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Posts tagged ‘turkey’

Venice to Turkey 19

Day 19, Izmir, May 22

Breakfast today is so-so. For such a huge hotel, we’d have thought there would have been more ethnic food. Oh well, can’t ask for everything. We have a 3 hour drive this morning.

It’s a pleasant drive on a new road through farmlands and hills. We leave the limestone and travertine pools behind and travel through farmlands. A much appreciated restroom stop and we stretch our legs.

After three hours of driving, we arrive at the House of Mother Mary. This is, supposedly, the last known residence of Mary, who was put in the care of St John the Apostle, a friend of Jesus before he was crucified. Interesting that it is in Ephesus, Turkey.

I am told inside the house that I have to put my camera away so I have no photos inside. Bummer! There is a wishing wall outside and we stop for an interesting apple tea!

After, we go to a leather store and watch a ‘runway’ fashion show (a first for us). We actually buy new leather jackets! Hey, what’s a little money among friends? Then we check out interesting cloud formations and go to lunch and have a ‘just ok’ buffet.

Then we ride for a couple hours and arrive at the other side of Ephesus. You might remember we visited here 10-12 days ago on a tour off the cruise ship. So we visit again! I don’t take very many photos today as I did last time. We are curious about how this tour will compare to the last one, but it seems that tour guides are on the up and up. The information is the same. This lends credibility to the tour guides whom I commonly suspect make up interesting stories to keep the tourists coming.

Back on the bus we drive for over an hour to Izmir. A very large and modern city. We arrive at our hotel in light rain. Oz has arranged our dinner to a very specific meal. We are nervous that we don’t have any choice of food. But true to his word, the meal is delicious. It’s comprised of a Turkish soup and an entree of a sliceable meatball dish. Toss in a Turkish wine and all is good.

We become closer to some of the other guests with us and share contact info.

Venice to Turkey 18

Day 18, Pamukkale, May 21

We arise early and have breakfast and get on the bus by 6:30 AM. It’s a long drive today to Pamukkale (pronounced paam-oo-kaal-ey. Thank goodness for professional bus drivers. It’s raining and miserable for most of our morning ride. There are a few fun views out of the bus windows!

The weather clears and we stop at a unique mosque, Sultanhani Belediyesi, with living quarters that we can visit. The marble walls and carvings are immense and beautiful! Rug collections on display are everything from pristine to ragged and torn.

Several different rooms with signs describing them in English. Very helpful. Who knew that a ‘harem’ was a room in which to sleep and pray? Or that a ‘living room’ was a Council Chamber? ‘Bread’ is a scent? A ‘bath’ serves a Social Function? Very interesting philosophies!

A cafe outside the mosque depicts the ‘Fairy Castles’ sells potato chips that you recognize but read the packaging.

Back on the bus for another few hours. The weather is clearer and we pass through attractive countryside. We stop for lunch for one hour and get back on the road. The steps down to the restrooms are quite interesting.

An hour later we come to a stop again. This time it is for a crane on the road ahead removing the wreckage of a two truck crash. We are backed up for most of an hour and we get out of the bus and stretch our legs. We are near the front of the traffic and we watch the crane do its work. As we get underway again, we see that one of the accident vehicles caught fire and burned.

So I don’t know what time we were scheduled to arrive but we can add an hour to that. There is something magical about stormy skies where the sun shines through occasionally! We stop for the mandatory driver’s rest in Dinar for 45 minutes. We have 90 minutes left to ride. So we have been on the bus from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM with only a few stops and one traffic delay. We will stay in Pamukkale tonight.

Goat farmers herd their flock along the roads. We drive through Karai and limestone deposits.

We next visit these thermal limestone and travertine pools in Hierapolis. They are fed by 35C (95F) mineral rich springs! It is about a half mile hike in to the pools. We even get to wade into them without our socks and shoes. The water is warm and we have to be careful for it is slippery.

Elee is feeling somewhat more adventurous and wants to wade into the deeper pools in the distance. I opt to get out and walk on the boardwalk above them. It starts to rain and Elee comes back out but not before getting soaked.

We try to take shelter under the trees above the boardwalk but we are not very successful. The rain lasts about a half hour and we are drenched by the time it stops.

The rain has lent a mystical aura to the sky and the light and our cameras love it! This is truly a miraculous place in the world! The rain stops and we walk the half mile to the bus, a few pounds heavier with water!

After visiting this UNESCO site, we drive a short distance to the Adampira Spa Hotel where we will spend the night. Dinner is a huge buffet with some very good food and, as always, fabulous soup!

We retire to our room and get chargers plugged in. Showers will happen tonight to save sleep time in the morning. After being up early the last two days, we will get to sleep in to the late hour of 6 AM!

Venice to Turkey 17, Part 2

Day 17, Cappadocia after breakfast! May 20

We now visit Uchisar, a village of “stone churches” or “fairy castles”, where people still live. Remember we saw one of these from the hot air balloon this morning! The first thing I notice is the Police Station (Jandarma)!

There are moments of very light rain, not enough to get you wet, but enough to put spots in some of the photos! This place is fascinating! What a concept of house building! As a testament to the quality of the camera on my iPhone 17 Pro, the first photo here is a zoom in of the second photo!

A resident, Ismail, invites us in and gives us a complete tour throughout his house. Four generations have lived here. It is pretty spacious and comfortable looking. It’s amazing that the house looks totally livable! Ismail makes a living by selling trinkets and food in his own cafeteria and store built into his house! One room feels very warm and Elee comments on that. Ismail tells us that is because the fireplace is lit! Notice in the photos that Ismail has a terrace and even a built in ‘veranda’ overlooking the valley!

It is hard to describe the feeling as we marvel at the ingenuity of the Turkish people!

We spy a unique bike path and are told that Turkey chose ‘cornflower blue’ as its national aesthetic and functional color choice. The bright coloring helps combat cars parking or driving illegally in the bike lanes, and serves as a visual guide

Now we move on to the “Camel Hoodoos” and Fairy Castles or ‘towers’. Lots of fun rock formations in Cappadocia. We walk around until rain drives us back to the bus.

Rain sets in and are offered a downhill walk in the rain which I pass on and a stop for hot tea and coffee. I decline again but I’m sure the downhill hikers will enjoy. We do walk down to a unique set of shops with a couple of ‘Wishing Trees’ where you can tie on a ribbon for good luck!

We make another stop to check out a rug store but I decline to go in as I have seen Turkish rugs AND their prices!

We have a lunch stop at an all-you-can-eat buffet that turns out to be very good. We have determined that Turks can make a mean cup of soup!

We get to our hotel around 4:30 PM and dinner is at 7. I set my alarm and go to sleep for a couple hours. We get up for dinner and go back to the room for the night. A couple photos out of the room show our view.

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 17, Part 1

Day 17, Kapadokya, May 20, Before Breakfast!

Today we get up at 3:45 AM. Yes, you heard that right! We are on a bus at 4:15 AM! Happily even! The bus drives for about 30 minutes. At about 5 AM, we arrive to see hot air balloons inflating. We are awake and happy because we are going up today! Within 15 more minutes, we’re in a balloon basket with 27 others plus 2 pilots.

Soon we are aloft and soaring over and through hills, valleys and hoodoos. Absolutely beautiful and magical! Another Bucket List Item checked off! Hot Air Balloons over Cappadocia, or the way they spell it in Turkey, Kapadokya! If you pronounce it the way Turkey spells it, you will pronounce it correctly!

The ride lasts an hour and we watch sunrise from the balloon. There are a total of 156 balloons in the air this morning. All of them ascend and descend through the hills and valleys of Cappadocia.

Our pilots even have a selfie video recording us. We all gladly get together and purchase the set of videos that they record!

This is a different experience than other hot air balloons we have been in. The pilots guide us up AND down through the hills, hoodoos and ‘Fairy Castles’ of the area and so do all the other balloons!

We even spot a house built into the rocks, more on that later!

Sunrise is beautiful from the air! This is surely a unique area of the world!

We are told that a lot of hot air balloon pilots from around the world come here to train. And it becomes evidently true as at the end of the flight, our chase truck is parked right where we land and, amazingly, we land right on the trailer!

Then, as the balloon deflates, the pilots hold a champagne party where they mix champagne with pomegranate juice.

Then it’s back to the hotel for breakfast. Yes, I said breakfast! We feel like we’ve been touring all day and we have only got to breakfast! A very good Turkish breakfast, I might add! Then we relax in the room for half an hour and it’s time to board the bus for the rest of the day’s tour!

But I will leave that for the next post….

Venice to Turkey 16

Day 16, Ankara, May 19

Breakfast in the Palace hotel was very good! They redeemed themselves from last night. All kinds of traditional Turkish dishes, olives, cheeses, spreads and breads!

We are in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. It’s the anniversary of Turkey’s founding in 1919 after being freed from the Ottoman Empire after WWI. The weather is quite cool here at 14C. Oz is giving us historical info on the city. Flags and banners are everywhere along with photos of the founder of Turkey and the current president.

We drive to a castle. We visit the Avrupada Zilin museum here. A travel friend poses with a statue! We see artifacts from well before 1000 BC. Amazing uses of metal, stone and colors.

Now it’s back on the bus and we entertain our cameras with sights of the architecture. We learn that the Ottoman Empire failed because they stopped progressing. Europeans developed better technology and better armies.

Next stop is the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kimal Ataturk (Father of the Turks). The mausoleum is interesting and we walk through. Cameras afre totally welcome! There are views of the city from one end. Inside and out there are very lifelike statues of guards on pedestals. Hey wait! That one moved! It turns out the ‘statues’ are live guards! We must be at the Pageant of the Masters! Not! As we are leaving, we are interrupted by the Changing of the Guard where those ‘statues’ come to life! Fun ceremony to watch. Then we are back on the bus.

We now drive for one and a half hours through the farmlands of Golbasi. I’m not sure I thought of Turkey as fertile and beautiful, but here we are!

We drive through Central Anatolya in the middle of Turkey. We see what turns out to be a ‘Salt Lake’ in the distance. Soon we make a roadside stop for lunch and to comply with Turkish law for bus drivers at “Tuz Golu”, the Salt Lake. Food was poor and barely even warm. The health department back home would have a field day with Turkish roadside restaurants.

We know Turkey has good food, sadly, just not where our tour is taking us. The ice cream stand at Tuz Golu at least had good ice cream! This part of Turkey is also known as Asia Minor.

We stop at the entrance to “Saratli”, the Underground City and vendors assault our senses with colorful displays of goods. We walk through them and enter the underground caves. Narrow tunnels with steep up and down steps that are very uneven.

We only spend less than a half hour in the caves but it is enough to experience them. We stop in the local gift shop and look around. We see a sign advertising Natural Wine and we inquire. When the lady finally understands us, she shouts, “Shaddup” or something like that. It almost sounds like she is saying, Shut Up”, only very fast. We taste what she gives us, pouring it from a refilled water bottle, a pinkish liquid, and it tastes like a crude honey mead or grappa. We decline purchasing any. Then we walk back through the vendors and board the bus.

We drive next to ‘New City’, Kapadokya around 4 PM. We know it as Cappadocia, pronounced more like the Turkish spelling! It’s symbol is Fairy Chimneys in front of Tulips and Horses. We arrive at the Avrasya Hotel and are in our room before 6. Part of our group signs up to go four wheeling in the local area but having spent decades as an off road photographer, the allure of that is over. We will take a walk and check out the neighborhood. There are a few stores in the area but no restaurants.

So we eat at the hotel and we are pleasantly surprised as they have a buffet of delicious authentic Turkish food! There is even a full bar in the hotel so we get a glass of wine with dinner. The wine is even a new grape I’ve never tasted and it stands up to the taste test!

Tomorrow will be an early morning so a glass of wine in the room and it’s time for a shower and bed.