Day 47 Edirne to Kirklareli

In which Sid and Doris replan the route on the fly and at our lunch stop … just stop. Hurrah.

This turned out to be a very hard day for only 64 kilometres and 641 meters of climb.

Did we tell you we were going somewhere else, maybe Luleburgaz? Well we changed our mind on the way. The plan to go to Luleburgaz required that we leave Edirne down the D100 and that as it crossed the new motorway and other cars peeled off down the D020 the traffic would slacken and Sid and Doris could poodle on. The traffic stayed, the theory failed.

Sid and Doris are mediumly bonkers but 80 k on a busy dual carriageway felt like a poor way to spend the day. So we stood on a garage forecourt and revisited another plan (that we had brewed a few days back) to go via Kirklareli, which will also change the rest of the route into Istanbul. We have got quite good at rethinking rather than bashing on and rather than bashing each other up.

Anyway, the newly chosen road was quite empty because there were no places down there, unless you are counting fields. If you are, you had better be really good at counting, more than paws can count. The road goes mostly up and then down. It is a fortune teller’s road. The surface is lumpy and quite sapping. The tar is melting in the heat which does not help the rolling resistance. Worst is the constant force three gusting five which though it did stop us overheating, has cut our average moving speed to below ten miles per hour. We are pedalling to go down hill; no shriek mark, but really… This is not good for morale or bottoms.

High points of the day would include stopping at a road-side hut-cafe run by a very wrinkly soul which had no tea or coffee. But half a dozen retired farm hands sat in the shade and we were glad to sit there with Mein Host’s 1-Turkish-Lira lemon drink (approx 13p) while we engulfed some more of our nut brittle bars. Mhmm, that was one of the high points.

I am trying to think of another high point. Yes, here in Kirklareli we sat in a park cafe getting outside egg, saus and chips [translation: sausage omelette with fried potatoes –  Doris] and looked at what the change of plan meant for the next few days into Istanbul. And we worked out we could just stop here. Not push on to Pinarhisar, itself barely a place. Hurrah, where was that nice hotel with roof terrace?  Just round that corner!

The final goody is seeing a plane on a stick for our aviation fan(s). As we were coming through the countryside I was musing on NATO planes that we might find, having got lucky with Warsaw Pact militaria in Bulgaria. And here in the town square is this Northrop F5 (?).

We finish with some pics of the rather engaging main drag, including their various ice-cream and pastry shops.

And finally something we didn’t expect to see – tagged and well-fed stray dogs.  We think that someone thoughtful has set up a spaying programme.

Of course Pinarhisar and the Road of Dull are still out there but we are slightly closer to Istanbul than we were this morning. That will do for today.