Some peloton fun at last​

It’s a long time since we’ve ridden​ in a peloton and by pure chance as we pulled out on to the highway from our coffee stop a group of junior cyclist pulled appeared. We got to ride with them for about two minutes before a hill slowed our progress and they rode away from us. Still, it was nice to be back in the normal cycling world for a moment. 

We’re getting quite used to the smell of smoke whilst we’re eating now, but I won’t miss it when we’re back in no smoking spaces. It seems the whole of Turkey smokes.  

​Major surprise of the day though was discovering that, for the past two weeks in Turkey, it’s been Ramadan. As a moslem country, I’d have expected this to be really obvious, but it’s only today that we’ve had any problem eating before sunset. It seems the standard of observance here is not particularly high, so most restaurants have been happy to serve us – and many other people, before sunset. Anyway, it’s good to know, I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to work it out!

We had a great dinner amongst many large families who were obviously having their “Ramadan special supper with grandma” or something of that sort.