Batumi to Trabzon in Turkey involved crossing the border from Georgia to Turkey. It took about 20 minutes to ride from Batumi to the border, there were about 10 cars queued up but no movement.  After 10 minutes in the hot sun I left my bike and walked up to an Immigration officer at the front and asked what was going on and he said the holdup was on the Turkish side and just then it cleared and I got my passport stamped, walked back got my bike and rode on to the Turkish side where there was a longer queue, being on a bike I rode to the front, the people in cars do not object to this and in fact expect it. As this was my 4th time crossing a Turkish border I was in their system and they stamped my passport no questions asked, next Customs and same thing here, I already had Turkish bike insurance, carry on, total time taken 45 min to cross both borders. There was a German biker waiting with me but he had German bike insurance for Turkey and this would have to be verified which meant going through the rigmarole, probably took another hour for him. Advice – Get your insurance at the border of whatever country you are visiting much cheaper, simpler and quicker. After that it was a relief to be back on Turkish roads, good quality 4 lane road all the way to Trabzon, mountains on one side and the sea on the other which meant many tunnels and beautiful views. What surprised me was the number of large towns along the way, I was expecting it to be less developed.

I visited the Hagia Sophia / Ayasofya which was originally a Greek Orthodox church, then a mosque, then a museum and now its back to being a mosque. It dates back to the thirteenth century and has some very interesting murals, all from the bible.