Monday 25 July 2011

Orient Express Day 50 Silivri to Istanbul - 85km (by bus)

The end of the Tour.


Hard to believe but today is the last day of our tour. The mood was sombre as we boarded our bus for Istanbul.
























The traffic was not bad for a Sunday and we disembarked at the Princess Hotel Ortakoy where we explored the nearby streets for lunch and then headed back to the parking lot to pack the bikes leaving time to watch Cadel win the Tour before we left the hotel in a taxi convoy to our "Farewell Dinner".

Business is particularly slow here at Ramadan....


The mood was more jovial at dinner as we bade our farewells. Stirling presented the guides with enevelopes and Ricardo responded with a toast to the riders.

 



















With dinner over, we went our separate ways, some to be seen again at breakfast tomorrow and others disappeared into the night.




To quote Edna, "It has been an amazing 7 weeks".

Sunday 24 July 2011

Orient Express Day 49 Vize to Silivri - 77km

The end of the cycling road.

Because of extensive roadworks near Istanbul, the route was changed so today would be our last cycling day to the Klassis Resort near Istanbul on the Marmaris Sea. http://www.klassisotel.com.tr/en/Default.asp

After cycling for 7 weeks, we were this morning presented with our Ride Jerseys and we set off from Vize in uniform for our last ride.





First drinks stop was at around 30km and we then headed off to our last road lunch at around 64km. Then our last convoy to the Resort where we crossed the finish line and adjourned for drinks on the terrace.


 





















 














 




I gave Merlin a good wash and he will be vanned in to our hotel in Istanbul tomorrow while we are bussed in.


Buffet dinner at the Resort restaurant was followed by a slide show of highlights from the trip which Gergo and Eszter put together.




Those readers who have followed the daily blog might have some appreciation of the effort to get this far and I congratulate my fellow riders and, in particular, Edna Granot on achieving our ambitious goal which at times was tough but always rewarding.









Friday 22 July 2011

Orient Express Day 48 Vize Rest Day - 0km

As anticipated, there is really not much to do or see in Vize but John and I set off to explore the ruins and look for the mythical ancient synagogue. Any pile of stones might have been the synagogue so use your imagination...


Definitely not the synagogue
Maybe the synagogue??















There is also an amphitheatre in Vize but the show was going on at the town fair down the road for the Otel Trak
til the wee hours of this morning and likely to continue tonight.













As is customary for the rest day, a selection of street scenes.......






Thursday 21 July 2011

Orient Express Day 47 Malko Tarnovo to Vize - 106km

We had a 6.00am discharge from hospital and partook of our last "camp breakfast" before heading out in overcast conditions up a 7km hill to the Turkish border. Asses on the Bulgarian side and bunnies on the Turkish....













 

 
The border crossing is a money making exercise for Turkey as there is a fee for the visa. The Canadians were the hardest hit forking out 45 euro as opposed to 15 euro for most others. The quality of the roads, however, has generally been excellent with some spectacular downhills followed, of course, by some steep climbs. My body and mind said "enough" several times today and I walked a few of the uphills. Merlin hit 75km per hour on the steep straight downhill which was like a Disneyland ride including the slight nausea at the bottom...




















The sun broke through around 9am and I plodded on to lunch at 62km. Watermelon!!!

Hills, more hills and damn hills... and then Vize (pronounced Visy) came into sight and I rode in behind Esther Kim and Stirling to the very fancily named "Otel Trak"... in name only.


It is a rest day tomorrow and, although Vize looks like a one street town, I was surprised to learn there might be some interesting sights to see! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vize
More on that tomorrow although I fear there will be no street art to post.

Orient Express Day 46 Aheloy to Malko Tarnovo - 108km

You guessed it - another hot hilly day ahead as we set off from our luxurious hotel towards our last stop in Bulgaria some 7km short of the border with Turkey. We passed by the big city of Burgas and had some challenging road conditions which Merlin handled with aplomb. I noticed my pump missing and assumed it had shaken off but it would turn out to my surprise that it had been dislodged when the bikes were stacked last night and would await me at breakfast tomorrow.

                                                                        
  

Onwards to lunch and counting off the kms - the days just get longer and hotter and it's a real test mentally and physically to get through the day. Fantas, Cokes and ice cream help. Not much to see as I just beat the lunch van into our surprising accommodation at the MK Hospital!


It seems that the hospital was built to service a large area in the manner of centralised Communist-era bureaucracy but was vastly oversized for the small population. So they use part of the building as a hospital and let out other parts for accommodation. One must be careful where one checks in! It seems John and I got the paediatrics ward..



 Miles cooked us our last "camp dinner" of pasta pesto with meatballs and braised eggplant and we availed ourselves of the corner store across the road from the hospital for cold drinks and ice cream. Then off to bed in our airconditioned ward room - if you opened the window and jammed open the door to create a cross-breeze. No sign of Nurse Ratched - I think she may been one floor up...



Orient Express Day 45 Varna to Aheloy - 112km

To prevent Kim from becoming lost today, a special GPS tracking orange ribbon was attached to her bike.


Just for a change, it was going to be hot and hilly. I set off from the hotel with Edna, Mieke and PC. Rudolph and Paul vanned it for the day with Henry. The roads were not good and the traffic heavy but we made it to lunch without incident.


Just for a change, I had watermelon for lunch and stopped at the next store for a Coke.
I rode solo for the rest of the day and took the optional detour near the end to Nesebar which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Apparently, such categorisation permits any number of vendors to set up stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs. T-shirts and assorted garbage.






Onwards to the Kossara Hotel Aheloy where our group had run of the house and use of the swimming pool. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=30857&clcid=0x409

Not much else to do there but wait for dinner which was very nice and served by the young ladies who had been sunbathing by the pool. Francois gave us his best impression of a Canadian moose and we were entertained by a local singer before heading to bed...




The singer is the one at the rear...