A night to remember

Oct3

Our one month visa in Uzbekistan was always going to be stretched. We were both very aware of the blue tiled silk route cities that adorn the country with spectacular minarets, domes and madrassas which have to be high on any tourists agenda but throw in yurt camps in off the beaten track desert areas and Margilon, the centre of silk production in Asia, plus days lost with travellers tummy, it was looking pretty impossible. The obvious answer was to short cut the cycling to get us quickly from one place to another. It feels like cheating; we’re on a bike trip and want to be able to hold our heads up, once we get home, and say, ‘Yes, we cycled’.

We’d spoken a few times about catching a train across the desert between Khiva and Bukhara but we hadn’t booked a ticket. Dropping further behind our travel itinerary due to tummy problems, and wanting to avoid staying in teahouses for the same reason, we decided, after a day cycling, to try hitching the remaining 100km to Bukhara. We put our thumbs out as we coasted to a stop: The very first truck picked us up. We had to ride into town to a pre-chosen hostel in the dark, but that was a small price to pay for a day saved.

On leaving Bukhara, we decided to cycle out of town and once again hitch, but our luck had run out. Having wasted several hours waving a thumb around at various locations over about 70km, we cut our loses & diverted to the next train station. The train left at 2115 leaving us a couple of hours to munch some supper and fret over our 0130 arrival time in Samarkand. The station policeman was very helpful both while buying the ticket and by assigning us a platform helper.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

As the train ground to a halt we sped along the now gravel ‘platform’ to the designated carriage. The train guard immediately started ranting along the lines of: no space, too big, won’t fit, but our platform helper was quite insistent – yes, the bikes were coming. Some further gesticulating resulted in them being quickly stripped and shoved up the steps all but blocking everybody’s passage. Bags followed. Gid & I, plus other passengers, we’re still on the platform as the train started to pull away with a grinding of metal on metal. Some 20 odd carriages from the driver, the outburst of protestations had no impact. A mad scramble ensued: the platform helper off, a throng of people on, as I was anxiously climbing the steps & looking back for Gid.

We’d boarded on carriage 5, our cabin was in 3. As the train rumbled on we made our way along; pigeon steps, straps caught, doors swung, passengers waiting.

We finally reached our cabin eager to dump the bags. Tucking them under the bed was obvious except there was no under the bed. Once all in we stacked them up as best we could. Thankfully, the other passenger was traveling empty handed and the fourth bed wasn’t taken yet.

Settling down, having made the bed, the peace was shattered as the train guard was back, once again, gesticulating wildly. ‘Bikes, bikes. Move the bikes’. He had to be joking! There was nowhere to move them to. Not only did they have to be moved but they had to be moved NOW! He wasn’t prepared to wait for Gid who had popped out for a pee break. Back I went to carriage 5 in a state of disbelief. Where did he think I was going to put them? There was barely room for two people to pass along the passageway and now we had to leave our bikes outside our cabin. Even this guard didn’t suggest we should get them in it.

With the train rolling, people in the corridor, flapping metal doors, intersections between carriageways and bikes swerving – barely maneuverable around the tight corners – it was quite some task. Once outside our cabin the guard flapped his hand suggesting we took them to the next carriageway access point. They blocked most of the space and limited the use of the connecting door. More wild gesticulations, ‘Can’t I fold them!’ Nope.

Violent jerking on the four hour journey resulted in a tangled heap of bikes, but thankfully nothing broken.

As we approached our station it all started again – move the bikes. They were at the wrong doorway. But this guard was perfectly friendly and kept trying to reassure us that there’d be plenty of time to disembark.

Finally, we left the platform, with the staff wheeling my bike across the tracks. Once through the gates we were greeted by a huddle of taxi drivers eager to take us to poor unsuspecting hoteliers, even at this unearthly hour. Encouraged by this we made our way to our chosen hostel. The metal doors were firmly locked but rattled outlandishly against the still of the night. The bleary eyed proprietor opened up, the expression on his face said it all. One brief flicker of forgiveness flashed across his face with the words, ‘2 nights?’.

All Aboard

Sep10

Deciding early on we didn’t like the hassle of Turkmenistan’s visas and conditions, left us the route options of a northern route via Russia, or taking the “ferry” from Baku, Azerbaijan to Aktau (Aqtau), Kazakhstan. The “ferry” is not arranged like a scheduled public ferry, it’s more that tourists can have spare space on a rail/truck shuttle. That was what we chose.

Cycle touring blogs abound with tales of the hassle, faff, and hardship involved. A lot of it is probably due to language issues and Soviet approach to service: Although most individuals are helpful, the system isn’t. The operators publish no user information, so the web is full of garbled advice, from everyone’s individual experience, but perhaps too often folk assume their example shows what the system is, when really it’s quite variable and ad-hoc. So here’s our experience:

Following online advice, we went to find the Baku ticket office. The directions on welovemountains were helpful, although Baku changes fast and the last bit differed: the rough road and grey tatty building are gone. The new port entrance is smart. To the left of it, the port’s electricity substation is stone or marble clad and lettered in gold. Right and just inside the port entrance barrier (and its helpful guard) is an old shipping container, painted white and turned into the ticket kiosk. The recommended lady, Vika, inside from 11am on our days, does indeed speak English. So far so good.

It took me a while to fully grasp what Vika was saying: “Call tomorrow to find out if there’s a ship tomorrow. Yes, on the same day. We open at 11am. The ship will go from Alat, 80km away.” So depending on sailing time, it may be impossible or a terrible scramble to actually catch the boat.

I asked, “Can we only buy tickets here”: Answer, “Yes, here”. It sounds clear, but three English lads in a car bought theirs in Alat, so clearly incorrect. Probably Vika didn’t get the “only”. Or meant that she didn’t sell anything but tickets (my bad English!). But I believed it, so with a day or two in hand, we checked out travel options to Alat:

Cycle: Allow 6 hours, dual carriageway, not too hilly. Ok if getting to port at 6pm is acceptible. Actually, on the day, it pissed down, so just as well we didn’t.

Coach: Station is about an hour’s crap ride from the ticket office. Bus ticket sales staff not able to help, I couldn’t find timetable. Not even sure if a full size coach goes that way. Small coaches can’t take bikes.

Bus: Service 195 apparently, from 20-ci. But getting bikes on buses is not easy.

Minibus: (from coach station, services for Sabirabad). No fixed schedule or tickets, drivers helpful about the bikes “no problem”. Probably best cheap option, but cycling cross town, then waiting for it to go could make it little faster than riding.

Train: English no use at train station, couldn’t even get times. Staff told us bikes not allowed on Azeri trains, although other Azeris say that’s not true.

Taxi: Almost all are saloons & can’t carry bikes. We wandered about the day before until we saw a big estate taxi, flagged it down and got a number. Got the hotel to call driver, agree a price and times. This worked well, and was quick, although at the end there was a disagreement about the fare. No idea if genuine or if driver was trying it on. We took responsibility for the last stage of navigating, driver wasn’t familiar with Alat Port.

Anyway, next day at 11, I call, and wooooo, there’s a ship: Be at Alat at 17:00. Rushed over to ticket office with both passports (needed), and cash. Prices were quoted in USD, but Vika said we could be paid in Manat or USD. $110 each, bike free, including cabin, bedding, food. I took Manat, using the typical exchange rate, and had a pleasant surprise that the exchange rate used worked out significantly cheaper. There was some delay finding the cashier person, but really it was smooth enough. I did, however, get entangled in Baku’s one-way system on the way home. Anyway, we got tickets for Merkuri 1.

Again advice was confusing, we saw stuff online that cars and trucks can be loaded at Baku, whereas rail and foot passengers board at Alat, or occasionally vice versa. We boarded at Alat, where we cycled on, via vehicle ramp, noting the presence of rail tracks from inside the port onto the boat, so they could have loaded rail cars. But in fact we were followed by trucks, and finally a Ford Fiesta containing three English lads, Ivor, Martin, Andy on a post college jolly. I suspect that, as the entire fleet has the same dimensions, any of them can load anything at either port, but perhaps they don’t mix road and rail cargoes – another ship alongside was filling up with railcars. I don’t think trucks were part of these ship’s or docks original design, as the artics and dolly towers alike all had to reverse off.

The whole paperwork and loading process, both our personal bit and the whole ship, was way slower than a European car ferry. We’d been told to arrive 17:00 and were early, waited to be called up about 17:15, and were on-board about 18:15, bikes tucked in a corner before loading trucks. The three lads in a car, waiting before us, boarded last, car filling last gap, after 21:00 when the canteen had closed. Actual departure was about 22:30.

On boarding, and lashing down, we carried all our bags up (groan) to our room, including the heavy provisions we’d bought for the journey, after terrible online warnings about the food.

There’s no announcements on ship, but it’s easy enough to stroll along to the bridge and ask the current plan. I was originally told we’d dock about 22:30 (having departed almost exactly 24 hours before). But at 22:00 we heard the anchor going down, and I strolled f’ward to be told it’d be the morning (the dock was occupied). That was good for us – a comfy bed for the night, instead of dumped ashore at midnight. In fact it was about midday when we docked. And the crew were correct in predicting about an hour for Kazakhstan customs. All passengers had to leave the ship (and bulky luggage), do the paperwork (ok), reembark, and roll off. Customs then did a moderately thorough search, and in my case, had a go on the bike. I guess we were rolling by about 13:30. In our case just into Aqtau, to stock up for the long empty roads of Western Kazakhstan.

As for the ferry and voyage, it was fine, nothing matching the dreadful online reports. The sea was calm. Merkuri 1 was showing her 31 years, but everything important worked. The 2 bed cabin was rather tatty, but spacious, with an opening porthole, shower (sometimes hot, sometimes not), desk, loads of storage, and really comfy new mattresses. The 3 meals a day were basic but ok. It took me a while to find it, but there was always cay available. There didn’t seem any way to spend money on the ship, except for using phone data while near land.

Clare was violently ill in the first night. It must’ve been food poisoning. But the timing makes it difficult to pin it on the ship’s cook. Just as likely to be the dodgy supermarket sausage sandwich she had while we waited to board. However we did thereafter both avoid the salad at mealtimes, as raw, unpeeled, fruit is generally a known risk.

Crew were friendly and helpful, but mostly without English. But in a fix, make for the bridge – I guess English is mandatory for marine VHF on international waters. Special mention for the stewardess who bangs on the doors at mealtimes, actually she more or less dragged us out of the cabin to the dining room. Below, she is putting out the laundry.

Other passengers mostly Turkish truckers, all friendly, the 3 English, and 3 folk from Aqtau, 2 ladies and a little pickle, who was spoilt rotten by everyone. I’m sure P&O wouldn’t have been keen on the round-the-ship-chase, climbing the mast at night, and steering-the-ship-even-though-you-can’t-see-over-the-console (tho’ I suspect the autopilot was on).

Approaching Aqtau 1.

Approaching Aqtau 2

Tying up in Aqtau

Thoughtful, or possibly indigestion.

Leaving Alat. Think that’s Ivor.

Fortunately not one of the lifeboats.

Standard ferry shot. Note Azerbaijan colours.

Working ship

Mysterious gubbins

Pickle on lookout

So yes, we had to be a bit flexible on timing, but apart from needlessly rushing from ticket sale in Baku, and Clare’s tummy, it was a walk in the park.

We celebrated passing this milestone with a dip in the Caspian (much cleaner looking in Aqtau than in downwind Baku). As it started to patter with rain.

Baku

Sep10

Baku was a curious place. Rural Azerbaijan was a very natural feeling synthesis of what we’d seen in Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia, plus more apparently rich people, and a tendency to build ornate walls around scruffy areas. Baku was thus, writ large.

We came into Baku on a big busy highway, amongst increasingly smart, and large, cars & SUVs, generally driven quite soberly. They and the trucks must have been newish, too, as the air quality wasn’t so bad for a city. Buildings got smarter and newer, until in the centre, it felt very developed. There were gleaning new public buildings, malls, loads of swanky shops, and innumerable little phone shops. There were gleaming limousines, a Bentley showroom, and in the car park also serving the hotel, I spotted two cars fitted with the pricey option of the Valeo Surround View system I used to work on: Never seen so many in Europe!

We spent an unnecessarily long time in Baku, because we took a while to be ready to buy our ferry tickets. There were things to see and do, but to a lesser extent than Tbilisi. Here we are seeing and doing old Baku:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Moving ahem, antique, samovars from SUV to antique shop

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Zaphorets, Baku

New Baku:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Yes, those are London taxicabs: Baku ordered 1,000 of them a few years ago.

Human Baku:

Market

Checkout the teeth.

Slow trade.

Sold by weight, how sensible. We bought a big spoonful.

It does.

Clare in clover

Our first glimpse of the Caspian – through the gates at the old palace. An SUV, naturally, is in the way.

South of Baku are oil fields and supporting industry.

Moving ahem, antique, samovars from SUV to antique shop

Ah, a ZIL 130. Baku.

The sick kitty, and hotel receptionist.

Baku is not liked by every visitor. Perhaps it’s a bit raw. The new bits have no history yet, and the old bits are few, or it seems that way because they were often restored so as to look new. And perhaps there’s a suspicion it is trying very hard to look grand, but not doing so much for the locals. Yet it seemed a perfectly good place to just be. And reasonably safe to cycle around in, albeit in great loops because of the one way systems.

The hotel was the Guest House Inn, with a guest kitchen which helped keep costs down, comfy beds, and helpful staff. Hope the sick kitten made it! We used both 2Teker and Velosport (?) bike shops, conveniently they’re in almost the same road. Both a bit limited for cycle tourists, but we didn’t need much (although dry weather lube would’ve been good). Couldn’t find anyone selling “outdoor gear” although this shop situation was reversed in Aqtau.

Tourists in Tbilisi

Aug21

Heading into Tbilisi from Mtskheta we’d tried to miss the main road. The Garmin had come up with another route that seemed fairly direct. All was going well until it directed us to turn right onto a dirt track directly up a hill. No way! The total journey was only 26km but that could take us all day if we hit a really lumpy dirt road, and we were cruising along nicely without too much traffic.

Shortly after this decision the motorway merged with our main road; the traffic increased exponentially. With a few hair raising moments you’d expect when cycling in a city we made it into the tourist centre and from there to our accommodation.

We had a few days to kill, while waiting for our Azerbaijan visa to become valid. So off we went exploring.

Churches – the most prominent being the new cathedral built in time for the millennium (that doesn’t include decorating the inside, which may take decades). Others date from Byzantine times.

Jvaris Mama Church, 1793

Entrance to Cathedral

Tsminda Sameba Cathedral

Sketch for a frescoe

Tsminda Sameba Cathedral

Ball tower Tsminda Sameba Cathedral

Tsminda Sameba Cathedral

Chuch if St. Nicolas, nextto the fortress.

Church of St. Nicholas

The bow

The debate

Four’s a crowd

Revival of the steele

Balconies are a special feature of old Tbilisi.

Gold roof of the new cathedral in the back ground.

We also visited museums: one on Tbilisi itself, another on Georgia, and the outdoor Ethnographic museum (very similar to Sussex’s Weald & Downland Museum). We baulked at the 11GEL each for the music museum where it is compulsory to have a guide. Most of the museums, so far have had information within the cabinets in the home language, Russian, and English and we prefer to wander round at out own pace.

Easterly view from Peace Bridge

Gid in cable car going up to fortress.

Clare in cable car

Easterly view from inside cable car.

Westerly view from cable car.

View from fortress

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Flea Market is another feature of Tbilisi. It’s also good for buying original paintings, or at least, it appears so to our unschooled eyes. Generally the city wears its artistic endeavours on its sleeve, including where we stayed, in Nino’s Guesthouse, which is like a mini gallery.

You can buy almost anything there…

Pook!

There was its twin on another stall (NB: Bright green)

Don’t think the underlying Lada was for sale?

And there’s lots more to see, out and about on the streets.

A wonky clock tower in ‘theatre land’.

A nut snack with a caramalised covering.

A fairly typical minor street in the old town.

The bread shop was closed

Kartlis Deda (Mother Georgia)

Kartlis Deda (Mother Georgia)

Stairs are usually outdoors

Your headstone’s not straight

Taken straight out of the door of Nino’s Guesthouse

Save cats!

Cobbler, just down Chavchavadze Street from Nino’s Guesthouse

New Tbilisi arises in any big gaps. Glass, steel, new and classical shapes. Just as long as it doesn’t look remotely soviet.

Contrasts in Tbilisi

The Museum of Ethnology – most houses are between 100 and 200 years old.

Mud floor, central cooking pot.

Mainly wood construction houses.

Inside stone house, mud floor, central cooking pot, no chimney.

Baby walker

Wine press – capacity = 5 cubic metres

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rug, lamp

Lamp, rug

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Have you heard the one about the bears and the porridge?

All in all, a thoroughly photogenic city, with lots and lots of cheap accommodation.

Day trip to Davit Gareji Monastery Complex (yet more caves)

Chapel in Lavra monastery

Chapel of Ressurection

Salt lake enroute

Lavra monastery

Azerbaijan on the left, Georgia on the right

Looking out over Azerbaijan

Fresco, and grafitti in Russian and Georgian

Inside a frescoed cave

Bit of a scramble

Spot the monk on the phone?

Errand

Finally, 19th Aug, we left Tbilisi. We had one errand to do first – post the Tbilisi souvenirs home. It took quite a while to find the Post Office, but as from Turkey on, the helpful chap serving wanted to know what was in there, for the customs declaration. Whereupon we came unstuck! The main item is a saddle bag, made in the same way as a kelim rug. Clare’s wanted one since Cappadocia. Normally, carpet shops claim they are “antique”, although often the age is faked, and want well north of $100 (yes, dollars, for some reason). However, Tbilisi’s flea market made no claims of age, and Clare beat the seller down to 110 GEL, much more realistic (about $40). Good. But. Both online and in Nino’s LP guide, there are warnings about the potential difficulty of taking out of countries, or sending, carpets especially and anything that might be part of the nation’s cultural heritage. So, post office man sends us off to the Ministry of Culture to get a letter certifying it isn’t old, and while we’re about it, also covering the two felt glove puppets. They obviously are not antiques, but to be fair, customs might have to open the package to see that. The ministry sent us on to the correct agency. All three are within about a square kilometre of central Tbilisi, but the bikes, one way system, and step-ridden pedestrian accesses, plus the moderate difficulty of finding the places, means it takes a while. The letter itself takes about 30 minutes, and a pleasant surprise is – no charge. Then, embarrassingly, it takes us an hour at least to find the same post office again. Now it’s lunchtime, so everyone is in there, except most of the staff. An hour queueing, then at least 30 minutes to send the thing (lots of forms). We finally set off from Tbilisi at 14:30. Good job we’d planned only a 55km ride to Sagarejo, where, fortunately, it was very easy to find what we think was the only hotel. Let’s hope the donkey bag proves as useful as expected once (if) it gets home.

Photograph by Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation

The main post office in Tbilisi

Out and About in Malatya

Jul22

Malatya and its surrounding area was probably second to Cappadocia in the “Must do and see in Turkey” lists on web sites.

Although we had set off from Goreme with every intention of ‘doing’ the Mount Nemrut area it started to look doubtful. Firstly there was our get out of Turkey quick response to the attempted military coup. Equally, we’d now struggled up one of the what appears to be many minor road 2000+metre passes and knew it would take us a long time to reach the area. Especially as Mount Nemrut itself was surrounded by 3000+ metre high mountains.

Plan B kicked in resulting in Ramo, recommended on the internet, picking us up from our hotel in Malatya to take us on a one day tour of the area.

First stop was the Roman bridge – Cendere Bridge. Having passed many dry river beds it was good to see water flowing. This gave the locals the opportunity to demonstrate Turkish car cleaning. Drive into the river and throw buckets of water over the car and the job’s done.

Our second stop was the ancient Kahta Roman castle. Looking anything but Roman; it was nearing the completion of a renovation program which was going to leave it gleaming. It had, in fact, been started during the Roman times and like many ancient buildings it had been expanded, redesigned and revamped over the centuries. We later looked down on the castle which gave a much better impression of how extensive it was and how it was built along a ridge.

Roman Calesi restoration

From here, just down the road, we visited Arsameia, summer residence of the Commagene rulers in the 3rd century BC. A number of rock carvings depicted scenes of the period and a couple of caves were well worth exploring. Being the highest point in the area, the views were stunning.

Finally we made it to the big one – Mount Nemrut. Listed in the UNESCO World Heritage site it demonstrates some of the earliest examples of rock carving. The climb up again afforded us stunning views. The east side is more organised with the statue’s fallen off heads, remarkably well preserved, in front of the remains of each statue. The west side, where we would be able to watch the sunset, was higgledy-piggledy but had better preserved heads.

The drive back, covering 80 odd km in 2 1/2 hours due to the steep mountainous terrain, led to a variety of conversational topics one of which resulted in us arranging a local tour of Malatya, with Ramo, during the next day as we were booked onto an over night intercity bus leaving us free during the day.

The local tour was great. We visited the local ancient mosque, an ancient market place, the beheading criminals ‘blood cupola’, the old town with Ottoman houses.

But the most interesting place was Arslentepe, where ancient civilizations going back to early Mesomopotamia had occupied the same spot for thousands of years. This was another site with global significance due to its mud structure, ‘cave’ paintings, examples of first swords suggesting the start of armed combat, and what acedemics have perceived to be the development of a structured society.

“modern mud house’

Archaeologists had been able to peel back the layers to find a throne with kneeling spot, a series of rooms – some with clay pots suggesting communal use, first swords made of copper, large clay pots for storage and seals suggesting a distribution system.

Cappadocia – Balloon Flight

Jul12

Cappadocia was added to the route plan as it seemed to be a “must see” part of central Turkey, and the map showed “real” campsites. We didn’t actually study it until we were in Polatli: As soon as Clare read about the hot air balloon flights available in Cappadocia she was set on going. “I’ll have it as my birthday present!”. Emails, texts follow, and we’re booked. We have one rest day in Goreme, Cappadocia, then the flight. The reason the flight is not, by definition, on a rest day is, it requires a 4am pickup. Groan….

Anyway, both us and taxi are at the campsite entrance at 04:20. As the activity is fairly expensive, both taxi and then breakfast are included. Soon we’re at the launch site, in a throng of balloons, minibuses, tourists, and great jets of flame.

We’re one of the last to set off, perhaps allowing our pilot to observe the wind directions better. One of the most impressive aspects of the flight is how he manages to take us around almost in a circle.

The baskets is quite big, with two or three of us tourists in each corner compartment, and the pilot in the middle. 11 souls in total.

The photos say more than words can. We expected great views. We didn’t expect the balloon to get so close to the clifftops, fairy chimneys and other things. A passenger from Saudi managed to pluck a leaf from a tree.

The objective when landing is to drop the basket onto the trailer. The pilot controls the height, rotation, and fine X position; the truck driver controls coarse X by snaking and Y. In our case it worked, with an error of perhaps 30cm in Y and 5 degrees of rotation, these corrected by heaves from the ground crew. Once clipped to the trailer, we climbed out, although Clare then fell off the trailer…

Goreme

#VoyagerBalloons for more info (we got the “deluxe” package as a free upgrade when they consolidated flights; we booked via TurkeyTravelPlanner for an claimed discount).

Cappadocia – Caves and Ancient Civilisations

Jul12

We wrote about the cave monastery we visited in Bulgaria earlier.

We almost missed Gordium, in fact we cycled past the little brown sign for it and ended up backtracking the next day in a taxi. The Gordium citadel is roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, but rather more clear in purpose; being the hub of the Phrygian civilisation. The “Midas Mound” tomb is impressive, although now reckoned to be Midas’s father. And there’s an informative museum, too.

Gordium citadel

King Midas’ father’s tomb

After Gordium, we were cycling along a minor country road, with a mix of rough grass and fields around, when we saw a knobbly outcrop, greatly undercut with caves. But we pressed on, until a few hundred metres later, saw another knobble, this time with an obviously carved-out and decorated entrance. Clearly we had to investigate. These were abandoned cave dwellings (or possibly graves), with interconnecting tunnels, and chambers. After an hour we resumed travel. In ancient Turkey, this didn’t even merit a roadside sign.

Later that day, passing through an ancient looking village, we saw above it extensive cave holes, mostly now used for storage or abandoned. It seems this whole region is riddled with them. It’s the volcanic tufa rock, that’s so soft it’s easy to carve out. Unfortunately, there’s clear evidence the caves often have a fairly short life – collapses and eroded remains abound.

Goreme

Intentional Camera Movement in a Goreme cave church.

The same day, already late, we saw another little brown sign “Tatlarin Underground City”. Wiser now, we knew we had to follow it up … dump all our hard-won height, down to the city and up again. But stunning though. Free admission, there was a caretaker who let us in (and a school group just afterwards, aaargh!). The site had a well-preserved cave church with frescoes, and extensive tunnelled chambers, of which enough were open to give us backache. Time being the main constraint, the tunnels were both long (100m) and low (ouch).

Then we got to Cappadocia. Well, it’s a region, and the above (and us) maybe were already in it. In tourist terms, it’s often reduced to just around the tourist hub, the large village Goreme. At this place, the weird rock formations make the tufa into “fairy chimneys” which are extensively dug out for churches, houses (?) and graves. Of course there’s an underground city too, and nearby the citadel, also dug out, of Uchisar. Some of this we were fortunate to view from a balloon.

Istanbul Photo Gallery

Jun30

Views of East Istanbul

Views of European side, Istanbul

Out and about

Car being removed

Modern city, North of the GoldenHorn

Street vendor

One of many wooden houses

Deliveries and waste disposal took place manually

In some villages / small towns there are no ATMs

We tried to use the railway but it’s also been dug up.

Dodgy parking causes a bit of a problem

Shops and produce

Local street market

Topkapi Musuem and park. Topkapi palace was the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans since 1453.

Hagia Sophia museum – Originally a Christian church. Built in 532AD by Emperor Justinian. After 1000 years as a church it was changed into a mosque. Because the church had lots of mosaics, Sultan Mehmet the conqueror plastered over them to create the mosque. Now the building is a museum. The mosaics have been uncovered but the building has kept aspects from both religions.

Blue Mosque

Basilica Cistern – built in 532 AD by Emperor Justinian and was for centuries the main water supply to the city.

Grand Bazaar – over 4000 shops in the world’s largest covered bazaar.

European side Heritage tramp and second (to London’s underground)oldest underground in the world.

To Budapest and a Short Stop

May28

Off again. As lovely as Vienna is it is great to be on the road again.

Whilst I was aware that the Danube is a very popular route I had never expected quite the number of people touring that we have met. Some days we’ve played leapfrog along the way with other touring cyclists where one or other of us has taken a break whilst the other whizzes past. On some occasions we have arrived at the same campsite for a couple of nights. With one couple we’d both taken time out in Vienna & our paths have just crossed again. This creates a great sense of comradery. Equally, at times there have been 40 or 50 bikes lined up outside beer gardens or, at a random junction, 30 odd cyclists with many groups consisting of entire families.

Cyclists have entire routes with thorough signage & on one occasion a mirror was placed on a tight corner. As we have moved on from Germany and Austria the quality of the tracks has deteriorated. Here in Budapest there are very few cycle paths around the city. Mixing with the traffic adds another element to the cycling

As we’ve travelled through the countries I’ve been very interested to see how local people seem to have very long allotment or garden strips. This has been evident since Germany and maybe earlier on. Some of these strips have vegetables, fruit bushes or trees much the same as you’d see on a English allotment but many have a variety of different things such as horses, chickens, ‘country garden’ flowers and shrubs and some a combination of the above. The strips are quite skinny in comparison to their length so it looks very odd to see a horse, stable, cart and bail of hay, on this long skinny strip.

On route to Budapest we enjoyed a short day taking a lunch time dip in the Danube and arriving at our campsite, in Esztergom, by 3pm. Listed in Neale’s guide book as a delightful town we set off to explore the castle on a hill top, numerous churches and the usual cobbled streets.

Leaving Vienna

Captured in a mirror

Gyor

Church, Gyor

Esztergom

Gyor

Esztergom view of castle

View from castle

Part of the castle

View of castle

Lunch spot

After two days with some heavy rain & arriving at the campsite in a pretty sodden state, we’ve moved into a hostel for the next three days that we’ll be spending in Budapest. This gives us the added security of knowing that our kit is under lock and key and a chance to dry out.

First impressions of Budapest are that it is awesome. The Houses of Parliament are stunning. Budapest is quite small in comparison to London therefore the museums, grand hotels, monuments etc. are very near each other which has quite an impact, as in every direction you look, there is something stunning to see.

Ferry across the Danube

‘Allotment’ with horse

Budapest tunnel

Allotment

Parliament Budapest

1st view of Parliament

Parliament, Budapest

Our tiny room in Budapest

Budapest, Parliament view

Now we’ve been here for a couple of days and moved off the well trodden tourist route another aspect of the city is coming to the fore. Many of the back streets, whilst they can have very interesting little shops and eating places (we passed a street market area which was called A Jewish Street Eating Market) there is also a high degree of dilapidation in both the buildings, many needing cosmetic rendering, pointing and general repairs while others need more structural rebuilding, and the roads/paths.

Memory tree

Zsinagoga / Synagogue

Synagogue

We’ve visited a number of the key tourist sights which have been very splendid and also done a couple of museums and places of interest one of which was the main Jewish synagogue. This was attached to a museum which outlined the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish communities in Hungary and how they tried to secure their Jewish historic artefacts and culture through the years of persecution. This, together with a wall recording the Jews who perished during this period and a memorial tree with every leaf naming a person, were very moving and powerful experiences. The synagogue, whilst in principle similar to a church, was a very different and magnificent building.

The second museum we visited was about the torture of the Hungarian people during the Second World War and the Russian dictatorship that followed. Again, this was a very moving and powerful portrayal of the impact it had on Hungary as a nation and the specific impact on citizens, families and communities during these times.

Museum, Budapest

Castle, Budapest

Church, Budapest

Statue @ The Citadella, Budapest

Parliament, Budapest

Last Photo-Call for Vienna

May20

Well, that’s it, tomorrow we leave Vienna, albeit one of us will have to rush back by train on th’ appointed day, to collect visas. So, here’s a final photo-roll from Gideon’s pics.

A view of St Peter’s dom, hiding the bits in scaffolding or not cleaned yet.

The Belvedere, we couldn’t quite get to the purpose of; it seems to have been basically a summer house, Hapsburg-style. Compared to many of Franz Joseph’s (later) creations, it is relatively unornate.

These fine fellows’ forefathers must’ve carved a lot of the fine stonework. No call for it today. Instead, they apply a superb level of craftsmanship to Vienna’s pavements (sidewalks). You could’ve played snooker on this patch, I swear they were polishing it. Nothing like Murphy’s “hit it with the back of a shovel’n’run”.

St. Peter’s Dom, Vienna

The Belvedere, Vienna

Mending a 2m hole

The Kaiser appartments

A part of the travel set

The Kaiser/Emperor was never going to take up cycle-touring. The court was often in travelling mode, but it wasn’t choosing titanium sporks. This is how they packed the candlesticks. Actually, the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian empire did coincide with the invention of bicycle and indeed cycle touring.