Didn’t think much. If I’m honest. Breakfast was good. Room was noisy. TV has less working channels than all the other hotels I stayed in, (all 2), still. No English speaking channels when the others did. There were other things which were lacking the attention to detail which is the essence of the ’boutique’ experience.
They tried to charge me for an orange juice. That was with breakfast. Not really happening is it? First hotel ever where they’ve tried to charge me for the juice I’ve had with breakfast.
Got off quite swiftly.
The road to Eceabat
Is quite a short one….
Along the coast. The hills were rolling. The sea on the left, the mountains on the right…
Only a short trip…
Ferry
15 mins. Cost 20 tl. (50p) for me and my bike.
Cannakale
Feels like the first proper resort I’ve been to, even though it’s not a resort, it’s a port town.
There’s a lot going on. It’s got a promenade. It’s got a beach. It’s got a castle.
Ok. The beach I lied about, I did look. It seems to have a naval museum in it’s place. Rather than spend the afternoon on the beach, I visited the naval museum. It was quite interesting, I got to go onboard a submarine! That was pretty cool!
Walking around the naval museum took around 2 hours, all in all.
There was a castle from the Byzantine era also. This is what I originally wanted to see.
Turns out the only way to see it was by visiting the military museum!
Laundry
Sounds boring, but it’s a fact of life, especially when you’re in the sun, cycling.
After the first few days, you sweat less. Your body adjusts. I got wet yesterday in the hail. Damp stinky clothes? So, I dropped them off. Washed and dried cost me about £5. Slightly more, but it was mid day before I brought them in.
The hotel wanted to charge me double, (at least). Never get your laundry done at the hotel, chances are they’ll be using the local launderette. You’re saving them a trip, and yourself a lot of money.
Here’s some pictures from the day.
Tomorrow
Not a massive journey. Moving southward toward the Aegean coast!
Very testing. Wind in my face. Lots of hills. Significant hills which were long, steep and on winding roads.
After the first 12 minutes of so getting out of Kumbag, spent the entire morning stood on the pedals.
This really didn’t go away, or at least the wind didn’t. It was joined by a hailstorm later on!
The hills did improve in that the bends went away. When you’ve got bends like that, it’s impossible to sit down and just cycle normally.
In terms of the geography, flora and fauna, things were much more interesting.
Breakfast
Was late at the hotel, service started at 9.
It was a nice breakfast.
Breakfast at the Novo Port – yum!
Kumbag is the first sea level area for quite a distance, which I guess is why it’s got the port.
Novo Port – View of Kumbag port
The hotel, Novo Port Hotel, tried to fleece me a little on the dinner. When I arrived at 20.00, the idea of eating in and just being able to relax made me ask, ‘how much is dinner?’. To which she said €8, fish and chips. I thought, this is a good deal, but I didn’t really want the chips so much, so she said salad. So I said, ‘ok’.
I thought I should visit… More seriously, it was the only place with a hotel that I wanted to stay at on the peninsula that was a reasonable distance from Istanbul.
Tomorrow I will begin the cycling part of my journey. It was a lucky thing that I decided to visit some of the galleries and musea on the other side of the river.
Derailleur trouble
It turns out the front derailleur was not functioning too well and it took me around 30 minutes to sort it out. I ended up having to take it off the frame entirely and reset it’s position.
It must have taken a knock somewhere, either in the hotel or in transit, meaning that it wouldn’t reach the higher gears 17 – 24.
Better to discover it now. Get it out of the way.
Cycling around Karakoy
After that I cycled down to Karakoy which is on the other side of the river.
And old ones. Here in Istanbul. And, lots of tourists too. Of which I am one.
Arrival
Was on Saturday. Technically Sunday when I disembarked the plane. A detail which I failed to account for when booking my airport taxi on booking.com. The fact is they selected my arrival time based on my flight number. They got it wrong. This isn’t money I will be seeing again.
The taxi I haled outside the airport turned out to be cheaper. Just goes to show.
LHR terminal 5
Istanbul airport
I like these airports. All very modern. You can now take the ‘Elizabeth Line’ which will take you direct from Paddington to any LHR (London Heathrow) terminal.
After the taxi shenanigans, it did mean I arrived at the hotel later than I envisaged. I was tired. Carrying my bike in my bag in addition to all my luggage first to the bus stop in Kidlington, then to and around the underground in London, then around the airport in London, then again when I got off the plane in Turkey.
Pretty tiring. I was tired.
Acclimatisation, R&R
Was what I did yesterday.
Had a little look round on my bike. I’m close to Sultanahmet, the historical centre of Istanbul. I really didn’t feel like doing a lot. Certainly no activities.
Assembling the bike takes about 30 minutes.
Me and my bike bag
It’s a great way to get around any city. If you don’t mind the hills. I just wanted to look around and some of the hotels in areas that I decided not to book. Out of curiosity, to see what I was missing.
Bosporus from Karakoy Harbour
I like it here. It’s about 500m from the bazaar. There are many clothing and accessory shops here selling knock off goods to foreign venture capitalists. And locals alike. It’s knock off central.
The hotel is pleasant. The roads are quite. Breakfast is free as are the steam room and sauna. The hotel was reduced by around 40% in price through booking.com genius discount. The room is nice and big, big enough to assemble the bike in without any problems.
Weather
Has definitely improved since I got here. It’s gone from cold and raining to sunny and warm.
Great news!
Yeni mosque
Bosporus, Hamam, Bazaar
Although not in that order…
After a decent night’s sleep, felt a bit more energetic! The sun was shining, the weather was warm. There was a couple of things I needed before I depart on my travails on velo. Nothing serious, just stuff I didn’t bother to bring over.
Took a walk over to the Bazaar with a vague shopping list in mind.
So little pressure, so much time, the ideal way to just kick back and relax for a couple of hours immersed in the sights and smells until eventually I got the the items I needed.
Bosporus river cruise
As I was walking down toward the river area to get some food, I got kamakied (Greek – street sales person) into a river cruise.
Due to my blood sugar induced lack of enthusiasm, my negotiating tack seemed to work a treat and I beat the tout down to the pretty reasonable price of £2.50! That was for an hour’s cruise.
Here’s some pictures.
Suleymaniye MosqueIstanbul from the Bosporus
That felt pretty worthwhile. Especially after seeing some small porpoises surface whilst we were out in the channel.
When I got back to dry land, it was time to get the food I was after originally, a fresh fish baguette, again at a discounted price! I sat and relaxed on some dwarf sized garden furniture provided by the café.
Took this picture of a cat. He was relaxing also.
Cat sleeps in box
Looks happy in his box! Non?
Hamam
Walked back to the hotel and had a little nap for a couple of hours. I also wanted to research a good Hamam to go to for the afternoon. A Hamam is a Turkish bath where they will wash you and scrub you in intense heat.
There seemed to be few within walking distance. After a quick check, I just went to the nearest. The reviews were good. It seemed the same as any of the others.
It’s been 25 years since I’ve been to a Turkish Hamam. I do remember them being cheaper and more brutal. Maybe one of the perks of beating up foreigners in the guise of doing them some sort of service has gone now, and the prices have shot up. Who can tell?
What I can tell you is the Hamam cost me £43 for approx 2hrs.
That is pretty shocking.
Last time I was here, same thing, slightly better and longer rub, about £8.
Once I get out into Turkey proper, the prices may drop down to a ‘normal’ level. I can’t imagine you’re going to get any Turkish people in there at that price.
No doubt there will be more about that later, after a few long days cycling, there’s nothing like sitting in the steam room or sauna, but when it’s £43, you will be thinking twice.
That’s the first time I’ve felt like I’ve been fleeced since I got here. Still, there we are, it is still a unique and absorbing experience.
I’ve sorted my boat out, as much as I can. I’ve sorted my teeth out, as much as I can.
The flooding rivers, (Thames and Cherwell), are finally abating (a little), although the Thames is still on red boards as I write this.
It’s time to move.
Here’s an update on some of the things that have been going on over the last 2 weeks.
Easter in Gloucester
Did a little tour of my relatives for the holiday period.
Went to visit sister in Gloucestershire for bank holiday Monday.
Due to the wetness of the environment, the usual bank holiday walk in the country wasn’t possible. Instead we took a look around the Cathedral at Gloucester.
Here there was no danger in getting covered in mud, or rained on, falling over or damaging or embarrassing yourself or causing damage or injury to your person. These things being the main consideration when walking in hills or valleys in the current climate. These are waterlogged and the paths deep in mud.
Gloucester Cathedral
As you can see, there’s no mud here. It’s not even raining!
Gloucester CathedralGloucester Cathedral
Prefer the walk in the country, but sometimes that just ain’t possible.
Every four years, boats on the UK canal and waterways require a safety examination called a Boat Safety certificate, or BSS.
Most of the stuff they’re looking at is to do with your fuel and energy supply and isolation. That means the batteries, the gas and the diesel.
There’s a set of guidelines published in the Boat Safety Scheme, and compliance is dependent on one of their certified inspectors visiting your boat and ensuring it meets the required standards.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the inspector Mark Paris, based in Thrupp, (just down the road) come and do an inspection. It failed due to a leaky regulator.
The pressure in the gas system to the stove had dropped off, and it’s something I had noticed by a slightly less aggressive flame.
I was going to check on this device because of that fact.
It’s called the regulator.
New Gas regulator with pressure gauge
This is a new regulator with has a pressure gauge on it. This can be used to a)see how much gas is in the can. b)see if it is leaking.
The gas bottle is full. And since replacing the regulator, my system is gas tight. No problems.
There were an number of other lesser things which were also been brought to my attention. These include fitting fuses to the battery side of two of my solar panels.
Additional solar
When I fitted the additional panel, I bought a battery side fuse to fit. This sits between the battery and the charge controller, (which controls the solar panel output). If there’s a short circuit on the battery>controller side, the fuse will trip preventing stopping the batteries from blowing up or the wires melting, or something nasty like that.
My existing sets of panels fitted had already been wired with fuses when I put them in. This last one I hadn’t got around to. So, that was a job I had to do.
Sunpower 100w flexible solar panel
12v Fusebox
As you can see, the fuse was able to go into the existing fusebox alongside the existing fuses. All I had to do was run the MC4 cable to the back, insert the fuse I bought from Bimble Solar, connect it up press it in and put the box back in place.
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