Sunday, June 8, 2014
Hello from Bodrum, Turkey – which means we successfully made
it back!
So…dinner last night first, as it was wonderful!
In looking at the Tripadvisor
recommendations, I noticed that Nisos, the restaurant directly next to our
hotel, was very highly recommended – for Greek, Italian and Fish.
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| Sauteed mushrooms with garlic |
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| Yummy aubergine salad with feta |
So, as R is ever on the lookout for good
seafood, we went there about 7:45 p.m.
Were
greeted like long lost family members, and quickly seated at a table for two on
a corner.
(Note:
We asked for NO SMOKING, and were shown the
table…we felt like we were back in Switzerland, when there would be one
non-smoking table – usually in the middle of the room, completely surrounded by
smokers wherever you looked.
Be that as
it may, there was a nice breeze, and we thought we could manage.
And we did.
As soon as we were seated, a waiter came by with a small tray with green
olives on it on one side, and salt crystals on the other; SO nice to see such
great and quick service!
As our waiter
came to take our order, we found that he had just returned in February from 2½ years
in the U.S. – two months of which were spent at Lake Havasu City, AZ!
Very small world indeed!
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| R's local fish with veggies |
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| My spaghetti bolognaise |
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| Wonderful cake and ice cream! |
I ordered an aubergine salad to start, with spaghetti
bolognaise to follow. Robert ordered
mushrooms sautéed with garlic to start, and Tsipoura, a local bream, to
follow. We split the two appetizers –
they were both really excellent, and then R got this HUGE platter with his BIG (½
kilo)fish on it, along with roasted carrots, potatoes and broccoli. Have to admit that I wasn’t able to finish my
large portion of spaghetti, but R did well with his fish; very impressive,
considering that by the time he had boned it thoroughly, I was about finished
with my pasta! Then, out of the blue,
came a dessert plate with pieces of “momma’s cake” on it – delicious nut and
coconut cake with scoops of really wonderful chocolate and vanilla ice creams,
all drizzled with chocolate sauce. Then,
they plopped a container with both a bottle of lemoncello and a bottle of a cappuccino
liqueur. All on the house! I’m not sure I’ve ever had lemoncello before,
but it was really good, and a great way to end a meal! And, while I know we were going to walk
around the city, I was really ready for bed by 10 p.m.!
We were up around 5:30 a.m. this morning, as we wanted to
make sure we were
NOT the last ones
on the ferry this time.
Our wonderful
hotel manager told us that they wouldn’t even be open yet, but that didn’t
matter to either of us.
So, down to
check-out at 7 a.m. and he had a cab there immediately.
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| Saying Goodby to Rodos was hard! |
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| Another picture from the ferry boat of Rodos harbor |
Well, he was right … the actual check-in
booth opens at 8 a.m. but that didn’t matter to us.
We were first to get our boarding passes,
first to open the passport control, and first to get on-board.
This was a different ship that last Thursday,
and the seats were in groupings of four or six with a table in between.
We found seats near the exit area, and sat
down to wait.
Ship was scheduled at sale at 9, but of course people were
still being processed; I’d estimate we actually got off around 9:10 a.m. which
isn’t too bad, all things considered!
Also, we were NO WHERE near full, which was SO much nicer than our
journey to Rodos. The sea was so calm
that we decided to eschew the motion sickness pills, and that worked out
fine. I think I fell asleep for a bit,
because when I woke up, we were back in Turkish waters, and heading toward the
cruise port in Marmaris. We breezed
through passport control, and voila, back in Turkey once again! Retrieved our rental car from the secure
parking area, and were off and heading toward Bodrum a little after 11 a.m.
Now…the road to Bodrum.
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| Driving from Marmaris to Bodrum |
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| Spectacular scenery and beautiful beaches! |
Not sure exactly how Emmy is set, but believe me, she took us on some
very strange roads!
Some of them were
truly beautiful, following along the cliffs next to the sea.
But there was one stretch of about 11 or 12
km where the entire road seemed to be washed out, in places almost
entirely!
It was
AWFUL, and I had to take it at literally a snail’s pace.
We were originally scheduled to arrive at
1:15 p.m. but actually didn’t make it until after 2 p.m.
Drove into Bodrum and found, of course, a tangle of little
one-way streets, making it very difficult to find our hotel!
Finally got close, and I pushed R out of the
car and started to drive away.
Then it
occurred to me that I might never be able to find him again, so I made an
illegal left turn, and parked illegally in front of someone’s gate.
By the time I walked back to the hotel, R was
coming my way with a nice man with a hand cart.
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| And it just kept getting better! |
We off-loaded the luggage, and then R pushed the handcart to the hotel,
and the nice man put the car somewhere close…hopefully…Got to Su Hotel, and it
is really quite lovely!
We are in room
13 on the ground floor, with a lovely patio and pool outside.
No TV, but as we haven’t been able to get
anything worth watching for some time now, that is absolutely not a
problem!
As tomorrow is Monday, we needed to see the Bodrum
Underwater Museum today – of course. The
Mausoleum (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world) is just down the
street – also closed on Monday, but we figure we can do that on Tuesday morning
before we leave. So, into town we
walked. It’s not really far – maybe 10
minutes? But it is warm out, and I was
hungry.
As we were driving over the awful road, and I was trying my
best to avoid holes big enough to bury a Volkswagen, I made up my mind that I
was not yet ready to return to Turkish food – and if there was a McDonald’s in
town, that was going to be my reward…and there was, and we did… Then, around the corner and up to the Bodrum
castle (Built originally by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, same group
that built the big castle in Rodos.), which also houses the Museum of Underwater Archeology.
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| Bodrum Castle walls looking out over sea |
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| Egyptian amphorae brought up from wreck |
Toured the castle/museum from top almost to bottom – neither
of us were at all interested in seeing the dungeons, actually. The views were spectacular, as were the
breezes. Very enjoyable, but I would
rate the museum a B; R would grade it
just a tad higher. At any rate, it turns
out that both the University of Pennsylvania and Texas A & M have
departments of underwater archeology – who knew?! And the museum holds the artifacts and
remains of several ships located locally – one of which was from the 13th
century BC! Just fascinating seeing the
inventory of what it contained, as well as the actual physical remains that
were discovered.Having never thought of
underwater archeology as a life’s pursuit, it opens up entire new vistas into career
choices! (Except not for me, as my ears
won’t clear under 30 feet, and these wrecks were generally discovered somewhere
in the 100 m depth.)
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| Sphinx |
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| Love that O.J.! |
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| Stunning mosaic floor |
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| Well-built Knights castle! |
Having covered the museum fairly well, we retired to the
museum courtyard where we enjoyed two glasses of – guess what? – fresh-squeezed
orange juice! Lovely! Then headed back to the hotel and the
pool. It was lovely and cold – but very,
very refreshing! Then sat by the pool
with glasses of white wine – truly, this is the life! As R was saying, he has reached the trip “turn
around” point – the point when you know the journey is shortly going to be
over, and you now start thinking about home.
I’m not there yet, although there are very few Hittite remains in this
area; possibly the Izmir museum. At any
rate, we’re in Bodrum tonight and tomorrow night, before moving on to Selcuk,
near Ephesus. Dinner here tonight at the hotel. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow
– we were thinking about possibly going out on a boat, but we’ll have to
see!!
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| Stunning COLD pool! |
More later!
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| Su Hotel! |
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| Comfortable and colorful! |
Just finished a lovely dinner here at the hotel.
We ordered some mezze to start – a cold
potato salad with carrots and peas, and a very spicy tomato/pepper combination
on bread; both excellent.
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| Hotel restaurant |
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| Excellent appetizers |
Then, we both
ordered their steaks – and they were FABULOUS!
We ordered them “rare” and there was actually some pink inside!
They were great!
I had mine with Danish blue cheese sauce, and
R had an interesting mushroom sauce on his.
Then, we received a free dessert (this is becoming quite fun!) – Baklava
with mint ice cream…didn’t remember about photos until it was way too
late!
At any rate, dinner here was
great!
m
xxx
Addendum from Robert:
Well, with one week left on our trip, I’d like to add my
observations of the expedition.
First and foremost, let me say just how wonderfully
everything has gone. This, of course, is
the direct result of Margaret’s research and planning, something she has been
working on for about two years! Reading
about the archaeology of Turkey, locating sites to visit, studying hotel
ratings, car reservations, ferry reservations, air reservations, etc. etc. She can absorb so much information without
having been to a place, something I can’t do; I need to see things first-hand
to get a feel for the situation.
Yes, planning pays but, still, the plan was not rigid; she
left plenty of room for improvising as we go, so we never felt locked into
things. We could (and did) make
adjustments as circumstances offered.
It should be known, too, the Margaret has done essentially
all of the driving on this trip. All I
have to do is navigate, enjoy the scenery and try (alas, not always
successfully) to keep us on the right road.
In sum, I have the best travel agent/guide
ever!
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| R's steak with mushroom sauce |
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| My steak with blue cheese sauce! |
And I really do appreciate it.
Thanks very much, Margie!
Robert
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| Note little friend on wall! |
