Chios Greece to Cesme Turkey.

Today is the day we leave Greece and catch the ferry across the Aegean to the port of Cesme in Turkey.  Turkey is where it all started back on the 24 June 2013, and since then we’ve covered close to 5000kms and had one hell of experience.

Last night I had another great sleep. Peter left nice and early to go and see if he could pick up our tickets for this afternoons ferry to Turkey.  As we don’t carry a printer on our bicycles we needed to find someone who was prepared to print them for free.  No good, will have to deal with that at the port.

 The photo above is Peter checking out his birthday cake.  Not many people can celebrate their birthday in 2 countries on one day.

The above photo was taken whilst waiting for our ship to leave Chios this afternoon.

The above photo was taken as we entered the port of Cesme Turkey.

During Peter’s walk he got his hair cut and walked the streets of Chios for perhaps the last time.  Whilst Peter was away I got out his birthday cake which I bought yesterday. Now I know there are some people that would be thinking, ‘bullshit’ there’s no way I would spend money on a birthday cake, well I did and I did it on my own. 

I got Amber and Don to wait for Peter to come back so we could surprise him and eat his cake.  Eventually he came back and when he entered the kitchen I presented him with a really nice cake.  Amber and I sung happy birthday, and I think he was tickled pink by the whole idea. The rest of the day we went back into town and had some lunch and sat down on the promenade looking at million dollar boats.  

5pm came around pretty quick and with no hassle about our lack of tickets we were on the boat with our bikes heading to Turkey.  The trip took about 1 hour in blustery conditions but the large ship handled the seas with ease. Getting through customs took about 2 minutes, and as soon as I wheeled my bike through customs Len was there waiting for us and also presented Peter with a nice bottle of red wine for his birthday.  Len asked me about his slice of cake and I told him I ate it, end of story.

The hotel Len booked us into is called the Akpinar Hotel in a great location in Cesme. Has everything you need and very clean.  Tonight we’re going out for Peter’s birthday down on the waterfront for something special.

We’re now back in the hotel and had a great night of food and exchanging stories on each of our holidays.  The DFC now numbers 3 and we should have a fantastic time over the next 3 weeks as we make our way to the finish line in Istanbul on the 13 October 2013.

Since Len is now part of the team it will add another dimension to the routing of the tour.  Len has this top shelf Garmin navigation unit and this makes life much easier in getting from one town to another.  We’ll head for about 90kms and then call it quits. We won’t be hitting the road until 9am as breakfast in the hotel is served at 8.30am.  Not an ideal time to start riding, but it’s our first day back on the bike after having a great break in Athens and on the Greek Island. 

Until tomorrow, safe riding.