2011 - Burgundy and Provence: Later in the summer of 2011 it was a Santana cruise on the Soane and Rhone Rivers, beginning in Geneva and taking in the sights of Burgundy and Provence. The time we had a new bike: our belt drive, Rohloff hub equipped Co-Motion Speedster CoPilot, the model they now call the Equator. And can you dig the black helmets and Bike Friday jerseys?! My sister and her husband rounded out our touring group once again on this trip.
2011 - Turkey: Our friends Danelle and John moved their focus from tours in British Columbia to tours in Turkey, and changed the name of their tour company from Tour BC to Tour TK (now changed to Tour CO, since they have again changed focus, this time to Colombia). They led a 12 day tour along the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts of Western Turkey. What a marvelous tour! Good food. Good scenery. Good riding. Warm and friendly people. We had been to Turkey 4 times at this point (Now more - see 2014, plus we've been on a non-cycling tour in the meantime as well).
TANDEM Diversity
At the top of this pass the Aegean Sea is behind us, over our left shoulders, and the Med is over our right shoulders. You can see that Rosie, our 2001 Co-Motion Speedster CoPilot was our ride for this trip. The derailleur hanger got stripped out so we did this tour with the rear derailleur zip tied on. Worked just fine!
2011 Tours
Burgundy is a very beautiful and charming area for riding.
As is Provence. After the cruise we stayed on in Arles for several days to do more exploring of Provence on our own, including an in depth look at the time Vincent van Gogh spent in Provence.
Days riding: 10.
Distance ridden: 378.6 miles.
Elevation gained: 14,418'.
And here is the experience summed up in video.
Here we are just outside Akyaka, where our tour ended. This gives you an idea of the appearance of the typical Turkish countryside. We were there in the Spring, when it was green and there were lots of flowers in bloom.
Days riding: 11.
Distance ridden: 439.0 miles.
Elevation gained: 27,587'.
Enjoy this video that sums up the tour.
And these are the Relive videos of the tour.