I had started this as a day-by-day-blow-by-blow account of our trip. However, knowing that we would not be able to post until we got home, and now on the flight back, I decided that a more global approach might be better. That way you can pick a title that interests you and skip the rest. I must also say up front, as I write now, every mile we fly closer to home, fatigue is sinking in and a deep sadness becomes more real as we return to our family and friends diminished by one. Our dear friend, Chris Ward, died suddenly while we were away and it seems surreal to come back to our "normal" life without him. So if the writing seems a little lifeless this time, that's why.
Pre and Post Tours
Thinking about it as we packed up last night in Athens, if Istanbul is New York, then Athens is D.C. At least that's a convenient way for me to think about it. I don't know which is bigger, but I found Istanbul more challenging in many ways, and Athens more "user friendly." We walked for two full days in both places, led by knowledgable and friendly guides. We saw the major sights in both places: In Istanbul the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern; in Athens the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, the Acropolis Museum, the Acropolis, the Agora and visited an Orthodox church high on a hill overlooking the entire city. In Istanbul, we stayed on the ship which was docked in a port 20 minutes walk from the old part of the city and all the sights; in Athens our hotel overlooked the Temple of Zeus with a restaurant looking directly out to the Acropolis, both lit brightly at night. All incredible. In Istanbul we took a boat tour up the Bosphorus half way, and attended a whirling dervish ritual. In Athens a "gala" dinner at the hotel restaurant with the full moon and the Acropolis in full view. Both cities had sleeping dogs often in the middle of the street, and cats sitting in corners and on doorsteps and wandering ruins. The calls to prayer from mosques ringing out all over the city are another unique feature of Istanbul. At the end, I'll post what I had already written about the pre-tour in Istanbul (and our first three days at sea) for those who are gluttons for descriptive detail. The days in both cities were exhausting and jam-packed. We did skip the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market in Istanbul to take a rest, but it was go-go-go in Athens. On our last day, we went in to an interesting looking gallery. It turns out that the proprietor was a professional cyclist in the 70’s (see picture of his team) and had his beautiful bike frame hanging on the wall above the door of his shop. A fitting end to our time in Athens.
Riding
We did our best and rode the "short rides" (15-38 miles) on every day rides were offered (5 out of 7 days in the Aegean). Which was our goal. They were all very challenging for us. We always rode by ourselves, sometimes passing or more often being passed by other tandems. Every ride had multiple steep grades (8-12%) that we struggled to conquer. We only stopped once and that was because we had gone off course and had to turn the bike around on a steep grade. Joe and I were pretty amazed and challenged to be able to complete all those rides at our level of training. A big thanks to our biking coach, Melissa! Our new bike worked wonderfully and the electronic shifting helped a lot on the hills. The roads varied from narrow roads in villages to nearly car-free "back roads" to a stretch or two of highway and city roads. We had to take ferries on two of the rides. Two rides were out-and-back and three were loops.
Itinerary (after leaving Istanbul)
Day 1: The ship docked at a port south of Canakkale on the Asian side. We were bussed and bikes were trucked to the city and onto a ferry to cross the narrowest part of the Dardanelles to the Gallipoli peninsula. We rode from a village there to the monument to the fallen during WWI and the horrible battle there and on through a national park where the busses and trucks met us at the park headquarters for the trip back to the ferry and the ship.
Day 2: We were docked at the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Again busses and trucks took us to different starting points depending on the length of ride. Everyone had an opportunity to tour an ouzo factory and an olive oil pressing museum. We took a tiny boat-ferry (6 tandems and 12 people fit) across the mouth of the gulf there. Hard ride back to the city where we encountered hundreds of refugees (see the detailed description of that day below).
Day 3: No riding as heavy rain was predicted AND the touring itinerary was too busy. We took buses to a rug "factory" and were given a tour and description of how the carpets were made. Plenty of time to shop for gorgeous carpets. From there we were bussed to “Mary’s House,” said to be where the Virgin Mary spent her last days, then to a terrific lunch at a hilltop restaurant in a little village nearby. The jam-packed day continued to the ancient city of Ephesus. Amazing (see the description also below). The rain held off through most of that tour, thankfully.
Day 4: We were scheduled to visit Kos, Rhodes and Santorini but the weather forecast was so bad that our fearless leader, Bill, and the ship captain came up with an entirely different plan to avoid stormy seas and literally bring us good weather. We cut across to the west with just one rocky and rolly night to perfect weather on the island of Paros, which had been scheduled originally for our last day. We rode to a gorgeously quaint fishing village and back to the ship, our shortest ride of the tour (15 miles).
Day 5: The ship docked in a sheltered harbor at the city of Nafplion, where we stayed safely moored for two nights. Rain had moved in there and riding would have been difficult. Most of us chose to stay on the ship. I was sick with an intestinal bug and slept most of the day. That was also the day Joe caught the internet in the lounge and we learned of Chris' death.
Day 6: Bill's distributor of Santana bikes in Europe, Wolfgang, was along on the trip and had been sent off the boat before we docked to scout new rides for our new itinerary. Wolfgang and his pal and tandem partner, Oscar, scouted some doozies for us! We rode from the ship out and back 38 windy miles. I thought it was going to be an (incredibly) flat ride, but I misread the GPS ride overview and the flat was only the first and last 10 miles. In between we climbed many steep hills and totaled almost 1600 feet of ascents. Had a lunch of dates, figs and Bonk Bars on the steps of a closed restaurant on the windy coast and peed behind a tree.
Day 7: We moved to the tiny island of Spetses in cool but perfectly clear weather and cycled 16 breezy miles around the gorgeous island. More climbing, another 1500 feet, but by then what did we expect. It was another "Wolfgang" ride.
The Islands
Gorgeous. Sparkling blue water, olive trees everywhere, evergreen forests, lovely and clean villages, friendly people. Everything I had ever seen in movies about the Greek islands was true and more. On Paros, all the houses were whitewashed with blue trim to match the colors of the Greek flag. There's nothing else to say. Look at travel brochure pictures of Greece and that's really what it looks like.
The Ship
Our second experience on La Belle de L'Adriatique was as pleasant as the first. More so, as some of the crew were familiar to us. Joe developed a special relationship with the lovely 27-year old Croatian restaurant manager, Manuela, and I think she liked me a little, too. The Philipino crew were again wonderful with the men helping to load and unload bikes every day in addition to doing their own jobs. The room service was wonderful. Our towels were folded into the shapes of different animals every day (see the pic of the bunny on the last day). Different this year was the crew talent show. All of them did terrific singing and dancing complete with a Tae Kuan Do demonstration. The men even made themselves into a bicycle with tire-pumping and a rider with a Santana flag flying. It was hilarious. One of the housekeepers was a wonderful singer and some of the waiters backed her up with some smooth do-wop moves. Sadly the hunky Croatian captain was replaced this time by a more rotund and outwardly curmudgeonly one, but he and Bill kept us safe and got us into unlikely ports.
Our Fellow Riders
This trip was more fun than the last because we knew many more folks from our two previous trips. Again, a group of all ages, but mostly 40-80-somethings who ride up to 70 miles in hilly terrain without breaking a sweat. Incredible. There were some others at our level but the "long riders" greatly outnumbered us "short riders.” That's OK. We definitely rode this time to our training limits and are once again inspired to keep it up. As usual, we bonded with one other couple, John and Charlotte from Pennsylvania who ride singles (one of maybe two three other pairs of single riders). They both were still swearing by the end of the trip that they would never be able to ride a tandem. They did say they really enjoyed the feel on the ship among the tandem group: lots of camaraderie, I guess, and high spirits. From Athens they were heading to Barcelona for another 10-days' single cycling tour. They admitted that cycling is pretty much "what they do." I think that's true for a lot of people on that ship. Our faithful amateur yoga instructor, Gail with her 82-year old husband Alvin from Manhattan, provided an hour's worth of group stretching most days. Alvin's role was to get on the loudspeaker announcing in a top-volume, deadpan voice: "Yoga. 6 o'clock. Main lounge. Bring a towel." That at 30 minutes ahead of time. Then again: "Yoga. Main lounge. Bring a towel. 5 minutes." He didn't do yoga, but afterwards as we were filing out, he was on the ground doing finger-tip pushups. What a guy.
Bad Stuff
Joe got bad nasal congestion in Istanbul all of a sudden which lingered for several days. I picked up an intestinal bug on the first day of riding and it was nasty for 5 days until a lovely internist among the passengers finally gave me 1000 mgs of zythromycin which cured me completely in 24 hours. Having ridden while sick, and had a new experience with all those hills, I'll be interested to see how riding feels at home, healthy and on familiar rides. Hopefully stronger and faster.
On that same first day of riding, we got to our first stop and I realized I didn't have my backpack. Read the Gallipoli post below for all the gory details of that horror show, but all's well that ends well. A half-day of thinking I had lost my wallet, camera and Joe's cell may have lowered my resistance to whatever made me sick. Not to mention that I definitely did not hydrate sufficiently and was in pain all over that night. The next ride I filled up my Camelback and drank all the time. Made all the difference in how my muscles felt after the rides.
The pace in general was exhausting. We normally had to get up at 6:AM (vacation???) to get breakfast and get off the ship with all our gear and the bike to either get on a bus or get on the road so we could make it back in time for the ship's departure.
Bill's "ride talks.” Actually not so bad this time, as he, too, was really sick at the beginning of the trip. When he did talk, it's always the same: the rides are "nearly flat" and the weather is "nearly perfect." He does know his history and can spin an interesting yarn, however.
Overall Impressions
These trips are always an adventure in many ways, and a learning experience. New people, new places, new challenges on the bike. The Bill and Jan McCready definitely deliver and there's no doubt we are getting our money's worth. They go to terrific lengths to make sure that we are well fed in unique settings on the road, and well-guided and safe. It's always been clear that we are expected to be able to hold our own on the road and that's fine. We've got good emergency numbers and they have a responsive maintenance and support staff. They call what they do "shared vacations" and in the end that really seems to be true. They keep looking for places they want to go and things they want to see and we come along.
Stuff I Wrote Before All the Stuff Above
Thursday-Saturday, October 15-18 Istanbul Pre-Tour
Greetings from cloudy but still magnificent Istanbul! After a delayed but ultimately uneventful flight to Frankfurt and an almost 3 hour layover there, we arrived at Ataturk airport around 5 PM on Thursday. The first task was to locate, if not our guides, other couples wheeling very large boxes along with their normal sized luggage. Find them we did, gradually gathering outside the arrival area. After an hour and a half of waiting, wondering, and getting to know a few of our fellow travelers, a resourceful young woman made contact with a second gathering at the other end of the waiting area and the two young Turkish people responsible for herding us onto buses. That process was entertainingly chaotic (in spite of travel exhaustion), crossing lanes of rapidly moving buses, cabs and cars with two large carts of awkward bags and bike boxes. The two large buses were not needed for the people, but for the luggage! So we chose the second (quiet) bus along with four other people for the 40 minute drive along the coast into the heart of the Old City, where La Belle de l'Adriatic is docked. Dinner onboard, unpacking, and bed.
Friday, up and at 'em for breakfast and an 8:30 walking tour of Topkapi Palace, home of Sultans and their harems over the centuries. After a lovely walk through one of very few parks in Istanbul with our wonderful guide, we toured inside the palace, seeing an 800 karat diamond and countless huge emeralds in the Treasury, the Sultan's reception rooms, and a long walk through the many rooms of the harem, their eunuchs, the queen mother's quarters and the five kitchens (they had to feed 5,000 people a day at peak capacity). Gorgeous view of the Bosphorus from the balconies. From there we visited the ancient "Basilica Cistern," of which we had no idea. Ohmygoodness, what a place. Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century from 336 repurposed Roman columns, it once held 100,000 tons of water to supply the palace. Thanks to the making of "From Russia with Love" with Sean Connery (our guide talked about "BS and AS"--before Sean and after Sean), it now contains walkways throughout, beautifully lit. Dank, dark and gorgeous. Oh, and as a couple of the columns were too short, they found two random blocks of marble to prop them up which just happened to be masterpiece Roman sculptures of the head of Medusa. One is placed upside down (see picture) and one sideways, because if you look at her head-on, you will be turned to stone. Can't have that.
Back to the ship with sore legs and exhausted, jet-lagged body to another lovely dinner on board and bed.
Saturday, our same fabulous guide took us to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Stunning and indescribable. Highlights for us were the massive size of both buildings, entering a working mosque (with limbs covered and head scarf for me), and also, for me, stepping inside the women's prayer space with a shelf of the Koran in many languages, and small piles of prayer beads scattered in the corners. I had an unexpected feeling of peace and maybe a little understanding of how worshipping in a place designated for women only could bring a special serenity. We can choose that in the U.S. with women's retreats and maybe cloistered nuns (what do I know about that?). In any case, I found myself wondering about the positives of having women-only time built into everyday life. Sometimes it seems that we in the west have a mostly negative view of women's roles in Muslim societies, but a solitary moment in this women's space in this gigantic place of worship was precious. Hagia Sophia is one of those places, like the mosque/church in Cordoba, Spain, that highlights the early encounters and interaction between Islamic and Christian societies and their influence on each other. It is also a reminder of how advanced Arabic cultures were scientifically and culturally so much earlier than western European cultures. The damaged, but still glorious mosaics in Hagia Sophia along with the structure of the building itself were fascinating. An interesting bit of modern history there involved the filming of the movie "Argos." Ben Affleck, while scouting the location, was horrified by the florescent bulbs in the low chandeliers. Local officials of course said that changing them would take months of paperwork. Affleck said he would pay out of pocket right then and there. They were changed the same day.
Back to the ship for lunch. We chose to skip another long uphill walk to see the Grand Bazaar, which we had seen when were were passing through a couple of years ago on the way to central Asia. Put our bike cages on the bike, wandered the deck looking at all the other tandems and all their unique features. Still an amazing site to see them all amassed and ready to go.
At 4:30, we left on another half-hour walk to a tour boat and an evening cruise half way up the Bosphorus with tea and pastries. Gorgeous views of both the European and Asian shores with uniquely restored traditional wooden houses, mansions, hotels and restaurants with green hills rising behind them. Lots of boats zooming around each other on the way back to the Golden Horn (a narrow bay separating two parts of the European side). A crazy walk of 90 people with a guide in front, in the middle and the back weaving through streets packed with people of all kinds and dodging/stopping traffic across busy streets took us to an old theater in the middle of the old town to see a "Whirling Dervish" ceremony by the Sema Istanbul Derivshes. The ceremony "represents the mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to perfection" (from the brochure). I found it mesmerizing, hypnotic, impressive and very spiritual. Some found it a snoozefest after a day of, according to some peoples' devices, 30,000 steps of not flat walks through the city.
Back to the ship en masse through the streets to a late dinner and midnight bedtime. Our early impression of the group on the boat this year is overwhelmingly positive. We have the usual mix of ages and riding experience, skewing heavily to VERY experienced and strong riders who have ridden on many Santana and other tours and think nothing of riding up Mt. Ventoux (think Tour de France). We will see how our training holds up as we begin the riding days tomorrow in Gallipoli. The weather in Istanbul has been very cloudy, but not rainy. Overhearing just now a conversation between Bill an the captain of the ship, the rest of the week through the islands is likely to be pretty fairly stormy. We'll see and try to be ready for anything.
Monday, October 19, 2015
What a day. Up at 6, breakfast, gathering all our gear and off the ship with the bike at 8:15. Bikes were loaded onto trucks and people onto buses to catch the 9:AM ferry from Canakkle on the Asian side of the Dardanelles (a narrow strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Agean) to the Gallipoli Penninsula on the European side. Long riders started from the ferry port of Eceabat. The rest of us continued to a small town called Alcitepe where we unloaded and took off for a 20 mile ride. The first 8 miles were fine until we reached the impressive monument to the fallen Turkish soldiers during the Battle of Gallipoli during the 1st World War. As we parked our bike, I suddenly realized that I did not have my backpack, containing Joe's cell phone, the camera, and my wallet with ID and credit cards. Horrible feeling. Our head guide called every one of the bus drivers, a colleague back at the village: nothing. I had no idea, really, where I had left it, bus, ferry (worst case) or village. There was nothing more to be done at that point, so we had a very tense ride to lunch, back at Alcitepe. As we pulled up to the spot from where we had taken-off, we saw four women knitting in front of their shop. I anxiously showed them the same kind of backpack on another rider and they immediately pointed down the lane to our lunch location. I was overwhelmed with relief and hugged them all, one by one. The guide had told me that 95% of the time they recovered lost items like this and he was right. The mood of the day turned around in an instant. Whew.
After a lunch of grilled chicken and pasta, we took off again towards the National Park Headquarters. This segment included what was to become the first of many, many tough hills (this one a 10% grade) we struggled on and ultimately conquered. The busses and trucks were waiting at the parking lot. Joe helped load bikes and I crashed on the bus. Felt terrible. Got back to the ship and took a nap. Every muscle still hurt at dinner and decided that I hadn't hydrated sufficiently during the hot ride. Joe had been dealing with a head cold since the first days in Istanbul, so we were both struggling.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
In spite of still feeling lousy (by the morning, I was experiencing intestinal distress and Joe's cold was hanging on), we had another 6:AM call for the day's ride on the island of Lebvos. Again, busses and trucks allowed riders to choose rides of different lengths. In spite of our fearless leader and ride scout's description of nearly flat, we set out on our 23 mile ride with what turned out to be almost 2,000 feet of climbing, a new record for us. Lots of hard climbs!
Before setting out, we had a short tour of an Ouzo factory, but declined the tasting. I was busy running to the public WC (TMI, I know, but it's a real issue when you're about to head out on a long ride). We made it 11 miles to a the narrow streets of a lovely town, and finding our winding way to our stop at an olive oil pressing museum. After a delicious tasting, brief but interesting tour there, and a couple of welcome WC visits, we took off for four hilly miles ending at a picturesque village where we waited for a tiny ferry boat. The clear, sunny sky was spectacular and the water at the mouth of the Bay of Geras was sparkling blue. Joe had an amusing conversation with a couple of local men trying to answer their questions about the bike, and especially how the electronic gearing worked. Finally, one of the man said, "No, tic-a-tic-a-tic-a?" Joe said, "That's it! No, tic-a-tic-a-tic-a, just TIC!" Heads nodding and laughs all around. After a 10 minute ferry ride, we struggled on tough climbs for 8 more miles, then swooped into the Mytilene on a main road into the center of the city. Looking for a place for some lunch, I walked into what looked like a nice outdoor cafe with lots of people of all kinds drinking coffee and just sitting around. As I walked further in, a man said, "Hi, Barbara!" This is always a startling experience, until I realize I'm wearing my mandatory name tag everywhere we go. I stopped and ended up talking with the owner of the cafe, who said he had "given it over" to the refugees. It hadn't yet registered with me that all of the "normal" looking people were in fact, refugees. Several very young men were standing nearby and I asked where they were from. One was from Iraq and one from Syria. I wanted to ask more, but it was clear that communication beyond that in English would be difficult. The owner (whose English was very good) said, "They're all so tired. They just need a place to sit and rest in peace." It was kindly and gently suggested that I was a fish out of water there and so I walked back to where Joe had been waiting with the bike on the sidewalk. We decided to just return to the ship and scavenge for lunch. As we rode through the town to the port the refugees lined the streets, sitting in groups, in pup tents and crowded in a large group around the customs house as we passed through to go to the ship. Behind the fence from inside the port, there were hundreds of peaceful people waiting to be processed before they could be transported to the mainland to continue their trip. A sobering sight.
Pre and Post Tours
Thinking about it as we packed up last night in Athens, if Istanbul is New York, then Athens is D.C. At least that's a convenient way for me to think about it. I don't know which is bigger, but I found Istanbul more challenging in many ways, and Athens more "user friendly." We walked for two full days in both places, led by knowledgable and friendly guides. We saw the major sights in both places: In Istanbul the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern; in Athens the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, the Acropolis Museum, the Acropolis, the Agora and visited an Orthodox church high on a hill overlooking the entire city. In Istanbul, we stayed on the ship which was docked in a port 20 minutes walk from the old part of the city and all the sights; in Athens our hotel overlooked the Temple of Zeus with a restaurant looking directly out to the Acropolis, both lit brightly at night. All incredible. In Istanbul we took a boat tour up the Bosphorus half way, and attended a whirling dervish ritual. In Athens a "gala" dinner at the hotel restaurant with the full moon and the Acropolis in full view. Both cities had sleeping dogs often in the middle of the street, and cats sitting in corners and on doorsteps and wandering ruins. The calls to prayer from mosques ringing out all over the city are another unique feature of Istanbul. At the end, I'll post what I had already written about the pre-tour in Istanbul (and our first three days at sea) for those who are gluttons for descriptive detail. The days in both cities were exhausting and jam-packed. We did skip the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market in Istanbul to take a rest, but it was go-go-go in Athens. On our last day, we went in to an interesting looking gallery. It turns out that the proprietor was a professional cyclist in the 70’s (see picture of his team) and had his beautiful bike frame hanging on the wall above the door of his shop. A fitting end to our time in Athens.
Riding
We did our best and rode the "short rides" (15-38 miles) on every day rides were offered (5 out of 7 days in the Aegean). Which was our goal. They were all very challenging for us. We always rode by ourselves, sometimes passing or more often being passed by other tandems. Every ride had multiple steep grades (8-12%) that we struggled to conquer. We only stopped once and that was because we had gone off course and had to turn the bike around on a steep grade. Joe and I were pretty amazed and challenged to be able to complete all those rides at our level of training. A big thanks to our biking coach, Melissa! Our new bike worked wonderfully and the electronic shifting helped a lot on the hills. The roads varied from narrow roads in villages to nearly car-free "back roads" to a stretch or two of highway and city roads. We had to take ferries on two of the rides. Two rides were out-and-back and three were loops.
Itinerary (after leaving Istanbul)
Day 1: The ship docked at a port south of Canakkale on the Asian side. We were bussed and bikes were trucked to the city and onto a ferry to cross the narrowest part of the Dardanelles to the Gallipoli peninsula. We rode from a village there to the monument to the fallen during WWI and the horrible battle there and on through a national park where the busses and trucks met us at the park headquarters for the trip back to the ferry and the ship.
Day 2: We were docked at the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Again busses and trucks took us to different starting points depending on the length of ride. Everyone had an opportunity to tour an ouzo factory and an olive oil pressing museum. We took a tiny boat-ferry (6 tandems and 12 people fit) across the mouth of the gulf there. Hard ride back to the city where we encountered hundreds of refugees (see the detailed description of that day below).
Day 3: No riding as heavy rain was predicted AND the touring itinerary was too busy. We took buses to a rug "factory" and were given a tour and description of how the carpets were made. Plenty of time to shop for gorgeous carpets. From there we were bussed to “Mary’s House,” said to be where the Virgin Mary spent her last days, then to a terrific lunch at a hilltop restaurant in a little village nearby. The jam-packed day continued to the ancient city of Ephesus. Amazing (see the description also below). The rain held off through most of that tour, thankfully.
Day 4: We were scheduled to visit Kos, Rhodes and Santorini but the weather forecast was so bad that our fearless leader, Bill, and the ship captain came up with an entirely different plan to avoid stormy seas and literally bring us good weather. We cut across to the west with just one rocky and rolly night to perfect weather on the island of Paros, which had been scheduled originally for our last day. We rode to a gorgeously quaint fishing village and back to the ship, our shortest ride of the tour (15 miles).
Day 5: The ship docked in a sheltered harbor at the city of Nafplion, where we stayed safely moored for two nights. Rain had moved in there and riding would have been difficult. Most of us chose to stay on the ship. I was sick with an intestinal bug and slept most of the day. That was also the day Joe caught the internet in the lounge and we learned of Chris' death.
Day 6: Bill's distributor of Santana bikes in Europe, Wolfgang, was along on the trip and had been sent off the boat before we docked to scout new rides for our new itinerary. Wolfgang and his pal and tandem partner, Oscar, scouted some doozies for us! We rode from the ship out and back 38 windy miles. I thought it was going to be an (incredibly) flat ride, but I misread the GPS ride overview and the flat was only the first and last 10 miles. In between we climbed many steep hills and totaled almost 1600 feet of ascents. Had a lunch of dates, figs and Bonk Bars on the steps of a closed restaurant on the windy coast and peed behind a tree.
Day 7: We moved to the tiny island of Spetses in cool but perfectly clear weather and cycled 16 breezy miles around the gorgeous island. More climbing, another 1500 feet, but by then what did we expect. It was another "Wolfgang" ride.
The Islands
Gorgeous. Sparkling blue water, olive trees everywhere, evergreen forests, lovely and clean villages, friendly people. Everything I had ever seen in movies about the Greek islands was true and more. On Paros, all the houses were whitewashed with blue trim to match the colors of the Greek flag. There's nothing else to say. Look at travel brochure pictures of Greece and that's really what it looks like.
The Ship
Our second experience on La Belle de L'Adriatique was as pleasant as the first. More so, as some of the crew were familiar to us. Joe developed a special relationship with the lovely 27-year old Croatian restaurant manager, Manuela, and I think she liked me a little, too. The Philipino crew were again wonderful with the men helping to load and unload bikes every day in addition to doing their own jobs. The room service was wonderful. Our towels were folded into the shapes of different animals every day (see the pic of the bunny on the last day). Different this year was the crew talent show. All of them did terrific singing and dancing complete with a Tae Kuan Do demonstration. The men even made themselves into a bicycle with tire-pumping and a rider with a Santana flag flying. It was hilarious. One of the housekeepers was a wonderful singer and some of the waiters backed her up with some smooth do-wop moves. Sadly the hunky Croatian captain was replaced this time by a more rotund and outwardly curmudgeonly one, but he and Bill kept us safe and got us into unlikely ports.
Our Fellow Riders
This trip was more fun than the last because we knew many more folks from our two previous trips. Again, a group of all ages, but mostly 40-80-somethings who ride up to 70 miles in hilly terrain without breaking a sweat. Incredible. There were some others at our level but the "long riders" greatly outnumbered us "short riders.” That's OK. We definitely rode this time to our training limits and are once again inspired to keep it up. As usual, we bonded with one other couple, John and Charlotte from Pennsylvania who ride singles (one of maybe two three other pairs of single riders). They both were still swearing by the end of the trip that they would never be able to ride a tandem. They did say they really enjoyed the feel on the ship among the tandem group: lots of camaraderie, I guess, and high spirits. From Athens they were heading to Barcelona for another 10-days' single cycling tour. They admitted that cycling is pretty much "what they do." I think that's true for a lot of people on that ship. Our faithful amateur yoga instructor, Gail with her 82-year old husband Alvin from Manhattan, provided an hour's worth of group stretching most days. Alvin's role was to get on the loudspeaker announcing in a top-volume, deadpan voice: "Yoga. 6 o'clock. Main lounge. Bring a towel." That at 30 minutes ahead of time. Then again: "Yoga. Main lounge. Bring a towel. 5 minutes." He didn't do yoga, but afterwards as we were filing out, he was on the ground doing finger-tip pushups. What a guy.
Bad Stuff
Joe got bad nasal congestion in Istanbul all of a sudden which lingered for several days. I picked up an intestinal bug on the first day of riding and it was nasty for 5 days until a lovely internist among the passengers finally gave me 1000 mgs of zythromycin which cured me completely in 24 hours. Having ridden while sick, and had a new experience with all those hills, I'll be interested to see how riding feels at home, healthy and on familiar rides. Hopefully stronger and faster.
On that same first day of riding, we got to our first stop and I realized I didn't have my backpack. Read the Gallipoli post below for all the gory details of that horror show, but all's well that ends well. A half-day of thinking I had lost my wallet, camera and Joe's cell may have lowered my resistance to whatever made me sick. Not to mention that I definitely did not hydrate sufficiently and was in pain all over that night. The next ride I filled up my Camelback and drank all the time. Made all the difference in how my muscles felt after the rides.
The pace in general was exhausting. We normally had to get up at 6:AM (vacation???) to get breakfast and get off the ship with all our gear and the bike to either get on a bus or get on the road so we could make it back in time for the ship's departure.
Bill's "ride talks.” Actually not so bad this time, as he, too, was really sick at the beginning of the trip. When he did talk, it's always the same: the rides are "nearly flat" and the weather is "nearly perfect." He does know his history and can spin an interesting yarn, however.
Overall Impressions
These trips are always an adventure in many ways, and a learning experience. New people, new places, new challenges on the bike. The Bill and Jan McCready definitely deliver and there's no doubt we are getting our money's worth. They go to terrific lengths to make sure that we are well fed in unique settings on the road, and well-guided and safe. It's always been clear that we are expected to be able to hold our own on the road and that's fine. We've got good emergency numbers and they have a responsive maintenance and support staff. They call what they do "shared vacations" and in the end that really seems to be true. They keep looking for places they want to go and things they want to see and we come along.
Stuff I Wrote Before All the Stuff Above
Thursday-Saturday, October 15-18 Istanbul Pre-Tour
Greetings from cloudy but still magnificent Istanbul! After a delayed but ultimately uneventful flight to Frankfurt and an almost 3 hour layover there, we arrived at Ataturk airport around 5 PM on Thursday. The first task was to locate, if not our guides, other couples wheeling very large boxes along with their normal sized luggage. Find them we did, gradually gathering outside the arrival area. After an hour and a half of waiting, wondering, and getting to know a few of our fellow travelers, a resourceful young woman made contact with a second gathering at the other end of the waiting area and the two young Turkish people responsible for herding us onto buses. That process was entertainingly chaotic (in spite of travel exhaustion), crossing lanes of rapidly moving buses, cabs and cars with two large carts of awkward bags and bike boxes. The two large buses were not needed for the people, but for the luggage! So we chose the second (quiet) bus along with four other people for the 40 minute drive along the coast into the heart of the Old City, where La Belle de l'Adriatic is docked. Dinner onboard, unpacking, and bed.
Friday, up and at 'em for breakfast and an 8:30 walking tour of Topkapi Palace, home of Sultans and their harems over the centuries. After a lovely walk through one of very few parks in Istanbul with our wonderful guide, we toured inside the palace, seeing an 800 karat diamond and countless huge emeralds in the Treasury, the Sultan's reception rooms, and a long walk through the many rooms of the harem, their eunuchs, the queen mother's quarters and the five kitchens (they had to feed 5,000 people a day at peak capacity). Gorgeous view of the Bosphorus from the balconies. From there we visited the ancient "Basilica Cistern," of which we had no idea. Ohmygoodness, what a place. Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century from 336 repurposed Roman columns, it once held 100,000 tons of water to supply the palace. Thanks to the making of "From Russia with Love" with Sean Connery (our guide talked about "BS and AS"--before Sean and after Sean), it now contains walkways throughout, beautifully lit. Dank, dark and gorgeous. Oh, and as a couple of the columns were too short, they found two random blocks of marble to prop them up which just happened to be masterpiece Roman sculptures of the head of Medusa. One is placed upside down (see picture) and one sideways, because if you look at her head-on, you will be turned to stone. Can't have that.
Back to the ship with sore legs and exhausted, jet-lagged body to another lovely dinner on board and bed.
Saturday, our same fabulous guide took us to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Stunning and indescribable. Highlights for us were the massive size of both buildings, entering a working mosque (with limbs covered and head scarf for me), and also, for me, stepping inside the women's prayer space with a shelf of the Koran in many languages, and small piles of prayer beads scattered in the corners. I had an unexpected feeling of peace and maybe a little understanding of how worshipping in a place designated for women only could bring a special serenity. We can choose that in the U.S. with women's retreats and maybe cloistered nuns (what do I know about that?). In any case, I found myself wondering about the positives of having women-only time built into everyday life. Sometimes it seems that we in the west have a mostly negative view of women's roles in Muslim societies, but a solitary moment in this women's space in this gigantic place of worship was precious. Hagia Sophia is one of those places, like the mosque/church in Cordoba, Spain, that highlights the early encounters and interaction between Islamic and Christian societies and their influence on each other. It is also a reminder of how advanced Arabic cultures were scientifically and culturally so much earlier than western European cultures. The damaged, but still glorious mosaics in Hagia Sophia along with the structure of the building itself were fascinating. An interesting bit of modern history there involved the filming of the movie "Argos." Ben Affleck, while scouting the location, was horrified by the florescent bulbs in the low chandeliers. Local officials of course said that changing them would take months of paperwork. Affleck said he would pay out of pocket right then and there. They were changed the same day.
Back to the ship for lunch. We chose to skip another long uphill walk to see the Grand Bazaar, which we had seen when were were passing through a couple of years ago on the way to central Asia. Put our bike cages on the bike, wandered the deck looking at all the other tandems and all their unique features. Still an amazing site to see them all amassed and ready to go.
At 4:30, we left on another half-hour walk to a tour boat and an evening cruise half way up the Bosphorus with tea and pastries. Gorgeous views of both the European and Asian shores with uniquely restored traditional wooden houses, mansions, hotels and restaurants with green hills rising behind them. Lots of boats zooming around each other on the way back to the Golden Horn (a narrow bay separating two parts of the European side). A crazy walk of 90 people with a guide in front, in the middle and the back weaving through streets packed with people of all kinds and dodging/stopping traffic across busy streets took us to an old theater in the middle of the old town to see a "Whirling Dervish" ceremony by the Sema Istanbul Derivshes. The ceremony "represents the mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to perfection" (from the brochure). I found it mesmerizing, hypnotic, impressive and very spiritual. Some found it a snoozefest after a day of, according to some peoples' devices, 30,000 steps of not flat walks through the city.
Back to the ship en masse through the streets to a late dinner and midnight bedtime. Our early impression of the group on the boat this year is overwhelmingly positive. We have the usual mix of ages and riding experience, skewing heavily to VERY experienced and strong riders who have ridden on many Santana and other tours and think nothing of riding up Mt. Ventoux (think Tour de France). We will see how our training holds up as we begin the riding days tomorrow in Gallipoli. The weather in Istanbul has been very cloudy, but not rainy. Overhearing just now a conversation between Bill an the captain of the ship, the rest of the week through the islands is likely to be pretty fairly stormy. We'll see and try to be ready for anything.
Monday, October 19, 2015
What a day. Up at 6, breakfast, gathering all our gear and off the ship with the bike at 8:15. Bikes were loaded onto trucks and people onto buses to catch the 9:AM ferry from Canakkle on the Asian side of the Dardanelles (a narrow strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Agean) to the Gallipoli Penninsula on the European side. Long riders started from the ferry port of Eceabat. The rest of us continued to a small town called Alcitepe where we unloaded and took off for a 20 mile ride. The first 8 miles were fine until we reached the impressive monument to the fallen Turkish soldiers during the Battle of Gallipoli during the 1st World War. As we parked our bike, I suddenly realized that I did not have my backpack, containing Joe's cell phone, the camera, and my wallet with ID and credit cards. Horrible feeling. Our head guide called every one of the bus drivers, a colleague back at the village: nothing. I had no idea, really, where I had left it, bus, ferry (worst case) or village. There was nothing more to be done at that point, so we had a very tense ride to lunch, back at Alcitepe. As we pulled up to the spot from where we had taken-off, we saw four women knitting in front of their shop. I anxiously showed them the same kind of backpack on another rider and they immediately pointed down the lane to our lunch location. I was overwhelmed with relief and hugged them all, one by one. The guide had told me that 95% of the time they recovered lost items like this and he was right. The mood of the day turned around in an instant. Whew.
After a lunch of grilled chicken and pasta, we took off again towards the National Park Headquarters. This segment included what was to become the first of many, many tough hills (this one a 10% grade) we struggled on and ultimately conquered. The busses and trucks were waiting at the parking lot. Joe helped load bikes and I crashed on the bus. Felt terrible. Got back to the ship and took a nap. Every muscle still hurt at dinner and decided that I hadn't hydrated sufficiently during the hot ride. Joe had been dealing with a head cold since the first days in Istanbul, so we were both struggling.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
In spite of still feeling lousy (by the morning, I was experiencing intestinal distress and Joe's cold was hanging on), we had another 6:AM call for the day's ride on the island of Lebvos. Again, busses and trucks allowed riders to choose rides of different lengths. In spite of our fearless leader and ride scout's description of nearly flat, we set out on our 23 mile ride with what turned out to be almost 2,000 feet of climbing, a new record for us. Lots of hard climbs!
Before setting out, we had a short tour of an Ouzo factory, but declined the tasting. I was busy running to the public WC (TMI, I know, but it's a real issue when you're about to head out on a long ride). We made it 11 miles to a the narrow streets of a lovely town, and finding our winding way to our stop at an olive oil pressing museum. After a delicious tasting, brief but interesting tour there, and a couple of welcome WC visits, we took off for four hilly miles ending at a picturesque village where we waited for a tiny ferry boat. The clear, sunny sky was spectacular and the water at the mouth of the Bay of Geras was sparkling blue. Joe had an amusing conversation with a couple of local men trying to answer their questions about the bike, and especially how the electronic gearing worked. Finally, one of the man said, "No, tic-a-tic-a-tic-a?" Joe said, "That's it! No, tic-a-tic-a-tic-a, just TIC!" Heads nodding and laughs all around. After a 10 minute ferry ride, we struggled on tough climbs for 8 more miles, then swooped into the Mytilene on a main road into the center of the city. Looking for a place for some lunch, I walked into what looked like a nice outdoor cafe with lots of people of all kinds drinking coffee and just sitting around. As I walked further in, a man said, "Hi, Barbara!" This is always a startling experience, until I realize I'm wearing my mandatory name tag everywhere we go. I stopped and ended up talking with the owner of the cafe, who said he had "given it over" to the refugees. It hadn't yet registered with me that all of the "normal" looking people were in fact, refugees. Several very young men were standing nearby and I asked where they were from. One was from Iraq and one from Syria. I wanted to ask more, but it was clear that communication beyond that in English would be difficult. The owner (whose English was very good) said, "They're all so tired. They just need a place to sit and rest in peace." It was kindly and gently suggested that I was a fish out of water there and so I walked back to where Joe had been waiting with the bike on the sidewalk. We decided to just return to the ship and scavenge for lunch. As we rode through the town to the port the refugees lined the streets, sitting in groups, in pup tents and crowded in a large group around the customs house as we passed through to go to the ship. Behind the fence from inside the port, there were hundreds of peaceful people waiting to be processed before they could be transported to the mainland to continue their trip. A sobering sight.
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