Turkey

02 May – Turkey, 325 miles

From Safranbolu – a few twisty roads, across some high passes, long stretches of road-works (a long down-hill stretch of gravel – has been useful hearing how others coped with that), then some motorway to get the miles done.
A bit of poor weather in the morning – waterproofs on… I took them off around midday, then rode into our hotel several hours later just as a massive storm came in – lightning, gale-force gusts of wind, etc.
The hotel here – is based in some of the Cappadocia Caves… rather awesome. my own particular room, happens to have a spa bath, and a “Turkish Bath” (ie: sauna)… not all the rooms do (although apparently one has a 10-foot-squared spa-pool)… not bad for staying in a cave for a couple of nights.

Another non-riding break-day already – 2 nights here in the Caves… probably a balloon ride early tomorrow morning, weather pending.

01 May – Turkey, 264 miles

After a couple of days of non-riding, straight tourism in Istanbul – back on the bike. A ferry across the Bosphorus Strait – then a couple-hundred miles on motorway, before some nice roads to yet another World Heritage Site – Safranbolu – early enough to wander around the streets for a few hours.
I walked up a sizable hill when I saw the sign for the City History Museum – probably the most disappointing museum I’ve ever seen… just a house with any random crap the locals donated after the city was designated a Heritage Site by UNESCO – it seems. One highlight – an ABUS padlock, probably 80 years old at most, labelled “a door lock from the city of Safranbolu”.

Ferry,
~190 miles of boring Turkish motorway
~23 miles of highway
~23 miles of twisty roads, on some odd road surface – never knowing if it was slippery or good or pot-holes hidden in shadows
And finally ~28 miles of semi-highway to get us into Safranbolu

2 days of tourism in Istanbul…

Got myself the electronic toll card for Turkey motorways… went by myself, while the rest of the team went in two groups. Team player, me. My experience – relatively smooth. Apparently the other two groups’… not so much. Lesson learnt – being a team player is for suckers.

Saw some stuff…
– Topkapi Palace – walked around that, seems like the old Sultan’s knew how to live. Fairly difficult to get a good single view of the whole thing, but wandering around took some time. Incidentally, a very, very large part of the complex comprised “The Harem”.
– Hagia Sophia – didn’t go inside that, just admired it from the outside. Large.
– Blue Mosque – likewise… looked at it from the outside, had a quick look inside the central square, but balked at the queue to enter the actual inner Mosque.
– Spice Bazaar, and surrounding pseudo-market/bazaar. I saw at least three stalls which sold the logical combination of grooming products (electric shavers, etc), and knuckledusters.
– Grand Bazaar – no brass-knuckles for sale there – just a very large collection of shops, all selling the same things.
– Suleymaniye Mosque – went inside this one, all very nice. Even the small seperated “Women’s Areas” gated off at the rear of the worship area had lovely carpet.

Our final night – we had a very nice, very expensive dinner at some fancy-ass restaurant. Very good views of Istanbul, very good food, good wine, and a ridiculous bill at the end of it.

28 April — Greece – Turkey, 195 miles

So – the last few posts have all been titled rather boringly… “nearly out of Europe”, “almost leaving Europe”, “So so close to being out of Europe”, etc, etc. Similar to headlines in the UK for the last year or so, and presumably the next year or so.
That’s as the first 9 days of this trip have been towards one goal… “Get Out of Europe”… and I think that’s finally ticked off. Hopefully, from here on in – the schedule is a little more relaxed (relatively), and seeing more interesting things – rather than just clocking off hundreds of miles on motorways.

Got up early – strap all the spare tyres to the bikes (for some customs/import reason – the van isn’t allowed to take them over the border… but the bikes are, and we loaded them back into the van immediately over the border (within sight of the border/customs))
~35 miles of standard Greek highway, to get to Turkish Border.
Sat around and waited, for a couple of hours… while the paperwork was processed rather slowly
~140 miles of boring Turkish motorway… better driving than Albania, but I did see one vehicle driving down the motorway in the wrong direction
~20 miles of just riding through Istanbul

Two days “off” now… .three nights in the same hotel… a lot of “stuff” to catch up on.
Tomorrow, give the bike an inspection, try to re-pack the “seldom-used-stuff” pannier a little better.
At some point – try to sort out this bloody laptop… buying a brand new bit of kit just before travelling – not smart
And I guess catch up on a few other things – accounting/tax-stuff, finally paying for the “extras” for this trip, paying any other bills, maybe a facebook update, and maybe even extract a few decent video clips from GoPro footage thus far.
Doubtful, though – as primarily – I’m going to go see some stuff.