Caravanserai, serai, whatever will be, will be...

 

The Mini is lauded as a piece of iconic design, recognisable throughout the world. We would like to propose an alternative: the Woolwich Ferry. No matter where we go in the world we come across either copies or, used but not too abused, second hand ones. Ferry across the Bosphorus was only different in the vessel's name, the Sultanahmet. The Ferry took us from the land mass that is Europe to that which is Asia; it took about 20 minutes. After that there was the equivalent 30km of traffic we had had coming into Istanbul from the West, but this time going out to the East. We held our gap between the traffic for quite a while - only a water seller got in the way - with a supermarket shopping trolley. But then we just gave into local custom and 80-100km/h down the hard shoulder got us out of Istanbul as quickly as we could.

Fraid to say that the road out was just as boring as the road in. Steel plants and container ports for a large part of the route. We then started climbing. We also got above the clouds and it was quite nice. Having got some kilometres done - well if we are going to stick a chance of getting to our planned destination in the allotted time frame we need to, we then went onto some smaller roads which were very pleasant indeed. Still some remnants of snow in some places adjacent to the road.

Wednesday night and it is Safranbolu; that's the town we are staying in and not the spiced mushroom dish we were contemplating for dinner.

 

 

 

Motorcyclists aren't too anti-caravan. They don't hold us up too much. However they are not things we understand, the joys of lugging around a portaloo on wheels, causing traffic jams, being generally despised by other road users, being relegated to staying overnight in lay-bys or someone's fields simply escape us. Apparently you can also choose to stay in ones that don't move too  - must be sort of a virtual caravanning experience; you sit in the caravan, put the VR goggles on and you can then pretend you are stuck in a traffic jam or emptying the portaloo. 

Well tonight we are staying in an old Caravanserai which is not a Max Bygraves themed caravan site in North Wales, but somewhere where Silk Road traders stopped with their camels for the night. The blurb says that it was built in 1645 and served until the 20th century when the Silk Road lost its meaning. We have an upstairs room with a vaulted stone ceiling.

Other than that Safranbolu has great cobble stones, a higher density of Turkish Delight shops than anywhere else in the world including Istanbul and a very limited restaurant scene - a severely limited one indeed if you would have liked some wine with your meal. Red wine with a sandwich or a deep fried kebab might be a bit off anyway. BUT it is a really cute little town and UNESCO clearly thought so too. And the caravanserai is pretty cool too.... it is also a tourist attraction and it's one Turkish Lire to come through the door into the courtyard where the camels used to rest, if you are not staying there. We were told that the camels were long gone, so suspect that it must be the plumbing that was a bit iffy. They also warn you about the tourists and advise you to lock your doors... just like on a caravan site.