I haven't mentioned the sights & sounds of the beasties much on our travels...if it's not mosquitoes, blow flies, grasshoppers, crickets, moths, butterflies, spiders, ants or nightingales it's the cicadas. These things simply drive you nuts – they're quite small, grey/transparent & can sing/chirrup for their country & in a league of their own. They are just so loud . You normally don't see them but in Greece we did regularly – I had a particularly noisy one in my sandal...not one with my foot in thankfully. Our nice hostess was talking to us when we checked out about the Greek debt etc. “Yes, the new roads & motorways are fantastic & wouldn't have been built without EU money as all government money stays in Athens. If we had good, correct & honest politicians not taking ... read more

Got some washing on, discovered that the lady had put wifi on, got the bikes down & cycled into town for lunch. We had a drink in the first place we went to but they only served toast. The next place Cathy didn't like as she felt ogled at so we left & found a traditional Greek taverna which did us a smashing lunch with local wine too. The town was very quiet & hardly any tourists about at all & tourism is this town's livelihood. We'd left the bikes against a railing – the saddles were like hot plates & we could hardly touch them! Cycling back felt like a hot stone bum massage. Got back & hit the pool which wasn't a great relief as it was really warm. Busy too – again like ... read more

I'm sure there ar things to see in the area, but it would mean taking Billy & it's too far/mountainous/dangerous to cycle, so we stayed on the beach. Last night I lent my Turkish wafter (technical term for a plastic BBQ fan) to a neighbour who turned out to be a Brit. He was a Brit, in Greece driving a Bulgarian plated car. I asked if he was on the run – he & his wife run a hotel 2 hours away in a town called Bankso in the Bulgarian mountains – sun in the summer & snow in the winter. Nice. In the late afternoon it got very humid & dark so we returned to Billy in case it rained as all the vents were wide open.... & it did, heavily, for what seemed like ... read more

What an awful night's sleep! It was so hot...we woke at 4ish, just before dawn & tossed & turned until 9.30! It got cooler by 6 so we dozed & had a lazy start. At least there were no nightingales like last time that sang ALL night nor wailing from minarets at 4.45am. We were going to walk into town but Cathy was tired & slept in the chair under the awning as the temperature climbed once more, though the wind got up again. I opened a beer to write the blog... I read on a website that Alex is a relatively new 'city' & so doesn't have an old town. It has two things to offer – a museum (erm, no ta) & a lighthouse - “not particularly interesting but it's a pleasant walk”! May ... read more

After getting up I had to clean & dry everything we'd left out or under Billy – the rain had bounced covering everything in earth. The couples on the bikes got up really early to get their kit dry before packing up & heading off, one to Istanbul & the other to Thessaloniki & both long rides in a day of heat The ground took a while to dry out despite the rising temperature...so we just relaxed & kept busy doing nothing...In the evening we sat on the beach watching the sunset which was truly magnificent, much clearer than in Cyprus for example as the air was clean & by this time very still. Our last full day in Turkey...... read more