Announcements

**CaperMike** · #1 18 May 2014

May 14 (continued)
In the evening we went to dinner at Metin’s and met his family. We became good buddies with Metin. His shop is a family run business. He invited us to his house for a meal. We met his daughters and his grandchildren. Through translators on iPhones and Metin and I speaking in broken French, we had a great evening. People and families have the same basic values everywhere.

We had some memorable pictures of the evening but Beverly lost the pictures in a card transfer to the computer. If they are recoverable, we'll post them later.

**CaperMike** · #2 18 May 2014

May 15

From Avanos in Cappadocia to Ankara it was about 250 miles.Except for a few days of rain, we have been treated to outstanding weather.Today it is starting to warm up – not hot, but it feels good to take off the helmet.Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and is a new, modern city. Not much of interest but some museums.

The manager of the hotel 2000 Antitepe came out when a motorcycle parked in his allotted parking place.Realizing that we had reservations, he was gracious and helpful.We wanted to go to the bazaar and to the museum of civilization but he said that it wasn’t safe.Instead, we walked over to the monuments and mausoleum in honor of Mustafa Anaturk, a Turkish hero.
Anaturk is considered the creater of modern Turkey. He embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, secular, and democratic nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, and women were given equal civil and political rights, while the burden of taxation on peasants was reduced.

We took the subway downtown and came upon the remnants of a protest over the Soma coal mine disaster. There were police in riot gear and a little buzz in the air but generally everyone was going about their business. According to some of the Turkish people we met, there is a general dissatisfaction with the government and it doesn’t take much to start a protest.

1. A stop for a lunch break on the drive to Ankara
2. In front of our hotel in Ankara
3. Anaturk’s monument hall
4. Ankara from the hill
5. Mike at Anaturk’s site
6. Mike at the subway station to downtown
7. Beverly at Kizilay square
8. Mike at Kizilay square

**CaperMike** · #3 18 May 2014

May 16

We looked around Ankara a bit and got on the road to Istanbul. It Was a good driving day and although one of our goals was to drive across the Bosphorus bridge like James Bond in Skyfall, we took a shortcut on a ferry ride from Yalova to Istanbul. Met a local Turk who went to Texas A&M. He works for a piping company that has a plant in Houston.

We made our way to the Hotel Maywood. It was exciting driving through the old town. Even our bike with the panniers was too wide to get through some places.

We went to dinner and met Robert and Ursula. Robert is a Dutch diplomat and Ursula studies and works on migration issues in the middle east. We had a great discussion and solved 4 of the outstanding world’s problems. Ursula and Beverly dominated the conversation on the status of women in the world.

Istanbul is awake all night. We roamed around for a while and then went to the hotel half asleep.

1.Waiting for the ferry to Istanbul in Yalova
2.Mike talking to his new friend on the ferry
3.Istanbul in the distance
4.Two mosques we will visit – Sofya and Blue
5.A local Turk who went to Texas A&M
6.The home for the bike the next few days

**CaperMike** · #4 19 May 2014

May 17

Turbo Touring.

We are stayed at the Maywood hotel which is right in the center of old town in the Sultanahmet district.We walked to the Hagia Sofya mosque and then the Blue mosque. The Hagia Sofia mosque was first constructed in the 5th century and is now a museum. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque( blue for the tile colors) was built in the early 1600s and is still a functioning Mosque. It was very nice weather on a Saturday with plenty of people.Tickets are required for Sofya but not the Blue.At the Blue, they have clothing rules for women but they do supply the clothes.Beverly had her own scarf but they gave her a skirt.Mike’s attire was fine except everyone has to take off their shoes. We spent quite some time sitting on a bench having lunch and just watching the people go by.Some of the women are traditionally dressed and some not.

1. Inside the Ayasofya mosque
2. Mike studying the map
3. Mike on the park bench where we watched people
4.A group of traditionally dressed women
5.People everywhere at the Blue Mosque
6. Sign about the mine disaster – hung on the Blue Mosque
7. Dress instructions for women
8. Beverly in her proper attire
9. Inside the Blue Mosque
10. Beverly and Mike inside

**CaperMike** · #5 19 May 2014

May 17 (cont)

The grand bazaar is a large area of shops.Although it is quite an experience, neither of us got lost like we did after just a few minutes in the Marrakesh souks.This is more like aisles and aisles of small stores. We walked the four corners of the bazaar.Although we didn’t buy a carpet, we tried out our knowledge from carpet school in Avanos last week.We discovered that indeed we had learned a lot.They took us upstairs and showed us wool that wasn’t wool.It was kind of fun knowing how to evaluate the carpets.Even if we did look at the fine ones, we wouldn’t have been able to tell if it was single or double knot because it is impossible to tell by examination.We looked around for jewelry and a water pipe. Monday is our anniversary so we bought some bling.

Beer and wine on the water at the Bosphorus then dinner at a restaurant nearby our hotel.We then crashed in our hotel after the big day.

1.Mike at the bazaar
2. Examining pipes
3. The stairs to more carpets
4. Looking at jewelry

**CaperMike** · #6 21 May 2014

May 19

Our original plan was to ride across the Bosphorus bridge while Beverly filmed it – like James Bond in Sky Ride.That was until we discovered the famous ride wasn’t filmed on the Bosphorus.We had already been up the Bosphorus, down the Bosphorus and under the Bosphorus bridge so we took that goal off our list and packed up for Bulgaria.

Turkey’s freeway system is great, both in the cities and between cities.Except for the slick pavement type between Izmir and Kas, we have seen good roads.The freeways are not heavily traveled outside the cities and often have three lanes each way.

Leaving Istanbul, we were in the city for maybe 30-40 minutes.The three hour drive to the border was mostly countryside.Any towns along the way were in the distance.There is a nuclear plant that we couldn’t determine if it was operating or not.

We stopped along the way for lunch and then arrived at the border; without our passports.The hotel back in Istanbul has a safe to put your valuables.We have a passport wallet for our passports so when When we packed, we took the passport wallet out of the safe.The passports, however, were not in the wallet. We called the hotel. The passports were still in the safe.

Today is a holiday in Turkey and Bulgaria. I guess the Bulgarian border closed for trucks without without telling anyone. We measured the truck line up at 5.5 miles.

We had to go back to Istanbul; 175 miles.We stayed another night at the Maywood Hotel. Our plan was to celebrate our Anniversary on the Black Sea. For this year, we changed our anniversary to tomorrow.

1. Leaving the Maywood Hotel
2. Driving out of Istanbul
3. Driving out of Istanbul
4.Trucks at the Bulgarian border
5. Border crossing ahead

**CaperMike** · #7 21 May 2014

May 18

The hotel offers to set up boat tours of the Bosphorus for 35 Euros.On the street, people try to sell tours for 10 Euros.But if you go down to the boat, you can jump on for 10 TL which is about 3 Euros.Granted, the tours are different i.e. the 25 Euro trip was 5 hours and included lunch.We thoroughly enjoyed our two hour cruise up the European side, past the palace Dolmabahce Palace, under the Bosphorus bridge, and back down the Asian side returning to the bustling port.

The tube under the Maramar Sea is the deepest submerged subway in the world.Since utilizing the public transportation is always on our to-do list, we had to try it.The trip lasts only four minutes.The stations and trains are modern and clean.We traveled to the Ayrilik Cesmesi station to visit Omer on the Asian side.He is a member of the Turkish motorcycle club and invited us to visit him at his coffee shop in the Nautilus Mall.He wasn’t in but Mike spoke with him on the phone and he welcomed us by having his store and crew treat us to Baklava and ice cream.

The combination of a Sunday of a Sunday – Monday weekend and beautiful weather translated into thousands of people in the streets, by the water, taking buses and just everywhere.It was impossible to cross the street where buses exit the terminal. We had to go to the loading area and traverse the many loading and moving buses.

A Turkish dinner specialty, at least for tourists, is Guvec.It is a stew cooked in a clay pot on fire.It is quite a show when they tap on the top and it blows off like a champagne cork – or they slice it off with a knife.Restaurants with both inside and outside seating line the back-streets near-by.Someone standing outside will flag you down to tell you that their food is the best. Most restaurants don’t serve

or wine and when they do even the food is more expensive.

1. Our tour boat on the Bosphorus
2. Dolmabahce Palace
3. Bosphorus Bridge with boat traffic
4.Going under the Bosphorus Bridge
5. Beverly and Mike
6. The crowds of people
7.Fishing off the bridge
8. The crowds crossing the street
9. Mado coffee shop in the Nautlius Mall
10.Beverly at the Uskadar station on the Asian side