We had a bit of sleep in this morning because breakfast wasn't until 8am. We had to order off the menu so there was no syphoning any food off for later in the day either. Durusu Park Club Hotel was a little like a resort hotel but we seemed like the only people staying there. we were the only people in the restaurant last night and the only people at breakfast this morning so I'm not sure how they turn a profit. We had a small climb up from the hotel onto the D020. It's a full on motorway now taking lots of traffic. If wasn't for the emergency lane there's no way we would be riding on it. The noise from the traffic as we ride makes it almost impossible to hear each other. About ... read more

In Turkey there is a "Call to Prayer" a number of times per day. The "Call" is broadcast from the towers of the mosques but also from loud speakers around the bigger cities, one of which was directly outide our hotel window. I can tell you the first call today was at 5:48am!!!! Breakfast wasn't available until 8am today so it made for a late start. We didn't get riding until 8:45am and as normal it's always slow going out of a big town and all the one way streets didn't help. We were on the same road as yesterday, the D020. This road is being upgraded. In part it is a separated two lane each way highway with a big emergency lane to ride in, and in part, a dual carriage way with barely any ... read more

As we've come to lean, a rest day is not necessarily a day when we rest. We enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast at The Plaza where we tried a number of different breakfast options. The number and variety of cheeses was amazing as were the types of bread. There were many spreads (olives, walnuts, peppers and other ingredients) as well as the more typical western options. One of my favourite items though was halva - for breakfast!!! Tom and I journeyed out today to explore Edirne. We only had 4 sites on our list and 3 of those were mosques, with the forth being the Grand Bazaar (Altinay Kuyumculuk). I have never been in a mosque before and so I was quite interested to see what they looked like. The largest of the mosques was Selimiye Cami ... read more

Tom made noises about a late night swim when we returned from dinner but I think it was more bluff than reality. We woke the next day and prepared ourselves before breakfast in the pool cafe from 8am. At 8am there was nothing happening in the pool cafe and in fact no one there. We waited another 10 minutes before I went looking for someone. Eventually I found the manager and they said we could order from the menu and it was not included in our room fee. We weren't happy. First we had waited around to 8am for breakfast, second it wasn't included in the room fee (althoughwe're sure we saw it advertised that way) and third, there went our lunch plans! We eventually left Hotel Afrodita (Hungry!) at 8:30am. We had 75kms to travel ... read more

It still amazes me the amount and variety of food my riding buddies can put away at a Buffet Breakfast. They would consume more than I do in a day (well, almost). We got away at an acceptable 8:15am with 75kms to travel to our next stop, Plovdiv. Not being a very big town it didn't take us too long to get out of town and begin our only real climb for the day. It was only in the vicinity of 70m and it was done and dusted after 45 minutes riding. From here on, it was all down hill with just a few undulations as it flattened out towards Plovdiv. The majority of the day was perfect. It was a cloudless sky, the temperature was warm without being too hot, the road surface was good, ... read more