Last night's dinner was, as predicted, pleasant enough but overpriced. The cheeseboard was, however, sensational. We did get four courses for the money though neither of us could finish the crème brulee. Today was the first cool and not very sunny ride since we left the UK back in early June. It was cool enough to wear gloves, the first time I have worn riding gloves since Italy on the way out. I have learnt that after almost 4 weeks of sweating into leathers that any clothes worn under them are no longer fit for wearing afterwards. I am going to [View Full Entry]

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Last night was too hot to sleep. This is a paradox as we have been in places far hotter - it is probably the humidity that makes the heat unpleasant. We opened the windows at 4 a.m. and turned on the fan. This meant we could hear the trains as they ran by (including TGV's going very fast) but it was easier to sleep. We got a good breakfast with lots of coffee then set off for Forêt D'Orient. We were expecting to find more hotels but there were very few (quite a lot of camping places but we don't have [View Full Entry]

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Today began with breakfast of croissants, bread, cheese, jam and coffee. We then attempted to leave the hotel but the bike got stuck in deep gravel in the car park. The hotel was unable to assist. Hilary and two passing frenchmen were unable to push it out of the hole. In the end, it got reversed back onto the pavement and then powered its way out. But, for a few moments, we thought we would be stuck until picked up by the recovery service. Well Hilary might have thought that, but I had other plans. There were quite a lot of [View Full Entry]

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After a pretty decent French breakfast, coffee, croissants, cheese, jam, and more coffee, we decided to make more use of the cablecar passes to access some good walking. Not as high as yesterday, but yesterday we were well above the snow line and we do not have the gear for walking on ice. Equally neither of us have acclimatised to altitude so staying below 3,000 metres was probably a very good idea if we were going to be taking potentially tough exercise. Two connecting cable cars took us up to Brevent at just over 2,500 metres. A little below the snow [View Full Entry]

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The hotel gave us coffee but was not set up for breakfast, so we drank coffee, tried to get online (failed as the hotel connection was down), packed up and left. We stopped at a motorway services where we had the breakfast deal (espresso, orange juice and a chocolate croissant each) then headed for Mont Blanc through a series of tunnels, culminating in the Mont Blanc tunnel itself. This tunnel is long and, unlike the tunnels on the way does not have separate bores for each carriageway. It is, however, really well lit and disciplined. Not really very exciting and none [View Full Entry]

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Nothing much happened on the ferry. We chatted to people. Hilary read the other two books she bought for the reader (Fury and Interworld). Eventually we got to Ancona, left straight away and rode 80 km straight into the sun, ending up back at the Ferrara hotel in Cattolica. They seemed pleased to see us. Ashley demanded new eyes but settled for beer goggles - we found a place opposite the Ritter hotel where they sold beer in litre glasses. This was followed by a pizza and a salad at the Pirate restaurant with half a litre of house white (very [View Full Entry]

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Sadly the time came to say our goodbyes and leave Selcuk, at least for a time. The first part of the journey along the coast road was pretty and very enjoyable. Soon though, the coast turned into resort after resort with very little way of telling where one ended and the next one started. When the road went up the mountains away from the coast it did get pretty again, and the air full of the scent of thyme and oregano. After a while we linked with the Izmir - Cesme motorway which is a good motorway although it was very, [View Full Entry]

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After the usual excellent breakfast we took the minibus to Sirince. They run every half hour and it is not far - not far as the crows fly (and there are a whole lot of crows here) but it's a steep and winding road up a mountain. Sirince is pretty - and takes advantage of this. It's full of little stalls selling honey, fruit wine and olive oil soap. There are also a load of restaurants and pansiyonlar and we were addressed in nothing but French. It's famous for being pretty, Greek and producing wine. A lot of the houses have [View Full Entry]

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Today has been a blast of fun. Went riding, through Kusadasi and some smaller villages to the Millipark, (National Park). The ride there and back was pretty good, then we got to the park. A small winding paved road, with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, the whole area heavily forested with pines, oak, plane, fig, olive and various other trees, frequently with vines growing between them. It really was vastly beautiful. We stopped a couple of times so I could better take in the scenery, difficult when riding. One stop was near a small beach backed [View Full Entry]

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Today has been fantastic. We went out riding. There were some great roads, wide and winding through mountains, able to go fast enough to stay cool. I got stung by a wasp through my t-shirt, my leather was open, but that is no big deal. We managed to visit 4 ancient sites. Magnesia which we came to by chance, and the three planned for, Didim because of the fantastic Apollo oracle, Miletus because it is there and interesting, and Pirene to take in the stunning views and position, and the proper theatre. Needless to say we took lots of pictures. More [View Full Entry]

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