Friday, September 20, was the last cycling day of our trip. Our
ride began in Silivri, 50 miles from Istanbul. We had originally planned to cycle
30 miles, then take a ferry the last 20 miles into Istanbul, instead of trying
to bike through the dense urban area. However, emboldened by our success in
making it through difficult stretches on our trip so far, we decided on
Thursday evening to revamp Friday’s route in order to bike the full 50 miles
into Istanbul. We succeeded, and are glad that we changed our plans, but the
day was the most difficult of our whole 5-week trip. We had to weave through
small towns, make it up a climb that was steeper than any we had encountered
previously, and occasionally ride in heavy traffic.
Our first stop in Istanbul was a photo-op at the old train
station where the original Orient Express train route ended. We parked our
bikes in front of an Orient Express sign in the station and had someone take our
picture (after explaining, via Google Translate, that we had biked from Paris
following the old train route closely). Our cycling then ended a half mile
from the train station, but our exertions were far from over at that point,
since we had to push our bikes (with saddlebags) up a very steep cobblestone
alley to get to the bike store that had agreed to dismantle and box our bikes.
After leaving the bicycle store, we then carried our heavy saddlebags a half mile up steep streets to reach our
hotel.
Right across the street from our hotel is the Pera Palace
Hotel, the luxury hotel built to accommodate the Orient Express passengers before or after their train ride. It was built from 1892-5 for the purpose of
hosting the Orient Express passengers, and is referred to as "the oldest
European hotel of Turkey". The Pera Palace was the first building in Turkey to
be powered by electricity, other than the Ottoman Palaces. It was also the only
hotel in the city to provide hot running water for its guests and was home to
the first electric elevator in Istanbul.
We would have stayed at the Pera Palace for our two nights
in Istanbul, but decided that the minimum nightly rate of about $500 was too
steep. Despite not staying in the hotel, we did have dinner there. The hotel
has two dining options, the Orient Terrace and the Agatha Restaurant (“inspired
by the mystery and romance of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express”,
according to the hotel website). We chose to eat at the former.
One of our discussion topics at dinner was how this bike
trip compared to our prior long cycling trips: 3-months across the US in 2010
and 5-week trips from London to Saint Petersburg in 2011, in Japan in 2012, and
through Scandinavia in 2013. While it takes some time after each trip until our
thoughts about it gel, one initial thought is that this trip had the worst
cycling (especially in Romania and Bulgaria, where we had to deal with trucks,
sand, potholes, and dogs) but was the greatest adventure.
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| On the way into Istanbul: the walls of the old city |
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| On the way into Istanbul: in heavy traffic |
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| On the way into Istanbul: Europe on the left, Asia on the right |
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| The train station at the end of the Orient Express route (the front is being worked on) |
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| In the train station |
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| Pushing the bike up a steep alley to the bike shop |
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| At the bike shop, where they'll box our bikes. The work has to be done on the street, since the shop is tiny. |
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| Lugging our baggage uphill to our hotel |
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| The Pera Palace Hotel, where the Orient Express passengers stayed |
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| Dinner at the Orient Lounge, in the Pera Palace Hotel |
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