Cycling across the plains of Anatolia on a hot day in September, experiencing different kinds of prayer.
On the way to the town of Han I stop in one of the villages to join the noon prayer. A calf standing at the side of the road is already mooing along with the call to prayer as if telling me to hurry up. I quickly perform my ablution in front of the village mosque. There is no god but God — the Islamic profession of God’s unity — is written on top of the entrance portal. The mosque that was built in 1875 has wooden beams and some calligraphies on the wall.
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As we all have time to look at the smaller things in life and details seem to reveal their significance we zoomed in on our artist in Yalova. Linda Pijl is the artist behind the lovely Sufi stones that pilgrims get on their way to Konya or in the Netherlands in the pilgrimage startup kit. We asked Linda to show some of her work and discovered it takes one hour per stone to complete the drawings. In the movie below you can see the process behind the stones of the Sea of Marmara traveling from there. It’s a funny thing to think the 100 stones are now circling somewhere around the world. Maybe pilgrims took them home, or they are just laying somewhere to be discovered. Enjoy the work of Linda Pijl and the story behind a little detail like the Sufi pilgrim stones. 

The Istanbul On Bike project started in 2012 with the aim of combining sightseeing and sport. Our tours allow you to see a lot, in less time and with less money.
At the basis of this project is the consideration that motorized vehicles (cars, taxis, buses) are not the best way to visit a city, in particular Istanbul. They are slow, polluting, expensive and not convenient at all. Working as tourist guides, countless times we have experienced the frustration of being stuck in the traffic with our guests, wasting precious time we could have spent for sightseeing. So many times the guests had to leave Istanbul without having seen some of the best places due to lack of time. This is particularly true in the high-season, when loads of tourists pour into the city.

Walking is also a good option but still it is pretty slow and tiring and it does not allow you to go too far. How about biking? Riding a bike is easy, fast, convenient, eco-friendly and above all enjoyable!
Visiting Istanbul by bike give us the chance to avoid the crowding and the bustle and rediscover all the hidden beauties that we miss when we are in a car or a bus: the beautiful design of a building, the expressive face of a peddler, a charming antique store, an old inscription on a wall, a pretty wooden house…
Especially in spring and summer we can enjoy the natural landscape of the city: the gardens covered with tulips, the enchanting color of the blooming Judas trees, the sun rays reflecting in the placid waters of the Golden Horn, the flight of the seagulls on the Bosphorus…

All our tours are designed to show you the best of Istanbul – great monuments as well as hidden gems – and to give you a taste of the city’s daily life. In the designing process we take into consideration several factors: security, ease of riding, cultural assets, enjoyment.
Our professional and experienced tourist guides will disclose you the wonders and the secrets of the city, always leading you on the right path.

Our routes cover all the most beautiful areas of Istanbul and are available both as private and shared tours. Choose the one you like and go for this unforgettable experience!

We invite you to ride a bike with us on two continents…

Poetry lives, Poetry on the follow your heart's way.

As we are hiking in the Netherlands with the pilgrims that are home we found a little postbox with a poem in there. There was a lovely poem in there and our hikers enjoy poetry in between our steps. One day me and Sedat were installing wooden hearts for the route and asked the house owner and poet Edith if she wanted a heart on the postbox so the poem would be more visible for the individual pilgrims. Edith was very pleased as she told us she was just about to give up poetry and didn’t know so many were enjoying her art. She said she was inspired by her hikes in the surroundings and then makes the poems when she gets home from the notes she made while hiking. The next time we passed by the postbox, with a wooden heart, there was a poem in there with a lovely little flower, an Iris. The poem read Follow and we have translated the Dutch poem by Edith in English:

Follow

Do not know where

Trust in movement

There where "I" disappeared
Words appear 

Avoiding nothing

There is writing

Words, sentences

Different than before
A story what a hubbub

Luckily made up

Words alone don't say what I mean

Seeing interpretation

Look and feel

Without attention to past thoughts (known)

There is life in "present"

Edith

Poems are very strong and we realize they live longer than civilizations and governments, it’s the deeper knowing that feeds our soul. With a bow, hand over heart to Edith.

Happy to hear we are mentioned in the Uzbekistan Tourism site. It’s one of those countries that I dream of visiting and tasting the lovely atmosphere, culture and food. Already when you see the impressive architecture and pictures of the still authentic nature and stillness you get a glimpse of the old silk route running through this untouched ground where Rumi has travelled. We like to thank the Uzbekistan tourism website for mentioning the unique path’s and the Sufi Trail.

A Symbol of Holistic Medicine in the Middle Eastern Culture in History
This article discusses the view that the simurgh, a mythological bird with supernatural characteristics, was also a symbol of miraculous life and treatment, as related in stories and miniature pictures. Such as view is described specifically with examples of Turkish miniatures.

by Nil Sari | Published on: 7th February 2009