Sid and Doris Bonkers and their Epic Journeys
"Everybody is normal until you get to know them"
In which Sid and Doris benefit from Saturday traffic negotiating Piraeus and the commuter ferries. The Lesbos to Piraeus ferry was punctual both leaving and arriving. So at 8.30 we were chased off. We found the Poros ferry after a good tour of Piraeus port with advice from both innocent and guilty bystanders (you’ve arrived at gate 2 but it…
Read moreSo I mentioned Spotto and its variants. Part of the pleasure of this game is creating new versions on the fly – “Boato” has been going for a while and requires the boat to be in a very unlikely position/condition, for example in the middle of a roundabout. In Lesvos we were talking to some repeat visitors who explained that…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris ride over the hills to Mytilini, buy ferry tickets and check into a hotel for a few hours before the ferry leavesLeaving early meant getting in Quaker Granola for breakfast in our room as no cafe is open before 9.00am. According to the nutritional info on the packet we had 3.5 portions each, that’s cycling…
Read more1. Coffee OMG we are back in the Land of the Latte. Brits drive the Italians mad by calling it a Latte, obviously it is a Caffe Latte otherwise you will only get a funny look and a glass of hot milk, but ever since maybe Hungary we haven’t had a decent cup of coffee. In Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris enjoy the English expat life and meet a long distance cyclist at Barry Hoban’s bar Last night there was a terrific storm. The wind thrashed the branches of the trees, big raindrops hammered down. The thunder and lightning was very, very frightening (Galileo, Figaro, magnifico etc). Big noise. To add to the drama the village…
Read moreIn which, paradoxically, Sid and Doris see a Balkan house and idle by the seaIf you Google for Petra you will probably be shown the Treasury, in Jordan. It is not that one (nor the Blue Peter dog) but has kept us touristically interested this morning. This is so holiday – morning swim, seaside breakfast. The road by the sea…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris cross to Greece, finding the Hostaholic in Petra This was the day we moved from Turkey to Greece. The owner of the Eden Park Resort had shown us the ferry route from Kucukkuyu to Midilli Molivos Lesbos. How many names is it useful to have? The Turkish port is just down the coast from the…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris cross the Dardanelles, see Troy, sneak a lift a miles south and find a ‘new’ ferry to Lesbos The Turks would seem to be punctual people. All of TJ’s arrangements for our drivers and guides have gone well. This morning, in true Audley (our usual travel agents) style, we were escorted to the ferry to…
Read moreIn which Sid and Doris evade Istanbul traffic with their very own trip to Gallipoli Having discovered how hard it is to cycle into Istanbul we have decided not to cycle out. But our cunning ruse of subscribing to an organised Tour of Gallipoli and Troy meant that at 7am we and the neddies were travelling in fine style in…
Read moreAs I mentioned, I got a bit philosophical while cycling across the Danube plain, and I decided it was time to focus on something other than war. 1. Mosaics I have always been fascinated by mosaics. I had “Mini Mosaic” as a child, fun to make the mosaics but a terrible challenge to prise the little tiles out of the…
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