Cycling the Athens Riviera: Palio Faliro

Two wheels are better than four. So, after I recently cleaned up our bicycles and had them serviced, we decided to take a post-quarantine Sunday sunset ride along the seaside promenade that runs through the southern Athens coastal suburb of Palio Faliro.
Palio Faliro is on what has been dubbed the Athens Riviera and it’s a popular destination in Springtime for Athenians, when they throw off their winter wardrobe and ready for the heady days of Summer.
We started at Edem, a beachfront restaurant that has been there since 1919. It’s so historic that the adjacent tram stop and beach are named after it. In the early 20th century, there was just a smattering of grand neoclassical homes there and Athenian holidaymakers would head there for their summer R&R.
Today, Palio Faliro, where palm trees lining the promenade are part of the reason it’s earned the moniker Falirofornia, and its neighbouring suburbs are densely-populated.
Before the novel coronavirus entered our lives, Greeks were not overly fond of bicycles and preferred to move about town on four wheels. But the 42-day national lockdown saw a sudden jump in bicycle sales as parents, mostly, scrambled to find a way to keep their bored youngsters entertained.
It was a way for the family to be together and get outside for their daily exercise, duly noted via SMS message to the authorities.
After quarantine ended, the cycling trend seems to have stuck. This means that we have to be even more careful as we navigate the promenade in Palio Faliro, that is shared by pedestrians and cyclists. There are more devotees of the two-wheeled variety, which is a good thing, of course.
More bike paths are apparently being constructed, which will give us access from the seafront all the way to the city centre.
From Edem, we reached Flisvos Marina, but took a detour around it to avoid the weekend crowds that mill around the superyacht-filled docks with a chilled coffee or melting ice cream in hand.
Rolling past the Averof warship which has been converted into a museum well worth visiting, we reached Neo (new) Faliro, at Platia Nero, the sea-facing square where summer music concerts are usually held.
This year, of course, all have been cancelled but the teens and twenty-somethings who would have normally attended were out in force nonetheless - on roller blades, chatting in pairs with legs dangling toward the water or sliding past displaying their skateboard skills.
Further down, at the Tzitzifies-Kallithea Marina, we spotted the colourful boats sailed by scouts resting at their mooring and even stumbled upon an outdoor socially-distanced Kangoo class.
We visited what looks like a hidden sailboat graveyard at the very edge of the marina, where a couple of abandoned catamarans and monohulls lay sadly. We paid our respects and moved on.
With works underway to redevelop this area of Neo Faliro and create much-needed parkland in this capital of concrete, it’s likely these boats will go.
From there we headed along the bike path that runs through Athens’ prime piece of green space - the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, which was designed by Renzo Piano. Locals adore walking along the canal and through the vast gardens planted with indigenous tree, shrub and flower varieties.
We watched the dancing fountains there perform to a classical work by Schubert and turned back toward Neo Faliro.
There, we braked and made one last stop to listen to a band of drummers of various ages put on a raucous show. It was a moment where I thought how fortunate we are to live by the water and how joyful a simple bike ride in the sunshine can be.
Videography and editing by Carlo Raciti carloraciti.com
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Words by Helen Iatrou
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