Monday, June 16, 2014
Hello!
Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived home safely at 12:57 a.m. Sunday morning.
Dinner our last night was at the Doubletree's roof-top restaurant, and it was delicious -- and, I got to watch the soccer game on big-screen television!
We were up at 5 a.m. on Saturday, and left for the airport at 7:30 a.m. giving us plenty of time at the airport. No problems at all, and our flight got off on time somewhere in the 1:05 p.m. timeframe. The service and food was excellent -- truly, no kidding! We got into Houston 12 hours some minutes later, and cleared customs and immigration quickly thanks to our Global Entry passes! Then to the domestic gate, and our flight to Phoenix was also on time! (We were on an unconscious roll by that time!) We arrived about 9:30 p.m. in Phoenix, picked up our rental car, and were home just a few minutes before 1 a.m.
So! A truly wonderful trip, and we are now in the process of getting things all put back together! Thank you everyone for coming along with us, and for sharing your comments as well!! Until the next time!
Much love,
m
xxx
Monday, June 16, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
And we’re back in Istanbul!
Friday, June 13, 2014
Hello!
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| Over 5,000 miles! |
Well, we are now in our “going home” mode. But first, dinner last night!
We decided to see what was available in the
restaurant at the Hampton, and we were very agreeable surprised!
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| Nice starter! |
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| R's lentil soup |
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| My rocket parmesan salad |
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| My "Hilton" burger with chips |
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| R's penne |
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| My dessert to dream about! |
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| R's peach tart and ice cream |
We passed a very nice and quiet night in Bursa, and were up
about 5 this morning. Down for breakfast
about 7, and out the door somewhere about 7:45 – 8 a.m. and heading to Istanbul
to turn our wonderful little car in! We
ran into some nasty traffic working our way into Istanbul, but overall, it was
a very easy drive until we were about 2 km away – then it really got crazy with
grid lock! We made it to our rental car
place about 10:30 a.m. – 42 days! In
all, we picked up the car and it had about 19,000 km on it – not sure of the
precise number – and returned it today at 28,000+ which equates to something
like 5,592 miles+! We certainly have
covered a lot of ground!
The nice young
man at the office drove us over to the ferry and dropped us off, which made
things very convenient. We just needed to get the 3 TL Jetons (tokens) for the trip and get aboard the 11
a.m. ferry over to the Sultanamet side. From there, we got a taxi to bring us to our
last hotel – the Doubletree Old Town, which is actually very close to the Grand
Bazaar. Checked in, and our room is
(fortunately!) ready! Lovely hotel; we’re
in room 329, which also has a nice terrace and chairs outside.
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| Wonderful artifacts on the Istanbul street! |
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| Lunch time! |
As it was now definitely lunch time, we headed out to find
something to eat. Chose SEOS restaurant
which is right at the entrance of the Grand Bazaar. R ordered a vegetable pide, and I had pide
with cheese and mushrooms – excellent, although a tad more expensive than lunch
in Selcuk the other day! We strolled
through a few blocks of the Bazaar, but honestly, we don’t need to buy anything
more at this point! They also do a lot
of leather work here – handmade shoes, jackets, etc. – as well as FUR! Somehow, when it’s almost 80 degrees out, who
is in the mood for that?? Decided enough
was enough so returned to the hotel for naps.
I’d like to go out again when it gets a little cooler; right now, it
feels great in our cool hotel room watching EuroSport on TV! (My idea of a good time!)
Our plan for tomorrow is to get up, have breakfast and head
to the airport. As it was SO chaotic
getting into Turkey (getting through Ataturk Airport) we want to make sure that
we have plenty of lee-way on our way out.We are scheduled non-stop from Istanbul to Houston, and from there to
Phoenix, and we’ll pick up a rental car.
A VERY long day, to be sure, but after these past six weeks, I’m
thinking that we’re about due for a sitdown!!
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| R's vegetable pide |
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| My cheese and mushroom pide |
Lots of love!
m
xxx
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| Strolling through the Grand Bazaar |
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| Me and thousands of "friends!" |
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Starting the homeward bound journey!
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Hello!
Today we have started our journey home -- from lovely, small and peaceful Selcuk to large and bustling Bursa! We had such large lunches yesterday, that we decided we didn't really need dinner ... got some snacks from the little shop down the street, and that was fine -- we were in bed by 9:30 p.m. (We are SO boring!)
Up this morning at the usual time, and down for breakfast about 7:45 a.m. Again, a very lovely meal; we will definitely miss Hotel Nilya! Packed up the car and were off about 9 o'clock. Do really hope that we one day have a return visit to Selcuk; it is a wonderful place...possibly when the museum re-opens??
The drive to Bursa was about 5 1/2 hours, and fairly uneventful! Robert did take a couple of scenery shots, which I will include.
Other than that, we are now nicely ensconced in our ever so sleek and modern Hampton Inn by Hilton! (Those points, remember!)
Robert, the master packer, has managed to get everything into our cases -- fortunately, they fold out, so we have no need of extra luggage (although I do have a small flexible case I can take). He is truly an amazing packer!
Not sure what we'll do about dinner tonight, but will promise to photograph it if it's something fun! Out tomorrow morning and heading the last leg to Istanbul. Our plan is to return the car to the rental office, and have them drop us off at the ferry to Old Town Istanbul. Once there, a cab to our hotel for tomorrow night!
So! More tomorrow!
Much love,
m
xxx
Hello!
 |
| Bursa was added to our itinerary! |
Today we have started our journey home -- from lovely, small and peaceful Selcuk to large and bustling Bursa! We had such large lunches yesterday, that we decided we didn't really need dinner ... got some snacks from the little shop down the street, and that was fine -- we were in bed by 9:30 p.m. (We are SO boring!)
Up this morning at the usual time, and down for breakfast about 7:45 a.m. Again, a very lovely meal; we will definitely miss Hotel Nilya! Packed up the car and were off about 9 o'clock. Do really hope that we one day have a return visit to Selcuk; it is a wonderful place...possibly when the museum re-opens??
The drive to Bursa was about 5 1/2 hours, and fairly uneventful! Robert did take a couple of scenery shots, which I will include.
Not sure what we'll do about dinner tonight, but will promise to photograph it if it's something fun! Out tomorrow morning and heading the last leg to Istanbul. Our plan is to return the car to the rental office, and have them drop us off at the ferry to Old Town Istanbul. Once there, a cab to our hotel for tomorrow night!
So! More tomorrow!
Much love,
m
xxx
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
What is it about me and museums??
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Hello!
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| Selcuk is just south of Izmir about 60 km |
We had dinner last night on the top floor of Hotel Bella,
and it was wonderful!
Because it was
raining a bit (or at least dripping) we had to eat with the curtain sides down,
which obscured the view somewhat.
But
the usual nest of storks was doing well – but it is getting difficult to
actually tell which are the adult storks and which are the “babies!” They’ll be flying on their own very, very
soon!
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| Two eggplant dishes and green beans |
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| Cheese stuffed mushrooms |
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| And they called this "cheesecake?" |
Up this morning at the usual time, and down for breakfast a
bit before 8 a.m. The Hotel does a
wonderful breakfast – a set of plates and dishes as opposed to a buffet, but
they also do REAL scrambled eggs – I
added some feta cheese to them, and they were wonderful! Then, out to the car and our journey into
Izmir (over 2,500,000 people!) to their archeological museum, which is listed
in our Hittite book as having some remains to see.
We took the highway as opposed to the toll way, and got into
Izmir about 10 o’clock.
We were able to
find the archeological museum – even though it was between two switchback turns
on the road down to the harbor! We were
able to actually find a parking structure to leave the car, and headed up the
hill to the museum. Well, the museum has
three floors – and guess which floor was now CLOSED for some unknown
reason?! You’re RIGHT!! The floor that we had come to see!! Really can’t believe this has happened again,
but Robert just laughs. Guess that’s
about all that one can do!
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| Interesting stelle in the museum garden |
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| From the Roman collection |
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| From a chalcolithic local site |
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| Interesting chalcolithic cult vessel |
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| I do like some of these cult vessels! |
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| Lovely vessel in the shape of a shell! |
We both had BIG salads!
R’s had lettuce, onion, tomato and cheese. Mine had rocket lettuce, tomato and cheese –
and was great! We also had cigar borek,
which are the rolled filo dough stuffed with feta cheese. Very good!
Then back to rescue the car and head back to Selcuk. This time we took the toll way, and were back
here about 3 p.m. Very happy to have
seen Izmir, but feel that now we’ll never need to head there again! I’m considering the Selcuk Archeological
museum either late this afternoon (like Ephesus yesterday) or first thing
tomorrow morning before we leave.
Our original plan had been to have us stay 3 nights in
Selcuk, and then do one really long 9+ hour day back to Istanbul on
Friday. However, I’d rather tackle
Istanbul earlier in the day, so we are moving tomorrow to Bursa, where we’ll
overnight and then head to Istanbul; it’s only about 3 hours from Bursa.
More later!
m
xxx
PS. Okay, now it’s
really getting ridiculous! I got Robert
to walk down the hill to the Selcuk Museum … only to find that – yet again, it
is CLOSED for renovations. We drowned
our sorrows in fresh glasses of orange juice, and headed back to the hotel!
m
xxx
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Back to Selcuk once again!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Hello!
I have come to the opinion that it can get REALLY hot in
Turkey in early June…and while northern Europe was WAY too cold last winter, I
think that somewhere I’d like to find a happy (and coolish!) medium!
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| Filo dough with feta cheese inside |
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| Robert's salad |
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| My salad with dried apricots and raisins |
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| Cheese stuffed mushrooms |
Up this morning about 6:30 a.m. and ready to head out at 8
a.m. to see whatever was left of the Mausoleum (the tomb of King Maussolus,
hence the word mausoleum) just down
the street; one of the seven wonders of the ancient world! While we were making our way there, a tour
bus actually dropped off a group of Japanese tourists who beat us to the ticket
window. While they toured some of the
exhibits, we toured the actual remains, and by the time we were ready for the
exhibits, they had somehow disappeared!
We have no idea where they went!
At any rate, not much left to see of the Mausoleum, but we
have posted some pictures. The monument
had been used over the years as quarry by people [including the Knights of St.
John (crusaders) to build their fortress in Bodrum].
Then back for a very meager breakfast, and out by about 9:30 a.m. to head to Selcuk.
We were wondering how we would get our luggage to the car, but it was
easy – one of the young men the hotel employs brought it on a hand truck, and
we all managed to get to the car without losing anyone in traffic! Making our way out of town was, again, a bit
tedious, as we ended up going completely through town as opposed to yesterday’s
circuit, which took us down back roads and into people’s yards…
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| All that's left of the huge Mausoleum! |
Then back for a very meager breakfast, and out by about 9:30 a.m. to head to Selcuk.
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| Mausoleum steps leading down to sacrifice area |
We are beginning to ponder how exactly we are to get our
souvenirs home with us, and are wondering about extra luggage…even though I did
buy a very spacious “carpet” bag in Goreme, and we could bring that on board or
check it, if necessary. Robert’s idea –
a great one – is that we need to repack everything in Bursa the night before we
turn in the car, so that when we take the ferry from the rental car to our Friday
night hotel, we’ll be totally self-contained.
The drive today from Bodrum to Selcuk took about three
hours, and we also stopped along the way at Magnesia on the Meander River.
There was quite a bit of ruin to see, but in
the heat of the day (noon) it was a bit warm.
We had a good walk around the site, and then completed the last 20 km or
so into Selcuk.
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| Magnesia |
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| Public "latrine" in Magnesia |
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| A bit more in Magnesia |
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| Our lovely room 12 Hotel Nyla! |
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| Very nice to be back! |
As it was about 1 p.m. and we were hungry, we went down the
hill and across the street to Pinar Pide
for lunch. Robert got a pide (Turkish flatbread/pizza) with
mushrooms and cheese, and I got one with cheese only, and we shared. Very, very enjoyable lunch! Then the walk back up the hill to the hotel
and naps.
We’re debating the possibility
of going to Ephesus now, as I am certain that most people have probably gone
home for the day, and they do stay open until 6:30 p.m. Dinner tonight at Hotel Bella, with the
wonderful view of the storks – who are getting SO big! Really fun!
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| Stork with so cute baby! |
More later!
m
Well! We had a FABULOUS late afternoon/early
evening! Two years ago, one of the first
things we did when we got to Selcuk was visit Ephesus. We got there after opening time, and it was
packed to the gunnels – and I absolutely HATED everything about it! So, this time, I figured, we’ll be there at
opening time.
However, having some time
this afternoon, I asked if the crowds were smaller later in the day, and was
told that yes, they were, but it was usually so hot.
So, decided to see what it was like about
4:30 p.m. just in case…well, the storm that was moving into Bodrum last night,
must have been heading this way, because about 4, it got very cloudy and
gray. So…we jumped in the car and got to
Ephesus about 4:30 – and they remain open until 6:30 p.m. We got a discounted rate (30 TL as opposed to
45 TL) which was nice, and as those storm clouds rolled in, at places we
literally had Ephesus to OURSELVES, which is JUST how I like my ruins!!! We had a MUCH better time this time. We had an opportunity to see all the
important and even lesser important sites as well as having the Odeon to
ourselves. It eventually did start
raining, just about the time we were heading back, but, as we had our umbrellas
(Thank you, R!) no problems at all! Back
to the hotel by 6:30-ish, and will now post and head out for dinner!! And Ephesus was, actually, pretty neat after
all!
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| Road leading to Ephesus - empty!! |
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| Grand theatre -- seating for 25,000! |
Much love,
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| Do love that library! |
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| The Celsus Library |
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| R on library steps |
m
 |
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| Me alone in the odeon! |
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| Showing the way to the local brothel! |
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| Always love those mosaics! |
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