Dreaming of Turkish delight

On Friday it rained
we waited for the postie -
but she never came.


There is a song that has been rattling around my head for a couple of weeks now. Unfortunately neither Neil nor I know anymore of the lyrics than "Istanbul not Constantinople" and  "it's nobody's business but the Turks".

But it's enough - because that's where we're headed !

Earlier in May, while researching the next leg of our bike ride (which was to be down the Loire River to the Atlantic Ocean), I noticed that that particular bike path happens to be part of a much longer route - the Euro Velo 6. The Euro Velo 6 traverses Europe from the Atlantic Ocean, following the Loire, the Rhine and the Danube rivers all the way to the Black Sea. Which just happens to be just north of Istanbul. Hmmm...

This seed of a thought found fertile ground in which to sprout and, within 24 hours, had become rather triffid-like and taken over our travel plans. We decided to cycle to Istanbul.

(chorus) Istanbul, Istanbul, Istanbul...

Yesterday morning's post brought a long awaited parcel from Stanford's Maps. Pushing fresh croissants and pains au chocolat aside (no, that's not what we breakfast on everyday - just a Saturday treat), we just had to get our hands on the new maps.

Pushing breakfast off the table.

It was with great restraint that we actually left home to go climbing yesterday (between rain and general laziness we've not climbed much this week).

Mapaholics delight !

Annotating the maps.

So after our morning playing in the forest, out came the maps and the notebook, the coffee (not Turkish, not yet) and the pencils, spread out on our al fresco workbench and the fun began.

It's nobody's business but the Turks...

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words by Gabby, images by Neil