Alex and Jon blogging late last night. We were dead tired, brains barely functioning. So forgive the inept commentary.
This morning's very stale breakfast - but the hazelnut spreads (produced here in Turkey which provides over 70% of the world's hazelnuts) were excellent.
(Jon) We made it to Antalya, and it's now 10:50pm our time - and it's out of pure dedication to you lovely people that we're going to bang this out after 200 miles over 9 1/2 hours of riding. That being said, we rate the day a ten. So here is the overview: The pictures you see above are of our stop at Xanthos, ruins of the Roman city. It's really well preserved site including the incredible stadium.
(Alex) Everything was going fine until Jon said "Alex - I want the bike in the picture" and then proceeded to try to put the bike into the Coliseum. He actually had no such plan, but even getting close really angered some of the people that worked there. The yelling wasn't fun, but even worse was Jon's pathetic attempts to get the bike back over the step he went down to get closer (he really was far from the site, btw). After many apologies, they seemed appeased, but I had to refuse Jon's offer for us to go up and buy refreshments from them.
(Jon & Alex from now on - we're sitting next to each other for this whole blog anyways...) The ride was beautiful today. We've uploaded a bunch of videos that are worth checking out. And we look so dashing riding you should check us out anyway. Mountains... Beautiful sea and coves... Twisty switchbacks... and Perfect weather. You just can't beat a day like this.
Jon's following Alex on this one. Note that the Headcam is on Jon's helmet.
We took a detour to Myra to check out some Lycian ruins. Just so you understand, ruins are ALL over this country. And they're not the itty bitty ruins you might find on a Greek island. They're huge - sometimes as well preserved as the Roman Coliseum. What surprised us so much was how little signage or theatrics encase them. You might pass a small sign on the side of the rode indicating some ruins nearby. You follow the road indicated and you end up in a place like Xanthos above. Amazing.
Ok - enough ranting. The Lycian tombs were our destination, however it appears that the Romans found them first. You could never figure that out from the four monkey picture above.
These are the Lycian tombs above. Gravesites that were built into the granite with very decorative reliefs. They're way up high and its clear that they had help from UFOs. Note that these gravesites were built 1,400 years before the Roman established the city of Myra below (which sits right below the Lycian tombs). These tombs were archeological playgrounds for the Roman scientists.
The Myran ruins. Another well preserved theater with three levels of staging rooms behind the front stage. The view came with really good gelato.
We drove the rest of the way along the coast line up to Antalya. It was beautiful and there were some really interesting parts - like the entirely gravel highway due to work being done on the road for five miles (riding a bike on gravel is like the Nic Wallenda walking a tightrope across the Grand Canyon, you know he's going to make it but it's nerve racking to watch).
One part that really makes the ride pretty wonderful is our new communication devices. We installed them in our helmets on the flight over, and frankly neither of us were confident they would work at all. They DO! We're able to listen to music over Bluetooth from our phones and if either of us speaks outloud the music pauses and our voices are transmitted. It takes some getting used to and a lot of apologies from Alex when he talks to his imaginary friend or is belching but overall they're great.
After 9 1/2 hours in the 90 degree sun we were hot, sweaty, and the tushies hurt. A lot. BMW is not Harley or Honda in the seat department. We were looking for Old Town Antalya in a city of over 1Million people... bigger than we expected. Once we found it courtesy of a nice driver at a red light we then searched out a recommendation from Robert (the guy who rented us the bikes) for a hotel called Hotel Tuvana. We passed by three times before a woman came out and asked what we were looking for (our bikes are loud and the streets were only 12 feet wide). Luckily, she was the manager of the Tuvana Hotel! Happily, we showered and went out to get dinner.
View from a balcony where we're writing this blog within the hotel. Very poofy joint.
This is the town on a Sunday night around 10pm. We either live in a really boring city or something special was going on. We suspect the former... Everyone (young and old - whole families) were walking the streets and having fun.
Dinner was yummy - under a ceiling of umbrellas! We're outdoors in a blocked off street between rows of restaurants and it was wonderful except when Jon got attacked by a very drunk Turkish flag salesman. You can see the result on the right side of Jon's feast.
With full bellies Alex just can't say no to something new and sweet. We were passing a vendor and casually looked at what he was making. A restaurateur from across the way came over and demanded that we try this "authentic Turkish dessert" - a common favorite. Jon tried to communicate diabetes but failed miserably as the restaurateur, insisting that he try it, spoon fed him. Really.
The Turkish people are universally friendly. If you have a camera on your forehead, people wave at you. Cause they think you're crazy.
I'm very sure Jon was trying his hardest to turn down the sweets... Those ruins look amazing!
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