Northern Greece

[borisface]

So every Easter for the past few years I go on a week's cycle tour with 5 friends, in the past we've been to the Peloponnese, Crete, Portugal (twice) and Andalucia. We average about 50-60 miles a day and travel fairly light staying in hotels, b&bs etc. This year we have decided to return to Greece as the cycling can be superb, its always been good fun, the chances of getting good weather at that time of year are reasonable, and places to stay can be hilariously grotty and memorable - one year we stayed in a hotel that was being redecorated and it was only after we'd paid etc that we realised that all the doors had been removed to paint, in another place an emergency strip light came on in the room at 3am and couldn't be turned off, and in a further place our balcony gave a lovely vista of the largest coal-fired power station in Greece, the hum of which kept us awake half the night.

Anyway I digress, we're flying to Thessaloniki and was wondering if anyone had any tips as to where would be some good places to head - should we be thinking about heading up or down the coast or going inland to Macedonia or Bulgaria or even on to Turkey? What we like are quiet roads, nice scenery, we don't mind mountains and a grotty place to stay is optional.