Tuesday 8 October 2013

Now it's Time for Bikes - Şimdi Bisiklet Zaman



I arrived back safe and sound but chilled to the bone on Saturday.  Winter temperatures were blowing down from the North sweeping away all remnants of summer and leaving us shivering.  I avoided seasickness  by copious consumption of dried ginger from Hydra to Piraeus, keeping completely horizontal from Piraeus to Kos and completely vertical from Kos to Bodrum.  It seems I can control by nausea  as long as I don't bend in the middle.

                    

Our village house is not suited to the cold so we decamped to Bodrum on Sunday where I had planned to take part in a bike ride from the town centre to Gümbet. The event was advertised on Facebook calling riders to meet in the centre of Bodrum to  remind the local authority that despite plenty of bikes in Bodrum we don't have cycle lanes. 


Or if we have a cycle lane, it is used as a parking lot for pizza delivery scooters. 


There was a serious amount of lycra on show and I realised that there was no way I'd keep up with these keen cyclists; I hadn't even remembered my bicycle clips, so I took a few photos and watched them set off in convoy following a cop on a motorbike.  My Raleigh "ladies'" bike only has 3 gears so I wouldn't have got half way up the hill but I wished them luck in their campaign and hopefully the mayor can get these scooters moved so that we at least have a few hundred yards to cycle safely in Bodrum. 





P.S.  If you are heading for Bodrum, the temperatures are now racing back to normal. It should be 28 or 29 degrees C by the week-end. 

26 comments:

  1. Nice to see campaigning for cycle lanes, long live the bicycle!
    Perhaps your P.S. means that the nicely warm weather we had yesterday and today is going your way, as they keep telling us it is going to get colder here!

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    1. Idske - we need some imput from Holland to sort out the bike lanes. My mum is also on her way so I hope she is bringing the warm weather with her.

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  2. Loved reading this, my favourite phrase being "I can control my nausea as long as I don't bend in the middle."

    You bring back memories of Bodrum in a way no-one else does. We loved the old place and look forward to seeing her next year. And maybe get a glimpse of you in lycra?

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  3. I hope the lycra was worth leering at. It usually isn't in Norwich!

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    1. Sorry to report - it was worth a second glance. I've been spoilt by hanging out with the beautiful people in the summer.

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  4. Dear Annie, there's so much adventure and traveling and experiencing in your life. It's quite wonderful and amazing. Peace.

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    1. I would give the rough seas a miss if I had the choice.

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    2. Dear Annie, you and I both. Today I said in my posting that I'd never want to relive the 1960 months I spent in the seventh-grade classroom in Omaha but that I had learned some important lessons there. For me, learning from "rough seas" makes all the difference. I bet for you too. Peace.

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  5. B to B, Completely horizontal or vertical, ey? I'll remember that.

    Lycra takes the fun out of a true peoples' bike ride. Wish I'd've been there - we could have gotten off our three-speeders and walked up the hill. A good cause, including getting rid of those pesky delivery bikes which litter the sidewalk in Istanbul as well.

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    1. I can imagine cycling in Istanbul is only for the truly suicidal.

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    Replies
    1. The email address for the blog is backtobodrum@gmail.com

      Delete
  7. Glad to hear you're back home safe & sound; that nausea is no fun : ( but this bike ride does, and I do hope you get the bike lanes, I'll put on fb, hope it helps. And enjoy that weather!: ) Ozlem

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    1. Thanks Ozlem - I do cycle in the winter but wouldn't dare in the summer.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. . . don't forget the embrocation and vaseline to lubricate the friction bits - but that's only if you are going cycling, of course!!

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    1. Can you elucidate . Where exactly does the vaseline go and where the embrocation

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  9. Glad you made it back to Bodrum. Hopefully I will be able to visit Bodrum one day myself!

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  10. Cycling has been quite a big thing here in Selçuk this summer but, now the weather is cooling down a bit, the Mountaineering and Extreme Sports club have declared walking season open. I don't know how they cope with cycling in the heat...

    Cycle lanes in Bodrum sound like a good thing. Hope the campaign succeeds. Here, I think, many people would be happy if motorbikes kept off the supposedly pedestrianized streets...

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  11. I guess cycle clips aren't a requirement with lycra are they ? Glad you survived the sea journey, and I too will take note of the bending in the middle advice.

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  12. Much too late to wish you a good journey, but glad you got home safely. I do hope you can get those scooters moved.

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  13. Much too late to wish you a good journey, but glad you got home safely. I do hope you can get those scooters moved.

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  14. Good luck with the cycle lane campaign. I'd be grateful for road surfaces I could walk on here!

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