took the risk and hopped over the guard rail onto the decommissioned road. A few hundred meters more and there was a berm I climbed over and then there was dirt and hay field with a fence straight ahead. I saw a place I could get through and continue forward into an area with odd looking stone formation and then I realized I was in an archeological site. I made for a path that wound through extensive ruins of columns, palaces, house formations and more. I was like a happy little kid running around snapping pictures. When I got to the main entrance, a tour group stared like I had dropped in from space. I saw the sign: Pella, the ancient capital of Macedon and the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Pella once stood as the political and cultural heart of the Macedonian kingdom under Philip II. Excavations have revealed intricate pebble mosaics, a palace complex, and a sprawling agora—one of the largest in the ancient Greek world. My route, unknowingly, had mirrored the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that once connected Dyrrachium to Byzantium and cut through this exact region, laid atop older Hellenistic paths.

I realized that I had come through the back which meant that originally, E86 had gone straight through these extensive ruins and like they say, one road is built on top of another.

Another kilometer on the abandoned roadway led me back to the new E86 but not before the final gauntlet - bee hives on either side of the road with another guard rail to jump. 

Back on the shoulder of the E86, the next town I passed through was Chalkidona. Around noon, the scent of grilled meat hit me hard. A gyro sounded tempting, but the heat made me think better of it. I grabbed my usual: baguette, feta, cucumber, olives, tomato, olive oil.

In the town’s outskirts, I passed the Evropos Archaeological Site, once a strategic outpost at the crossroads of Hellenistic and Roman rule. Evropos was known for a blend of Greek and local Macedonian cultural elements. The site has yielded coins, pottery, and foundations of public and private buildings dating from the 4th century BCE onward.

By 30K the E86 became a four-lane superhighway—an unforgiving stretch with nowhere to look but forward. The final 20K were just survival.

I ended the day at the Alexandro Hotel—an aging roadside place that fit the bill. When Christina opened the door, she said our favorite phrase: “It’s only for one night.” Amen.

Thanks for the support and following along.

Cheers,

David.