arctic-cycler.com

Feeling down and out? Cold and unmotivated? Try cycling across plains through a panoramic vista landscape, bathed in a soft light. Add to that a gale-force tailwind, and you have all you need to break those cycling blues. And try passing 6000km while having tea in a super friendly village. That will do the trick.

Sitting in cold and grey Eskişehir at 750m, the road into the mountains of over 1600m with a forecast of colder and snow was not appealing. Our headwind into Eskisehir had us expecting the same. Well, the universe gave us a gale tailwind, even though in the beginning it was still cold.

A lunch of soup and pide in Alpu gave us the energy to climb up to Mihalıççık at 1300m.

The climb was nothing, being blown uphill, and my, the scenery was stunning. I thought, at last these views are like I have seen on world cyclist blogs. Long roads disappearing towards the distant mountains, puffy white clouds breaking up the clear blue sky. This was an amazing ride. James and I are really happy to be alive!

I passed 5999km from Eindhoven in the village of Kayi. There was an appealing tea shop calling out to us, so I cycled back and forth in the village – much to the amusement of the locals – until I hit 6000km, and then took a selfie with everyone watching.

We were invited to tea by a lovely man who had lived in Germany for 5 years and spoke good German. He told us of a shorter, new, downhill road to our next destination – Beypazarı and he arranged for a place for us to stay in Mihalıççık. I like him! Go to the town hall and ask. We did, and ended up in a hidden hotel with a lovely big electric bar heater. That hit the spot!