Monday, June 16, 2014

We're HOME!

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

Friday, June 13, 2014

And we’re back in Istanbul!



Friday, June 13, 2014

Hello!
Over 5,000 miles!

Well, we are now in our “going home” mode.  But first, dinner last night! 
Nice starter!
We decided to see what was available in the restaurant at the Hampton, and we were very agreeable surprised! 
R's lentil soup

My rocket parmesan salad
I had a wonderful rocket and parmesan salad to start, with a “Hilton” burger and chips to follow.  The burger was (yet again!) overcooked, but everything else was fine.  Robert ordered lentil soup to start, which he said was great, and then followed it with penne with a spicy arrabiata sauce. 
My "Hilton" burger with chips

R's penne
For dessert, R had a peach tarte with ice cream with peaches on top, and I had their ice cream “sandwich.”    My ice cream came between two HUGE vanilla waifers with strawberries on top of the ice cream, and a strawberry sauce besides.  It was WONDERFUL!  Back upstairs and to bed about 9:30 p.m. 
My dessert to dream about!

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.

Wonderful artifacts on the Istanbul street!

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!!
R's vegetable pide

My cheese and mushroom pide
 

Lots of love!
m
xxx
Strolling through the Grand Bazaar

Me and thousands of "friends!"

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Starting the homeward bound journey!

Thursday, June 12, 2014

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.
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

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

What is it about me and museums??



Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Hello!
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. 
Two eggplant dishes and green beans
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! 

Cheese stuffed mushrooms
The Hotel Bella (sister to our Hotel Nilya) does either an a la carte menu, or a set menu for 25 TL (about $12 or $13).  The set menu includes soup, last night a delicious artichoke soup, two starters of our choosing apiece, one main course with rice and veggies, and dessert!  A really terrific deal, especially as it was 25 TL two years ago when we were here!  This time, Robert chose the aubergine salad and the cheese stuffed mushrooms, and I picked the roast aubergine and a green bean salad.  We shared them all, and each one was better than the next!  For main courses, I took the spicy ground beef kabob and R took the chicken kabob.  Both were excellent.  All washed down with an excellent local white wine.  Finally, we had something that they called “cheesecake” but was actually some baklava with chocolate and vanilla ice cream. 
A lovely ending to a truly wonderful day!  Back and in bed by 10-ish.
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. 
Interesting stelle in the museum garden
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!
From the Roman collection

From a chalcolithic local site
Interesting chalcolithic cult vessel
From the museum, we set out to see if we could find an English-language book store for something new to read on the flight home. 
I do like some of these cult vessels!
We actually found three bookstores, but their selection of English language books is TERRIBLE; not worth buying, actually!  However, one of the bookstores backed on one of the roads that runs by the harbor and had several restaurants, so we stayed for lunch.

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!
Filo dough with feta cheese inside

Robert's salad
However…while we were thinking about dinner last night, very dark clouds began to gather, and thunder started rolling in the background!  We really thought that we would get rain, but unfortunately, no such luck … just lightning and thunder!  As a result, we decided to eat at the hotel again last night.  This time, we had two starters – the rolled philo dough with feta cheese as well as some wonderful stuffed mushrooms – and then we each had a salad.  Robert’s had melon, cucumbers and feta cheese, and mine had dried apricots and raisins.  Very good!  Then off to bed about 10 p.m. and still no rain…shucks!
My salad with dried apricots and raisins

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]. 
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. 
Mausoleum steps leading down to sacrifice area
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…

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. 
Magnesia


Public "latrine" in Magnesia
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.
A bit more in Magnesia


Our lovely room 12 Hotel Nyla!

Very nice to be back!
SO nice to be back in Selcuk, where we stopped twice (once on the way in and once on the way out) on our visit two years ago; both times at the Hotel Nyla.  Found the hotel without too much problem, and our room was almost ready.  We had to wait about 10 minutes or so, and are back in #10, what they call a suite.  (It is larger than the other rooms, and has a small seating area.  We were very comfortable here last time!)  

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!
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. 
Road leading to Ephesus - empty!!


Grand theatre -- seating for 25,000!
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!


Much love,

Do love that library!
The Celsus Library

R on library steps
m

xxx
Me alone in the odeon!

Showing the way to the local brothel!
Always love those mosaics!