Day 144 to Istanbul Turkey, 87km, 11,950km to date, 1253m up,  20m end.

The last day!  Great scenery, however it was raining heavily for most of the day, hence almost no pictures.  After being inland for most of the ride, we arrived on the Bosphorus Strait and rode most of the length of the Strait.  We stopped for lunch at a floating restaurant, then rode as a group the rest of the way into Istanbul.  About two blocks from the hotel, we stopped to celebrate, many photos and glasses of Champagne. 

For dinner we went to the restaurant in the Maiden’s Tower, which is on a small Island in the Bosphorus in the middle of Istanbul.  A very very nice evening.  This was our last meal as part of the tour and a fitting last meal it was!  I was told that there are scenes in two James Bond movies that feature the place.  It is worth Googling.

I get to spend today being a tourist in Istanbul, way too short a time, then fly off first thing tomorrow.  I’ll do one more post with some summary thoughts.

A pic from the hotel:

Arrived Istanbul, all happy and safe.  Looking forward to exploring tomorrow.

More details later, a couple end pics:

Day 143 to Sile Turkey, 99km, 11,863km to date, 86km to go, 1733m up,  20m end.

Another day with lots of climbing, however a really beautiful day.  We started off in the fog which slowly cleared about 1/3rd of the way into the ride.  After lunch we arrived back on the Black Sea, conveniently at a resort - might as well take advantage of the beach (Robinson Beach) and resort.  So, a bottle of nice red wine and a swim were in order.

This was our last full riding day, only a partial day into Istanbul tomorrow.  The wine consumption that started with the swim, is expected to continue this evening….

A few pics (none from the early part as it was too foggy):

The beach and resort:

No comments about the funny tan lines...

Day 142 to Kayacik Camp Turkey, 124km, 11,860km to date, 182km to go, 1343m up,  35m end. 

A very good day.  The early part of the ride was along the ridges from the camp location to the coast, I felt like I was in Tuscany in Italy.  Then we dropped down to the Black Sea coast.  After a few km it was getting fairly warm - so a swim in the Black Sea it was.  The Black Sea was a very nice temperature, cool but definitely not cold.

It will be a fairly hard day tomorrow, then a relatively easy day into Istanbul.  Wow, 5 months coming to a conclusion, a bit hard to believe!

Some pics from the day:

Finally after riding 90% of the way across Turkey, we see the Black Sea:

Grant and Bruno in for a swim, I joined them after this picture:

Day 140/141 to Kaymaklar Camp Turkey, 141km, 11,761km to date, 303km to go, 1713m up,  228m end. 

I’m starting to find these days fairly easy, or saying it better, not really hard.  With temperatures a bit cooler and a bit of wind behind today, really helped. Only 3 riding days left, one expected to be medium-hard, one hard and the last easy.  Really hard to believe it will be over in 3 days!

Yesterday, we had a rest day in Safronbolu.  One of my objectives has been to find a Turkish coffee.  I succeeded, but it took a bit of searching.  Turkish coffee is fairly rare in Turkey, in fact, so far I have found in only really high end bars/restaurants. My success yesterday was at a fairly fancy rooftop establishment. I have also found out that there are no Turkish coffee beans, the coffee beans are imported (African, South American).

My Turkish coffee:

About to depart our rest day Safranbolu hotel:

A few pics from the day:

I liked the construction of this railway bridge and protection: