How it all started?
Before I left for Turkey I had been brainstorming with some of the old crowd of the bikerforum, that I was nearly 3 years moderator of: www.motorforum.nl. Well, at least that is the neatest word for it I can think of.
The boys wanted to drive here, have a good look around and then back. They liked the idea. But it is quite a trip, certainly on old-timer-bikes. Anyway, it is 3500 km and then drive around, so lets not talk about going back as well.
But there are other options: RENTING

On february 28, 2009, I get a mail from JanBMW, that he needs a break badly.
I send a mail back: You are always welcome, you know that. Rent a bike together and drive, get our heads empty.

Jan: Together on one motorbike, drive each on turn, we can talk while we drive and then make a long tour for a few days. Find a hotel for the night, how about that?

Me: Sh.., I left my winterboots and wintergloves on Kos. Well we stop more often to stamp our feet and make pictures. My bikersuit is here and my tankbag.

Jan: I could really look forward to that. You think we could easily find a place to sleep?

Me: We will find a place. They are so enormously hospitable, also in the countryside. It's going to be a wonderful week, something to remember. Don't forget your camera!!!

Jan: In my head I am already with you, hope the weather will be fine. Is it wise that I bring my helmet?

Me: Well I do have both my helmets here, the integral and the Schuberth. Think that the red one will fit you. Can remove the visor if you like. You could bring a good temper, but if you see the sunshine here, you will immediatly have a smile from ear to ear. Sunglasses would be a good idea. For the rest everything is for sale here and is cheap. I had a converstion with the boys of Noracer here around the corner this afternoon. If they knew a reliable rent-a-bike shop. They advised me to go to Martin. Here is a link. These are summer-prices, we will go on winter-prices of course. When we want to rent for more days, we should negotiate. I read that they do have tours. I think it's a good idea to do some business with him.

Jan: Don't worry about my good temper, that is always with me. If the weather is good, we will sure have a good time. I will wear my bikerjacket when I go to Schiphol (airport). Great that I don't have to bring my helmet.

Me: You must have seen the site of Martin by now, bring your pasport and your driver's license when renting a motorbike.

Jan: Well, to me it may become friday.

Me: Me too, I am very much looking forward to saturday. Seems great to me, to undertake such an adventure with you. I will bring pencil and paper, to make some notes, so we can write a story afterwards for the websites, with pictures of course.

Jan: I will try to catch some sleep in the airplane, then we can start saturday catching up and you can show me the town. Then we can have a look for a suitable motorbike, so that we can leave early on sunday morning.

Then on friday the 13th of March I take the 9 pm bus to Antalya and leave the bus at the exit to the airport. No taxi in sight. When I have crossed the road I hear a carhorn behind me, a taxi. It takes me to the lokanta, where I wait all night, untill I leave by foot at 6 am. Otherwise Jan would have to wait for me for at least an hour, because this early there are no busses to Antalya yet. There are enough taxi's though, but that is quite expensive, it's 135 km. I'd rather throw that money in a fueltank.

On saturdaymorning I walk the kilometre to Terminal 1 and go through the check-up. First see if the passengers come here, otherwise i have anotehr 5 kilometres to walk to Terminal 2. But I see jan his flightnumber on the screen. the plane lands early and since jan only has handluggage, he comes out first. We take a taxi to the Alanyada, the main road between Antalya and Alanya. There we buy a ticket for the Akdeniz bus to Alanya, bus-terminal. Here we sit down on a bench and enjoy the sunshine and a cigarette. Then we walk to a taxi to take us to the city-centre, where my appartment is. We dump the luggage in the room and leave in order to explore the town.

From Damlatas we take the high road to the Red Tower (Kizilkule). Halfway, you have a lovely view on the harbour. We find ourselve a nice place on the terrace of the Balikílar and grab a bite for lunch. Then we walk through the harbour, all the way to the communityhall. There are new statues standing around. Every year at the festival in october about a dozen artists from all over Europe come here in a contest to carve a statue in a weeks time. Those statues will later get a place all over town. We walk along the Atatürk monument to the Atatürk-street. The tulip are already in bloom here. This Street is the main steet through the city-centre and always easy to find. We walk left and right through small shopping-streets and end up near the Mosque on Damlatas. Jan has never been inside a Mosque, so we are going to change that first. I tie my hair together and swirl my pashmina around my head. We take off our shoes and then we go inside. Jan is totally surprised over the sereen silence and stands there just looking around. With a whispering voice I tell him about things in the Mosque.

We go to the appartment to eat some bread and then we go into town, to Martin to arrange a motorbike. We tell him we like to go all the way to Kapdocia. In that case Martin won't rent us the bike. Imagine the bike breaks down, then it is far too expensive to get it back to Alanya. There we stand, disppointed. We start wandering through town and see the yellow restored old Jawa, that I told Jan about, when he was pleasantly surprised about the amount of darkred old Jawa's driving around. We cross the street and pass by a rent-a-car. No bike? Then a 4-wheeler. But they are already closed, so we'll check in the morning if there is a car available for a week. It is still early, but we skipped a night so we can use all the sleep that we can get.

After breakfadt we have a few cups of coffee and already pack our things that we want to take with us this week. At 10 UFO-rent-a-car sould be open. We can rent a Ford Focus for the week. That way I can take Jan to the airport as well on saturdaymorning. Of course we have to drink some tea with them. The first thing Jand does is press the day-counter to "zero". We drive to the appartment and take another time the 99 steps in order to get our luggage and we leave for Anamur. There we miss the exit and end up at a castle in Bozyazi. We make some pictures and turn back to Anamur.

There we drive into the mountains. In Ucari we stop at a small restaurant for Gözleme and we drink tea on the side.

We stop on a regular basis to make pictures. At 4.30 pm we stop at a place where a lot of Turkish people are picknicking. They offer us a pice of apple and some Raki, But we consider that we still ahve to drive and driving and alcohol don't go together. The lady prepares a longdrinkglass for someone else and puts in a handful of snow from a plastic bag. I wonder where on earth did she get a plastic bag with snow. We findout soon enough after continueing our ride for the last 80 kms to Ermenek. Near Kasyaylasi we come in the first snow. I make short movies all the way to Abanoz.

Here the houses are standing on poles, because of the meltwater. But the village seems to be deserted, as we see no chimney smoking and no dog in the street, when we pass at 5.20 in the afternoon. It looks like a moonlandscape when we move on. Also in Akpinar is no sign of life. It looks like a ghost-town.

We continue our way untill shortly after 6 pm we arrive in Ermanek. We stop at the mosque, to take pictures of the beautiful flower motif in the glass-in-lead windows. In the centre we ask for a hotel. There seems to be only one, the Selçuklu Otel. On the room it is 26 degrees and after the cold it feels quite relaxing. We go into town to score a bottle of nice dry red wine and to eat something and of course to make pictures. It is such a lovely pitoresque city and here and there we find beautiful antiquities, great. With that Jan and I really think the same.

We drink the bottle of red wine in the room and go to sleep, tomorrow after breakfast we want to leave early into the direction of Kapadocia. According to the daycounter we did drive 277 kms today.

In the morning we first enjoy the view and make a few pictures as the sunlight is playing with the mountains. We really enjoy that. On arrival at the car, it seems that we have to scratch the front-window first. It has frozen here overnight. When we leave, we first go to a fuelstation and fill the fueltank. It may be half empty, but it gives much more confidense when driving with a full tank. In the mountains I have not seen any fuelstations. We are immediatly asked to come inside for a glass of tea. In poor German they can make themselves understood. We take place near a very nice warm stove.

We drive into the direction of Mut and Karaman. Only 154 km to go and then we think about going into the direction of Nigde. We pass deep valleys and high mountains. In Fakirca we ask the road, just to get in touch with the locals.

With another 36 km to go to Karaman we get into snow again. Just past midday we drive into karaman and choose for the direction of Eregli. We take the wrong turn and see what I told Jan before. The loading of trucks with bags. You don't believe your eyes. We really have to make pictures of this. Then we drive back and find the right exit.

Agin we come in the plains with emptyness untill Aranci. Wet snow is falling down. Then even more emptyness and the daycounter is only telling us that we've made 517 km so far. Near Burgerluk we are stopped by the police, but we can move on.

Just passed Nigde, and before Aktas we fuel up at Petrol Ofisi and have lunch with çorba and bread. It is 4 pm and snow is falling. We become more and more greatful towards Martin for not renting us the motorbike. We go into the direction of Nevsehir and have another 93 km to go to get there.

Near Gölük there are sheep walking on the road (with the owners). If we have to stop anyway, why not make some pictures in the process. Then we pass through Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, where there are underground cities.

In Çardak we see the first caves. A few boys point a small Mosque from Selçuktime (1200 - 1300) out to us. We have a look to make some pictures, but it is closed.

Then we go into the direction of Uchisar and Göreme and end up at the castle of Uchisar. There is snow here and it is very cold.

We leave the castle and drive along Pigeon valley. Here are lots of holes made in the rocks for the pigeons. We need to mke pictures of that. Pigeons symbolise in Islam: family and peace. In Christendom they symbolise the holy spirit. It looks awsome in the late afternoon light. Beautiful shadows. This must be the best time to make pictures here.

Then we move on by Ortahisar to Ürgüp. On the way there we see the Üçgüzeller, the three beauties.

In Ürgüp we ask for directions to the Sarniç Otel, but we are sent through town. Driving through the city we do see a whole rock with caves in them and in the eveninglight we make some pictures. Then we ask at the fuel-staion for directions to the hotel and we are politely asked in english to come in and drink some çay. Just like we started our day. We find the hotel, book for 2 nights and go into town to find us a bottle of nice dry red wine. The advantage of digital camera is that you can see what pictures you made so far by a nice glass of wine at the end of the day. The daycounter tells us that we are 742 kms away from Alanya. I wonder what the week total will be. At least we have arrived in Kapadocia, or as the Turkish say: Kapadokya.

The area called Kappadocia is situated in central Anatolia and is considered one of worlds greatest nature wonders. It stretches over 800 km2 and consists of the provinces: Akseray, Nevsehir, Nigde, Kayseri and Kirsehir.

In the morning we have breakfast at 8 with a freshly boiled egg. First we drive into town to find me a new SD-card, as I can only make a few more pictures. From there we drive into a sidestreet as far as we can and start to climb through the greasy clay/ash. It sticks to our shoes and there is only one thing we can do, roll up our trousers. We make pictures in the early morning-light of this beautiful rock, that was formed here.

Millions of years ago the Erciyes Dagi, de Güllü Dagi and the Hasan Dagi spread here their ashes and lava. By rosion of meltwater, rain and wind the most extraordinary rockformations have formed. Because basalt is less erosion-sensitive then the tuff underneath, the "fairy-chimneys" formed.
We will see them in Pasabagi valley and in the "surprise vlley". We'll visit that later today.

From Ürgüp we dribe again long the Üçgüzeller near Mustafapasa in the direction of Göreme. We stop by the road and take the time to have a good look around.

In Göreme you can drive into the valley and you will be amazed what there is to see. Here are serveral rock-churces on a row. But you need to pay entrance and we want to see a large area today, so we don't go in there and other tourist trractions. We just drive through the valley untill we arrive in the village of Göreme and then we drive back and forth one more time.

Just outside Göreme we stop near a valley, where there is a lot to see from the top and Jan gets a phonecall, which gives me the opportunity to make lots of pictures.

By the side of the road we make pictures at the "Cavusin church and drive to Avanos. We leave the main road there for an unpaved path, becuse we see lovely rock-formations.

In Avanos also a whole rock was inhabited. But there is more, we also see the poor houses where people live nowadays.

First we go to Pasabagi valley, the monks valley.

Here we have a good look around and mount the stairs to have a look in the rockchurch. Then we drive to Zelve, where Jan is amazed how they make Gözleme. We have a good tast of them with a glass of çay.

We would acturally like to see the backside of the church at "Cavusin and drive into the town-square. Here Mehmet Bektas offers his services to show us a church all the way up on the rock, for a small amount of money. We would never have climbed there by ourselves. But we are glad this was offered to us. He tells us that "Cavusin rock was inhabited untill the earthquake of 1960, Then there were 3 dead and all the houses were beyond repair.

We ask Mehmet if he can tell us where we can find "Surprise valley" or "Love-valley". We have an idea, but it means that we have to walk through the soggy clay/ash again. Well, our idea was right and again we roll up our trousers. By the melted snow the soil is extemely wet. We have to walk for about one kilometre in order to arrive in the valley. I get a phonecall, tonight we are expected on a Turkish night in a rock-carved restaurant. The boss has arranged that. Well the valley is really beautiful and we make numerous pictures. There we are amongst the fallus-symbols.

We stop at the Aynali church, but it is closed already. Between the bars we make some pictures of the fresco's in the church.

When the Christians left jerusalem in the 2nd century, to prevent executions from the Romans, they came by Antakya (Antioch) and Kayseri (Caesarea) in this region and started hiding in caves and underground cities, from which the entrances were hiden very well. Just to prevent being attacked and looted. Because they had to hide here for longer periods of time, they built themselves pantries, wine-cellars and watersupplies (cisterns). But also monastries, churches and chapels. There must be over a 1000 churches in Kapadocia and by the decorations they can be dated. Some of them really date back from before the era. Most cities were connected to each other and went to 10 storeys deep. There must have been about 400 of these cities, but the largest and best known so far is in Derinköy. Kapadocia was situated on a strategic point on the traderoutes, including the silk-road. Because of this busy traffic it was unter influence of all kinds of cultures. But Kapadocia was not only the country of pagan and christian. When the Islam came in Anatolia, it was also the house of serveral Moslim-teachters mystics and filisophers. In the 14th century the mystic Haci Bektas settled here and there is even a city named after him. He was very determined to create unity in the differnt groups, which makes us think of the human-right charta of 1948. Also the poet Yunus Emre lived for years in this area.

When we come back at the hotel, the daycounter says: 832 km.

We better hit the shower and be in the lounge at 8 pm, because the menager will take us personally to the Turkish night. We will however have to get back by taxi ourselves, but the menager of the Turkish night is told he has to call one for us. We see serverl ethnic, regional and traditional dances passing by and at the end of the evening there is disco. The Turkish music is played by a quartet and exists from a lyre, a clarinet, een saz (Turkish kind of mandoline) and the Turkish drum.

The next morning we first pack our things before we go for breakfast. After breakfast we go up to get our luggage and then we go underway to Alanya again. But first we will pass by lots of places and the famous Taurus mountains.
Near Nevsehir we have a lovely view on the valley, where the houses stand between the rock-houses. Then we arrive in the first mountain range and then there is snow again. That is a promise for what to expect when we really go over the mountains. We drive passed Aksaray into the direction of Konya. These are considerable cities. Aksaray has 152.000 inhabitants and a lovely Mosque in white and blue with 4 minarets.Then we have to cross a great plain untill we arrive in Konya. Also a huge town with 974.000 inhabitants.

We stop at a little restaurant, after that Jan can drive again. Then the climb starts through the Taurus mountains. At a certain moment there is snow on the roads. Jan starts being worried, because we didn't bring any snow-chains and the 1400 engine really has a hard time to get us up. But we menage an the view is magnificent. What a beautiful mountains. The pictures spek for themselves. Near Yarpuz the sun comes through and shines on a cloud over the valley. We both enjoy it. Becuse it is still early in the afternoon we drive towards the north, to Manavgst and visit the largest mosque in this area. This time I don't have my pashmina with me, but am wearing a cardigan with a hood. That will hide my hair too. Respect, that is what it is all about in this world. Just before Alanya we see the sun go down and we stop at Cleopatra-beach to make pictures. The daycounter says: 1388 kms.

We are back on base and make plans for the next day. Jan would like to see my "working-area" and so the next morning we leave right after breakfast into the direction of Side. Now that I'm alone with Jan, I can also go where I never go with tourists. I know there should be remains of a palace, a church and a bath-house. When we walk along the places where i walk with tourist, i tell Jan about it what I know. He really likes it and we decide to have a look inside the theatre. With the tourists I always walk around it. I like to know what makes this theatre special. Many parts are not available to tourists and without bi oculars you can hardly see the scenes on the pices of marble on stage. For the rest it is a theatre with extraordinary acoustics. Although the theatre was built in the style of the colloseum in Rome, because a natural slope was not available here. This makes it unique in the whole mediterranian area. other theatres are all built according Helinistic tradition, against this natural slope. In ancient times there was a wall around the orchestra, just like in other theatres. Not only to protect the spectators from wild animal shows and gladiator fights. But this wall was waterproof from the outside, so they could fill the orchestra with water and enact complete naval battles for entertainment. In the middle-ages the theatre was used as an (open air) church.

After Side we drive toward Antalya and take the exit to Aspendos. We stop at Belkis bridge. The bridge with the zigzag in it. The old foundations built by the Romans are still very distinct. It must have been an earthquake that both disturbed the bridge and the aquaduct. As parts of the aquaduct were found in the foundation of the bridge. I point them out to Jan. Just blocks with a hole in them (diametre 28-30 cm), with a socket and flenge. Those were glued together with a mix of lime and olive-oil. When this comes in contact with water, it expands and hardens and can withstand quite a lot of waterpressure. I heard from a Dutch tourist in my bus that nowadays they use calciumcarbonate and oil to repair fountains, they still have not found a better product yet. Those Romans sure knew how to build. But let's get back to the point. Somewhere in the 1200s the bridge collapsed again and was restored by the Seljoeks and they believed that over a straight bridge the devil could see you come. So, they built a zigzag in it.

The bridge crosses the Kopru-river, in olden days better known as the Eurymedon river. Aspendos was situated near this river, 16 km land inwards. The river was navigable untill Aspendos and they derived great wealth from the trade in Wool, oil and salt. The city had it's own cisterns (water-supplies) and wells. But when the population grew and life standard became higher there was more water needed. When the Romans took over the aquaduct was built. They found 2 springs in the Taurus mountains and over a length of 17 km water was transported in gutters. They drilled through solid earth and rock, with air- and light vents and in the valleys the gutter was carried by arches (the venter). Untill 1.7 km before Aspendos. They assume that the aquaduct was built in the first half of the second century. It existed from serveral tunnels and bridges. The gutter itself was 55-60 cm wide and about 90 cm deep. The last 1.7 km between the hills and the acropolis was a complex combination where the water had to be taken uphill. The most eyecatching are the 2 watertowers. The farthest tower is built in an angle of 175 degrees. There is assumed that in the middle was a large open watertank. A diverted siphon was used, in the form of the letter "U". When you pour water on one side, the level will be higher on the other side. The venter (15 metres high arches) took the water over 900 metres across the valley to the other watertower, which was built in an angle of 125 degrees. This part of the aquaduct is 5,5 metres wide and is assumed to have ben used as a road in times when the valley was soggy. Nowadays the towers stand 30 metres high in the landscape. But during axcavations in 1996, when the siphons were found of the main tank to the receiving tank, they calculated that once these towers must have been about 40 metres high. That makes these towers one of the highest structures ever built by Romans. To compare: the aquaduct at Pont du Gard is 48.77 metres high.

We drive along the theatre of Aspendos and have a look at one of the water-towers of the aquaduct.

On the way bak we notice that the Mediterranian has nice waves. We like to watch it and not get wet. First we stop at Hotel Incecum and see how far the sea comes on the beaches. Just before Alanya, near the new fisher harbour we have a lovely view how the waves smash on the rocks and create fountains of water. So we park the car and take the time to absorb the scene before returning to base. In the mean time we have driven 1577 kms.

On fridays there is always the bazaar. In the morning we go there to have a look. In the afternoon we visit some BMW dealers, as Jan want to know how expensive parts are here. The internet has spoiled the market here already, as they are more expensive then in Holland, because of the lack of parts. Jan leaves the link for the hobbyist. Then we take the car and drive into the mountains and enjoy the sun on a rock, while catching up. We see old bikes and other vehicles, pass by a dam in the Dimçay and discover waterfalls. While we enjoy the view in the valleys, there is a motorised piece of plastic aproaching. When the man has passed us, we see the double knot in his neck, that keeps it in place.

We are going to have trout for lunch on oneof the terraces along the Dimçay and see the bike in the parking. Jan takes a picture of it for family and friends. We are the only guests as it seems and they are still working very hard to have everything ready for the season. In the passed summer the dam was still open and then it started to rain. The water only rised 4 metres in a short period of time and everything was smashed. We both enjoy our trout. When we are back on the coastal road, the sun is nearly setting. We stop near Oba along side the road and make a few pictures. So far there are 1670 kms on the daycounter. Tomorrow morning at 6 am the alarm will go off. Get dressed an drive to the airport. The week has gone by in a sigh.

After saying goodbye to Jan at the airport I drive by the Aspendos theatre. I have been inside only once with tourists and they didn't give me the opportunity to have a good look around. Now I can explore it on my own and discover the things I tell my tourists in the bus to look for. Then I go uphill and eplore the old town of Aspendos. I spend quite some time there, making lots of photographs. On the way back I visit Yasar in Konakli. He has the travel agency where I helped out in the previous year. He is glad to see me, as he has been in Alanya a few times and always when I was not in the office. We talk for an hour and enjoy the cofee. I come back and take the boss for a ride and then I go on my own all the way up to the castle on the rock. Then the tank is nearly empty and I take the car back to UFO-rent-a-car. The daycounter stands on 1975 kms.