Final Words

Eastern Europe is a sleeping giant as far as tourism is concerned and will only get bigger and better (maybe those two don’t go together) as time goes on. I’m so glad I got to see it before it got 'cleaned up' as it was a special insight into life there. Vienna to Bucharest should be done over about six weeks on the bike, any less and you would be rushing.

A good solid tour bike would be ideal but due to the occasional rough surface a mountain bike with rigid front forks would be good too. I would highly recommend the tour for adventurous types who like to get away from crowds and enjoy the great outdoors.  If you prefer smooth bike paths away from traffic and cute European villages, go to Western Europe. 

Some of the road surfaces we encountered

Very good road

Good road

Bad road

Ugly road

Day 52: Mon 18 Jul – Istanbul

Weather: fine and sunny

Had a nice breakfast then caught the tram to Topkapi, an ancient walled city from the original walled city. Looked about 5m thick and very solid.  

This city keeps you interested right to the end. This afternoon we catch the motel bus to the airport. 

Day 51: Sun 17 Jul – Istanbul

Weather: fine and sunny

Spent the day relaxing and packing.

Day 50: Sat 16 Jul - Istanbul

Weather: fine and sunny 30deg

This is such a huge, interesting city it's hard to know where to begin. As we are staying in the Old City that is where we've concentrated our efforts. It's so big that there were riots (about the arrest of football managers etc over corruption) and we didn't hear or see a thing. There's also a whole stack of world foreign ministers and secretaries of state here currently, however no sign that anything is going on. 

We took a walk through the Blue Mosque first up. Apart from the huge crowd there were numerous tour guides, all talking loudly, taking groups through. I felt it cheapened the whole experience and was disrespectful to their faith. I would have rather have seen it done in dignified silence. Inside the Mosque was nice but not particularly special from other big mosques and it wasn't all that blue. I was expecting something bluer if photos I've seen were indicative. 

Took another look at the Grand Bazaar and this time it wasn't as busy. In the afternoon I caught a tram over the bridge to Taksim, a huge shopping area in the newer side of Istanbul. Just more shops and more stuff. Tomorrow I want to veg out and just take it easy in preparation for my flight home on Monday.  

This will be my last set of notes this trip. I've enjoyed doing them and I hope I haven't bored you too much. I assumed that if you didn't want to receive them anymore you would have asked me to stop sending them. They are more of a journal for me than anything else. I do them daily on my Notes of the iPhone then I email them directly from there. This is my first tour with an iPhone and I must say it has been invaluable. I use it for the following: email, diary, notebook, foreign exchange calculator, normal calculator, compass, computer, news source, iPod, books (reading Pillars of the Earth currently), camera, video camera, maps and oh, I can also make and receive phone calls.  

Day 49: Fri 15 Jul - Kocadere (Gallipoli) to Istanbul 300km

Weather: fine and sunny

After another great breakfast (fresh fruit, cereal and great coffee) we settled the bill and hit the road.  

The drive back to Istanbul didn't take as long and wasn't nearly as busy as the drive out. We thought we were going great guns, until about 10 minutes from our drop off point (International Airport) we got a puncture in the front left tyre. It was on very busy freeway which didn't have much room to change it on the traffic side. A good bit of team work and 10 minutes later we were on our way. 

The drop off went well and we caught the Metro and then a tram into our hotel in the centre of the city. The hotel people were very nice and welcomed us back, enquiring about our trip etc. We received a complimentary iced apple juice while we waited for our rooms. 

As we had skipped lunch we opted for afternoon tea at a lovely coffee and Turkish sweets place next to the Central Station. Baklava and Turkish delight satisfied our worms till dinner. 

There's a big advantage to being in Europe during the Tour De France, you can watch it live without staying awake half the night. We have the choice of a German transmission in our rooms or English at the local Sports Pub. And it is not at midnight like at home!  

Dinner was taken at an Ottoman style restaurant on top of a hotel just down the road. Both the atmosphere and the food were fantastic. A$16 for entrée, side bread, main and apple tea. I had the lamb which was served on a bed of spinach.   

As it was Fri night, after dinner we went for a wander around the famous Blue Mosque. Although it is a big night for prayers etc there was also a carnival atmosphere, with street sellers, food stalls, kids running around everywhere and thousands of people just having a leisurely stroll. The nearby restaurants were very busy, some with live entertainment. Saw my first live Dervishes performers, (Turkish twirling dance). 

Another fantastic and interesting day in Turkey.    

Dinner and view on the roof-top restaurant

Blue Mosque at night

Twirling Dervish dancer

Day 48: Thurs 14 Jul - Gallipoli Peninsular

Weather: fine & sunny

After breakfast we drove into Eceabat to catch the ferry across the Dardanelles Strait to Çanakkale. Only took 15 mins on a fast, modern, drive-on ferry. There's a very good Naval Museum there but the indoor displays were closed. Nevertheless the outdoor area was excellent with many relics and displays about the Gallipoli Campaign. Pride of place was a little mine-laying ship that placed the mines which eventually sunk so many allied ships. The Turks get a lot of mileage out of their victory during the Gallipoli campaign, as we have out of the bravery and tenacity of our brilliant young men and the successful tactical withdrawal.

As the ancient city of Troy is only 37km South, the people who made the movie (of the same name I think) donated the wooden (actually made out of fiberglass) horse from the movie to the city of Çanakkale.  It stands in a little display area near the waterfront not far from the ferry terminal and it is quite impressive. It looks ancient and it looks like wood.  

We then headed South, (54km) planning to have lunch on the Island of Bozcaada, which is about half an hour by ferry. However we missed the infrequent ferry by seconds and could not wait around for the next one. So we took lunch at a little local cafe on the beach at Geyikli looking out towards the island.  Four lunches and five hot drinks cost A$16. 

It was a leisurely drive back to the Canakkale ferry and "home".  

Tomorrow we have the six odd hour drive back to Istanbul to look forward to.   

Trojan Horse

Day 47: Wed 13 Jul - Touring Gallipoli Peninsular

Weather: fine & sunny, cooling breeze - 30deg

After another very nice dinner last night (included in the price of our room) we spent a relaxing hour or so on the Stargazers Deck. It's a 10 x 12m open solid concrete deck built on top of the restaurant. The furniture is solid wood and like everything else in this place, always immaculately clean. A few tastefully placed flower pots complete the picture. It looks directly out onto the main (Third) ridge of Gallipoli, with ANZAC Cove etc being on the other (sea) side. My room opens just about right onto it so it is perfect for that early morning coffee or late stargazing. Breakfast is not until 0800h so I have plenty of time to fill in after getting up.  

The minaret of the local mosque is about 100m from our rooms so we hear the call to prayer (very loud and clear through speakers) at 0500h. I'm generally stirring by then so it doesn't bother me, but for some it's a bit rude.  I suspect that this mosque uses a timed recording four times a day as it starts a bit abruptly and sounds exactly the same every time. The village has a tiny population of 50, so it's a wonder they can support a mosque at all. We don't see many Muslims praying openly while we are out and about during midday prayers; I saw only one yesterday. Not sure what that indicates; maybe that they are not as devoted, don't know? Of course Turkey is a secular state. We do see a fair number of ladies in the full burka. I wonder how many of them are visitors from the Middle East?   

Fred had an upset gut overnight so he's not feeling 100% today. We have been very lucky thus far with very little illnesses amongst the group. We certainly haven't lost any person-days through illness.  

First stop on today's tour was a small Turkish symbolic cemetery towards the Southern tip of the Gallipoli Peninsular. The Turks had recently redone the cemetery and used the shape of the traditional Turkish helmet for the headstones. Each headstone had the name of a town / city where soldiers who had died in battle had come from. Some of the places were from nearby countries. At Cape Helles (the Southern tip) itself there is an enormous cemetery containing the graves / memorial of about 60,000 Turkish soldiers killed in action just in that part of the campaign. The headstones here are made out of marble with 32 names on each etched into glass panels. It's very well done. The Çanakkale (Gallipoli) Martyr's Memorial is located here also and stands 41.7m high. It is currently being refurbished. While we were walking around this area there was a large squad of (200 <>) Turkish Army recruits in uniform on a visit. When they were finished they marched them away singing some sort of patriotic and / or marching chant. They looked and sounded pretty tough. Like us they have an excellent reputation to uphold.  

The Brits landed right near the tip of the Cape (S Beach) on 25 Apr 15. This area was later taken over by the French Army. 

We often think of Gallipoli as an Army campaign but there were 34 significant Royal Navy ships sunk here too, many with the loss of all crew. Just in the Cape area alone there were 20,504 British and 248 Aussie soldiers killed, staggering numbers. There is an Allied memorial, which names all the ships that were sunk and the Army units involved in the Gallipoli campaign, not far from the main Turkish memorial. It is also currently being refurbished.

After this we were ready for lunch so we stopped at an outdoor restaurant that mainly serves pancakes.   We sat under the cool shade of the grape vines and had the potato pancakes with some salad and a fresh lemonade. They gave us some complimentary dessert which tasted like polenta mixed with honey and crushed walnuts. It was all very nice and the whole thing for the five of us cost A$23.  

We then drove the 10km to Suvla Bay for a cooling swim (I just had a paddle) in the Aegean Sea. Suvla Bay was the Brits last attempt to salvage something out of the Gallipoli disaster. It was an amphibious landing on 6 Aug 15 lead by an incompetent Lt Gen named Sir F. Stopford. After a week of inaction and mismanagement they sacked him. This debacle also lead to the sacking of the overall commander Gen Sir Ian Hamilton, however by then (Oct 15) the damage had been done and the campaign had descended into a serious of stalemates. Obviously they weren't granted their Knighthoods because of successes in the battlefields, must have inherited them from Daddy. Lions lead by Donkeys. The only real success of the whole campaign was the withdrawal; the Turks didn't twig that it was happening and there wasn't one life lost. 

After the swim we'd had enough for the day so it was back to Gallipoli House for a shower and rest. 

Another great day in Turkey.  

Looking across to Third Ridge Gallipoli from the deck of our hotel

Turkish Cemetery on Gallipoli Ridge

Part of the Turkish WWI cemetery at the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsular

Graves

Etched glass headstones

Turkish Army recruits honouring their fallen

WWI gun emplacement overlooking Gallipoli Straits

A restored WWI trench

Day 46: Tue 12 Jul - Kocadere to Gallipoli

Weather: blue skies 29 - 33deg, with a cooling breeze

The four course dinner at Gallipoli House last night was excellent. Now we are not riding 100km a day I'm not sure I need all this food, however as lunch was only fruit and yoghurt I enjoyed every course.   

After a yummy breakfast, similar to what would be available at home, we drove into Eceabat to collect our guide for the day. He is a local guy whose Grandfather fought at Gallipoli, but died before he was born.  His Dad used to tell him stories from his Granddad and he's been to about 20 ANZAC Day Dawn Services. His name is Bulent Yilmaz Korkmaz and he turned out to be an excellent guide who spoke fairly good English.   

First he took us to Brighton Beach where he explained who, where and why. This is where the allies were supposed to land but navigation was not as hi-tech then as it is today. Then it was off to North Beach, ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine, The Neck, etc, all those names we have heard about many times. We received a very good commentary, mainly from a Turkish perspective, on each site and how that impacted on the campaign overall. It wasn't huge amounts of boring stats and facts but just sufficient to get a real understanding of the campaign, from a Turkish perspective. It certainly brought out the stupidity of the whole operation. The 31 cemeteries, 21 of them Aussie, were a stark reminder of the tragic consequences of war. All those young men wasted!   

The terrain is nothing short of horrendous, how they even managed to get off the beach is just amazing and a testimony to their bravery and determination. This is despite being commanded by a bunch of Drongos (Allied Generals). Looking at the terrain, ANZAC Cove has to be the WORST place to land an invading army!

Heather laid a poppy and planted a flag at the grave of her Great Uncle at Shell Green. We played the Last Post and observed two minutes silence for all the diggers there, but particularly her Great Uncle. 

It was a fantastic day, which I have been looking forward to as long as I can remember. I am so glad that the group decided to do it as part of this tour. To do it with friends was just so special. It's a day I will never forget. 

We finished off with a quick tour of the Naval gun fortifications which were protecting The Narrows of the Straits. As we all know this is what it was all about. After a look at a very basic 'museum' at Eceabat, if you could even call it that, we dropped the guide back in town. He charged €100 (A$135) for the day which I believe is good value between the five of us. 

Our road to Gallipoli House was closed by Police when we went to go home so we killed an hour or so at The Boomerang Bar in town. Due to the language barrier we never got to know why the road was temporarily closed.  

Brighton Beach

ANZAC Cove

Our guide at ANZAC Cove with an old picture of ANZAC Cove

On the beach at ANZAC Cove

Lone Pine Cemetery

Restored WWI trench

Day 45: Mon 11 Jul - Istanbul to Kocadere (near Gallipoli) by hire car - 350km

Weather: fine 32deg

Our first breakfast in the Erboy Motel was nice but not quite the variety in "Turkish" dishes as the previous motel. Kerry was happy as they had tea bags and water to make a fresh cuppa instead of the very strong "stew" that is normally served. I haven't taken to the Turkish coffee (mud) like Wendy did while she was here, preferring the sweet, hot apple tea served in a small glass. However this is not served at breakfast so I have the standard motel filtered coffee. 

After stowing our packed bikes and excess luggage in the storeroom we checked out and waited for the hire van, which ended up being a half an hour late putting us behind schedule a little. 

The drive out of Istanbul was not quite as bad as we'd been told about; but almost. Wouldn't do it again in a hurry. At one stage we were surrounded by various Police vehicles while driving down a tram line we're not sure we should have been on. We weren't pulled over and survived so on we went. The roads were a mix of very good and fairly bad but always busy, especially for the first three hours. Five hours later we arrived at our accommodation for the next four nights, Gallipoli House in the village of Kocadere. The surroundings are wonderfully rural, with a mix of grain, fruit and livestock. And the only sounds are the cows, birds and roosters, bliss!!   

Gallipoli House is a rambling ex-farm house and buildings, all beautifully converted into accommodation, dining and entertainment areas.  

From here we do our obligatory Aussie pilgrimage to Gallipoli and maybe some local touring. We start with a personal guided tour tomorrow.

My room at Gallipoli House

The view from my window

Day 44: Sun 10 Jul - Istanbul

Weather: fine & sunny 30deg

Directly after breakfast it was off to the Topkapi Palace / Museum to try and beat the queues. We were lucky we did as it started to get very busy as we were leaving and would have been rather unpleasant. A spectacular palace in a totally different style than us Europeans are used to. Extensive use of marble and ceramics and all the buildings had wonderful wide verandahs, so appropriate in this climate. The gold, diamonds and other precious stones in the jewelry, clothing, weapons and furniture were, as normal for palaces everywhere, completely over the top. I wonder how many of their people they starved to death during their rein in order to achieve such obscene wealth. Regardless it is pleasing to the eye now and if they had not built it we would not be able to get such pleasure from it during present times. Unlike European palaces this one doesn't seem to have one big "palace" building as such. The Sultans preferred a more rambling set up with pavilions and garden houses scattered about. Not forgetting the mandatory harem house which every self respecting sultan must have. There have been a lot of additions over the centuries with extensions being added to celebrate various battle victories or a coronation, etc. 

It was then back to the motel to move as the bookings in Istanbul are pretty tight this time of the year, despite the 1000s of motels they have. The new hotel, Erboy, 50m up the road is excellent. The dinner we had at the restaurant was marvelous also. 

Tomorrow I am going to drive a hire van from here to our accommodation for the next few days which is near Gallipoli. All the info says "don't drive in Turkey, especially Istanbul!!!" We'll see, can't be any worse than Sydney?? I hope the two navigators, Bob & Fred, have their GPSs working well.  

Garden shed of the Sultans Palace of Topkapi

Our favourite coffee / Turkish delight shop in Istanbul

Upstairs in the café part

Day 43: Sat 9 Jul - Istanbul

Weather: fine, hazy 37deg

The restaurant at our hotel is on the roof level so breakfast is taken in picturesque surrounds; slowly. 

It was then off to the Haghia Sophia Museum, a Basilica (The Church of Divine Wisdom) built by the Romans in the 4th Century. It is similar in size to St Paul's Cathedral in London, only it is now completely empty. It is no longer a church and it is surrounded by mosques. The Muslims even used the Basilica as a mosque for 500 years during which time they destroyed or plastered over a great deal of the Christian decoration, especially any crosses. They have since uncovered some but now they let the pigeons fly in and out of the open windows and 1600 yr old Christian mosaics are slowly falling down. There appears to be a very token effort directed towards restoration and / or preservation. Maybe they should spend a little of the millions of lira they rake in every month from entrance fees, maybe they won't.    

It was then off to the Grand Bazaar, 4000 shops 64 streets 22 gates. Monstrous hive of little shops crammed full of useless stuff; only my opinion of course. Some people must find it useful as it is also crammed full of shoppers from all over the world. One thing you are glad to see at the Grand Bazaar is an exit. Tomorrow is another day, as they say in the classics.

Inside the Haghia Sophia

Day 42: Fri 8 Jul - Istanbul

Weather: sunny 37deg

Woke this morning feeling 100%; marvelous what a 20 hr sleep will do in the way of recuperation.  

One day in Istanbul is enough to convince me that I want to see more of this fascinating city. It is huge, no surprise really with a population of 15 million people it's got to be big. We have of course seen a tiny piece of it, and as we are staying on the European side near the Blue Mosque that is where we are wandering.  There are more mosques here than you can poke a Koran at. There's got to be a dozen within a stones throw of our motel. We took lunch at a street cafe next to one of the Mosques and the worshipers were spilling out onto the street about 2m from where we were sitting. We are glad there wasn't any post-Friday prayers trouble today. If only we could pack our churches to overflowing each Sunday like that. The Spice Market was 'spicy' and very fragrant.

The prize for the day's touring goes to The Basilica Cistern. It's a 140m x 70m x 9m high underground water supply carved out of solid rock and supported by 100s of huge marble columns. It can hold 100,000 tonnes of water. It was built in the 1st century by the Romans. I suspect we would struggle to build it today, even with all the technology we have.

Basilica Cistern

Spices in the Spice Market

Turkish delight in the Spice Market

Restaurant

Days 40-41: Wed 6 to Thu 7 Jul - Bucharest, Romania to Istanbul, Turkey by train - approx 500 km

Weather: cloudy but fine

Last night we had dinner at a Greek restaurant in the Old City. Most old cities in Europe are called that because the buildings are very old, but charmingly beautiful, and there's some very old Roman buildings or ruins in evidence. While Bucharest has some old ruins in their old city, the remainder looked old through decay and neglect. There was nothing that looked like it had any historical significance, having been thrown up, rather badly, during the communist era. Certainly not charming especially since it was covered with a coating of dirt and dust. The concrete cancer in some of the buildings looked quite serious and terminal, slightly scary when walking under or near them. It's going to take a massive effort across Romania to correct this common problem. Oh and there was nothing particularly Greek about the food in the Greek restaurant except the decor and the language on the menu, unless of course they mainly eat grilled pork chops and chips in Greece. After saying we wanted to sit at a particular table (near the cash register) away from some smokers, we then had to breath the second hand smoke of the cashier, who was one of the people at the table we were trying to avoid when we walked in. She stood at the register and chained smoked nearly the entire meal. It is very hard for non-smoking Aussies who are sensitive to second-hand smoke to get used to the idea of people smoking just about everywhere. We have noticed a few places where smoking is not tolerated and now this country is part of the EU they will have to start introducing non-smoking restaurants etc in accordance with EU regs. However we all came away from the restaurant with our appetites satisfied and the whole meal was nice, if not particularly Greek. 

Up fairly early after a great sleep in a very clean and well maintained Ibis Motel room. The standard of the Ibis chain around the world is excellent and predictable. Cleaned the bike and then ate a hearty breakfast with some excellent coffee to wash it down. A single room including buffet breakfast A$29, great value.  

Wheeled our loaded bikes to the station and after establishing which platform our train would arrive on, we bagged them ready for the trip to Istanbul. Our folded bikes in a bag ends up about the same size as a large suitcase and can fit easily in the sleeping cabin on a train, which we had pre-booked, paid for and got our tickets. However when we went to board the train the sleeping car official said "no, no, not possible to put bikes in sleeping cabin they are for sleeping". We insisted that we don't mind and it is our cabins alone and there was plenty of room. But when I told him I booked the whole cabin so I would have room for my bike, he reluctantly agreed it was okay for me to put the bike in the cabin. So much for the no bagged bikes in cabins. He wasn't finished with the other two couples who each had a cabin and he insisted they must use the spare cabin and it would cost Euro65. Then we realized that he was just another corrupt train official trying to rip us tourists off. This was the second time we had encountered corruption on the tour, both times on Romanian trains. However Bob and Fred were awake to this guy and just said to him they were not paying and they were going to put their bagged bikes in their cabins. They did this and everything fitted nicely and they were all comfortable. To prove a point we all sat / stood in Fred and Heather's cabin, with the bikes and luggage, and had a drink as the train was leaving. It feels good not to cave in to corruption, but it's not always possible. The same conductor came back later and charged Fred, Heather, Bob and Kerry Euro10 each for their bikes, but this time it was official as he wrote them a receipt. He didn't ask me, maybe due to the extra berth I have in my cabin. 

The train is reasonably modern with the basics, although the shower at the end of the carriage is broken and cold. What is also a bit strange for a train that takes 24 hrs is that it has no dining car. Our mate (we made up to him) did tell us that he sells beer and chicken soup. And you can't get off and buy stuff at any of the stops. The sleeper is nice and comfy and had plenty of room (even enough to store your bike) and a hand basin for a wash. But all night I kept getting a whiff of sewerage. I suspect that the hand basin didn't have an S bend. Although the train was ok the line was rough which caused the train to rock violently. After about 10 hours I wasn't feeling too good and was glad for the bunk bed to sleep. By the time I got to Istanbul 24 hrs later (1200h) I was feeling ordinary. Luckily the motel was only a 350m walk from the station and after throwing my gear in my room I went to bed and slept off and on till 0700 the next morning. I wasn't able to even get up for dinner. I think it was a combination of the train ride and some dodgy food I had at the station in Bucharest.  

Anyway I'm much better this morning and very much ready for breakfast.   Today we explore Istanbul.

Day 39: Tue 5 Jul - Tulcea to Bucharest by train

 Weather: partly cloudy

Up at 0500h to catch the 0605h train to Bucharest. The 336 km train journey took 6 hrs. 

We have been on this line before to get to Tulcea but the scenery is pleasant nevertheless. The bit from Cernavoda to Bucharest was new to us so it was even more interesting. Love train travel it is great to just sit back and admire the world passing by. And not a cobbled hill anywhere to be seen! Got to admit I really enjoyed the challenge. 

Alfresco dining in Bucharest

Day 38: Mon 4 Jul - Floating Motel Danube Delta to Tulcea

Ride: 43km

Weather: cool and cloudy

Getting used to the frogs, they didn't wake me as much last night. 

Today we had a casual breakfast and caught the fast boat back to the wharf at Murighiol. Then it was a short ride back to the motel at Tulcea.  

Effectively Tulcea is the end of the cycling part of this tour.  From here on we train / hire car our way around. I am certainly going to miss the riding I am happiest when I am riding regardless of what is passing by. As long as it is not rough cobblestones of course. I am very pleased I came on this tour so that I could see these countries for myself. The local people were wonderful and always willing to help with directions, despite the language barrier. 

From my point of view it was an interesting and varied tour. Incorrectly I expected to see a 'quaint' side of the Eastern part of the Danube, but in the main it is 'ugly'. I don't mean any offence when saying this it is just that most places are quite grey looking and often a bit rundown. Maybe we should not compare the East with the West of Europe. Some countries have towns surrounded by rubbish; I believe there is no excuse for this.  

If you like wide open spaces with 100s of km of wheat, sunflowers and maize then the East is the place for you. Also incorrectly I expected more or improved cycling infrastructure especially around the big cities. It was disappointing that the Euro Cycle Route 6 has not had any obvious priority in the East.  

The countries in the East could do very well out of any improvements as there are plenty of cycle tourists who would come if they didn't have to mix it with the trucks and buses. I appreciate that times are tough and money is tight and there is always something more important to be done than building cycle paths. However improved facilities would help the local population most. 

Would I recommend the Vienna to Black Sea tour? The answer is YES, however only to those cycle tourist who enjoy it a bit rough and off the beaten track. Remember for those who like nice 'civilized' cycling,  there are 1000s of km of perfectly excellent cycleways (on and off the road) in Western Europe. 

However each to his/her own, if you happen to be the adventurous type who likes to get away from the crowds, then the East would be perfect. We found it very safe and never once felt threatened or intimidated. 

Tomorrow we catch the train to Bucharest.

Day 37: Sun 3 Jul - Floating Hotel Danube Delta

 Weather: cloudy, cool & rain, day 3 for rain

They have a lot of frogs here (the type the French like to eat) and at night they make an awful racket right outside the window. It's not a sound easily ignored when you are not used to it so sleep was often disturbed. The hull of the boat provides little protection and in fact appears to amplify the noise if anything. The cabin windows are just about at water level, right next to the frogs. However, as we went to bed early plenty of sleep was had by all.   

After a hearty breakfast we headed out in the fast boat towards the mouth of the Delta. After about two and a half hours flat out we arrived at the Black Sea. Didn't even look a little bit black? Had a wander around a place near the mouth called Sfântu Gheorghe, an ex fishing village which is now attempting to establish itself as a tourist centre. We ate our packed lunch on the wharf and started the trip home, just as the rain started to come down. A very cold and wet trip followed and everyone was glad to have a hot shower and dress in dry, warm clothes. Then it was up to the dining room for hot coffee / tea and to relax watching Le Tour De France. 

Dinner was, you guessed it, smoked fish entree (extremely salty) boiled fish main and pancakes for dessert (no fish in the pancakes, I think). A very nice dinner, it's obvious Nuta puts a great deal of effort into every meal.

Floating restaurant at Tulcea

Day 36: Sat 2 Jul - Tulcea to Murighiol (Floating Hotel Danube Delta)

Ride: 41km

Weather: cloudy with sunny periods, late rain

Although we cracked the 2,000 km for the tour yesterday, it doesn’t feel like it. Today we had a rather short ride East to Murighiol, one of the few towns in the Danube Delta you can travel to by road. 1.1km of rough cobblestones coming out of Tulcea was not pleasant however the remainder of the ride was on an excellent smooth road. For the next 3 days 2 nights we are staying on a stationary floating motel, Anastasia (two houseboats joined together) run by a guy called Christen. It took about half an hour by fast boat from the wharf to the motel. There are 18 double/twin rooms in total within the two boats.    We were able to leave some excess gear at the motel in Tulcea and our bikes were stored in a wharf office in Murighiol. Storage fee A$5 per bike; nothing for nothing in Romania.  

The rooms on the houseboat are clean, neat and surprisingly roomy. Each room is equipped with its own ensuite. The cabins are at water level while the dining / bar / sitting area is above and a sun-deck tops off one of the boats. Upon arrival we were greeted with a shot glass of  Pilenka (traditional Bulgarian spirit adopted by the Romanians) followed by a great veggie & polenta dumpling soup. The main dish was fish & polenta or veggies & polenta. There was also a sauce made of crushed garlic & mayonnaise or similar. The cook / waitress is a Russian lady, Nuta, who speaks no English, but we all managed to make ourselves understood somehow.   

1630h we were taken on a small open dingy (20HP six seater) tour of the lakes, waterways and marches around the houseboat. What a massive body of fresh water. In the few hours we were out we covered about 50 sq km of a few thousand sq km of the delta. Saw 100s of birds, some familiar from Oz or Africa but we often didn't know their proper name, just that they were heron,  gull, kingfisher, bee-eater, water hen, pelican, swan, etc. It was good to see the European Roller bird, which is familiar from our African travels. Some of the water birds (particularly ducks and water-hens) were very frightened as we approached in the boat and flew off at first sight, indicating that they have been extensively hunted, which is a shame as it is hard to get a good look at them and eco tourism must be worth more than a few shooters.  

The variety of waterways were amazing; from large channels you could drive an oil tanker down to small creeks you could barely thread the small boat through. Other areas of open water were covered in water lilies with a narrow boat path through. A fascinating few hours. 

Back to the hotel about 2030h and after a quick shower it was dinner time. We were just getting over lunch! Entrée was a pickled fish and onions followed by carp baked with potatoes and tomato purée.   The Romanian carp is nothing like the Chinese carp that has invaded our rivers and dams. I must agree there's no way I could have faced Chinese carp it's pretty awful apparently. But this carp was very tasty and no little bones. They also have the Chinese carp here and don't eat it either.  

It was straight to bed after dinner as we were all fairly tired.

We saw quite a few live snakes. This one looks nasty so thank fully it was dead. Near Tulcea

Wild flowers between Tulcea and Murighiol

Our floating hotel

Top deck

Sunset