My latest bicycle touring to Australia update: a few days off from cycling in Istanbul. Bit of a sad day today, as I had to say goodbye to Julie. It’s been nice playing the tourist for the past few days. But that’s not what this trip is about! I need to get back on my bike and get on with the next leg of my journey, next stop, Iran.

After seeing Julie off at the airport, I returned to the hotel to look at the map. It was then that I realised just how much further I had to cycle! And how little I’d already cycled, I’m not even a quarter of the way!

I spent the rest of the day cleaning and servicing the bike. Before retiring to the hotel bar for a few hours! As I was leaving the bar to go out for dinner tonight, I said to Ahmet, the barman, that I would be back later. He said, “fine I’ll see you later. I just need to get another bottle of gin.” he only got a new one last night! I think there’s somebody in this hotel who drinks a lot of gin!!

Dinner was nice. I had a traditional Turkish dish called Testi Kebabi, which contains onion, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and spices. It is made with either lamb or chicken. I had lamb. The dish gets cooked in a clay pot on an open wood fire. The clay pot is then brought to the table, and with a swift blow from a heavy knife, the pot is cracked open and poured onto a plate. It came with rice and bread.

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my journey around the world
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos

Follow My Bicycle Touring Adventures

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I continue to travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. If you’re enjoying the ride and want to fuel my next mile, you can always buy me a beer. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with regular photo updates that I generally publish each month.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry page.

My latest bicycle touring to Australia update: a few days off from cycling in Istanbul. Continuing with the theme of playing the tourist! We decided to go on a cruise up the Bosporus and wished we’d never bothered! We thought it was a two-hour round trip to Kavagi, a traditional fishing village. Ideally, it would leave us plenty of time to explore more of the city when we return.

We were gone for over six hours! Six hours! After stopping at Kavagi, the boat moored up, and that was it for three hours! It wouldn’t have been quite as bad if there was something there! All there was was a collection of overpriced restaurants and some ruins of an old fort! After visiting the fort, the only thing to do was visit one of the restaurants! I think the restaurants were in cahoots with the boat people! And it was all a scam to get bums on seats in the restaurants! Their scam worked!

We were definitely mis-sold this trip, and we weren’t the only ones who thought so! An American on the same boat was also under the impression that it was a two-hour trip. He likened it to being on Alcatraz! Looking on the bright side, at least we weren’t being hassled by touts asking if we wanted to buy a carpet!

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my journey around the world
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos

Follow My Bicycle Touring Adventures

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I continue to travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. If you’re enjoying the ride and want to fuel my next mile, you can always buy me a beer. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with regular photo updates that I generally publish each month.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry page.

Bicycle Touring to Australia: Turkey, Istanbul, off to the Grand Bazaar

My latest bicycle touring to Australia update: a few days off from cycling in Istanbul, Turkey. It’s my second day of not turning a pedal. I’m starting to get withdrawal symptoms! Not really, I’m enjoying playing the tourist with Julie. First, on our list this morning was the Grand Bazaar. What a shopper’s paradise! I’m not into shopping at all, but what a fascinating place! There were hundreds of shops. I think you could have bought almost anything in the warren of alleys. And yes, we managed to get lost!

Reluctantly, I bought a pair of shoes today! Julie thought I should dress a bit smarter when we went out to eat! She was supposed to bring a pair of shoes for me from home, but she forgot! Really? More like she didn’t have room in her case, judging by all the clothes I’ve seen! Shoes in hand, we then went to the Spice Market. The selection of spices was enormous, half of them I’d never even heard of! The air was full of lovely smells and aromas, another fascinating place.

After lunch, we made our way to the Blue Mosque, so-called because of the blue tiles that adorn the walls! They were everywhere, on the walls, the columns holding up the roof, and on the domed ceilings! There’s certainly a lot of them! An impressive building.

It gets very tiring walking around playing the tourist, and somebody’s always trying to sell you something! Or they come up to give you advice and say that they’re not a tour guide. They just want to help! But, interestingly, they’ve got a carpet shop around the corner, come and have a look! Now that would be impressive, carrying a carpet on my bike to Australia! So many people with carpet shops!

Tour Information

It’s been years since I took this ride, but the memories (and the data) are all archived:

• Photos: See my photos on Flickr
• The route: View my journey around the world
• Videos: Check out my YouTube videos

Follow My Bicycle Touring Adventures

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I continue to travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. If you’re enjoying the ride and want to fuel my next mile, you can always buy me a beer. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with regular photo updates that I generally publish each month.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry page.