We got off the ferry at Igoumenitsa at 5 am, drove 43 km in the gathering dawn along the superb EU built A2 motorway east across the mountains of northern Greece. This road is 670 km to the Turkish border, cost 5.9 billion Euros, and took 15 years to build with 76 tunnels and 1650 bridges, completed in 2009.
 
THEN they closed the motorway and we all had to stop, semis lined up, while the snow ploughs went up and down clearing the snow!! We had hail, ice on the road and lightly falling snow . We ate our brekkie in the cab. Once the road was cleared we were escorted onwards until snow turned to rain. (My image of Greece had sun, sea and blue skies and now I find they have ski resorts up north.) Fortunately the day improved and it was shirt sleeves by lunch time. John drove 10 hours of motorway, mostly very low vehicle numbers, until we took the coast road towards Kavala, where we had last been in 1976. Stopped to camp at a semi-closed camp site 3 km west ( their season does not start until 1st May.) Our first sandy Mediterranean beach ( actually Aegean). Locals playing beach volley ball in their bathers.