Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Hello!
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| Bay next to Kizkalesi; just beautiful! |
We actually did without dinner last night, having been way
too overserved at lunch time! And, in
spite of both of having more than a 2hr+ nap, we were both sound asleep by 10
p.m. last night! (Also, R found some hot
water in the system about 8 p.m. so I encouraged him to shower while it was
there! I, of course, could never make
anything warm at all come out of the tap in the sink…) Up this morning around 6, and down to
breakfast at 8 a.m. This time I ordered
some scrambled eggs, which I mixed with some wonderful white cheese – very
tasty, even without salsa! We didn’t
have far to go today, but were out of the hotel by 8:30 a.m. and on our way to
Adana … the BIG city!
According to our guidebooks, Adana ranks somewhere around 4th
or 5th largest city in Turkey – and from the noise and traffic, we
would definitely agree! As we had plenty
of time to get to our hotel – and didn’t want to arrive too early! – we took
the good old D400 back around the coast…through Mersin, and then through Tarsus
(yes, where St. Paul was born!) and finally to Adana; time around 11:30 a.m.
Well…Adana is simply HUGE, with lots of traffic of every
conceivable kind – trucks, buses, minibuses,
cars, pedestrians and even the occasional animal! It was truly wild and wooly! But, at least the streets were a bit wider
than the old section of Gaziantep, which I will NEVER forget…
Found our hotel, the Senbayrak City Hotel, very easily –
however, getting to its front door wasn’t quite so easy.
We had to (of course) go down the street to
find a roundabout to put us the right way on the street; pulled up into some
parking in front, and got the luggage out.
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| Our living room! |
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| From several angles! |
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| Our beautiful bedroom! |
We were able to check in immediately, which was wonderful, and are now
ensconced in suite 612 on the 6
th floor for our three night stay!
And it’s beautiful!!
There is a lovely living room with window and
TV, two chairs, sofa and coffee table – then a sort of dressing room area,
leading off into the bathroom (with huge Jacuzzi tub!) and bedroom – another
chair and table there, as well as king-size bed and another TV – oh, and not
one but
TWO minibars!
(Which we of course never use…)
Dropped our luggage, and then back down to the car, as they
don’t have a parking/delivery service…we get to do it ourselves! And of course, this meant going back down the
street and making yet another roundabout turn, as the garage is on the opposite
side of the street…Not too bad, actually, and then back to the hotel to collect
the washing that needed to be done!
Turned it in with slip (can only imagine how much this will cost!) and
headed out to find some lunch and head to the archeological museum.
Honestly, this being a big city, and it being really HOT outside, we were a bit daunted by
the prospect of picking a “good” restaurant…so many of them are wide open to
the great (hot) outdoors. Then, we
passed a Burger King – so in we went for 1) reasonably priced and appropriately
cooked food, and 2) a bit more air conditioning than the norm. (This makes Burger King #2; and neither of us
has eaten in one in the U.S. for years!)
Finished our burgers and fries and then headed to the archeological
museum, which was the big thing I wanted to do today.
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| I'd recognize a Hittite lion anywhere! |
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| A Hittite orthostat |
They have a stunning Hittite lion in their
courtyard, so we were very excited!
Walked into the museum, and were handed a sign saying “Museum closed by
order of the authority.” And that was it!
From what we can make out, apparently the current museum is either being
renovated or being moved – at any rate, we were not even allowed to look around
the garden!
So
NOT
happy!
What is it about us and
archeological museums these days?
This
makes #2 – wow!
As we were both by now thoroughly hot and sweaty from the
heat, and a tad discouraged, we decided to return to the coolness of our lovely
suite for a rest after the drive. As
soon as it starts cooling down a bit tonight, we’re going to head out to see
what remains of a bridge built by Hadrian over the local river…hopefully that
won’t be closed or under renovation, but maybe I should knock wood?! Also need to get some water in and decide
where we’re going to have dinner tonight.
Also, we handed our laundry in about noon, and a very nice young man
just brought it BACK – all clean and ironed and everything!! Wow!!
Just amazing! So whatever
happens, it looks like we’ll be clean!
Tomorrow we’re heading out into the countryside to yet another
Hittite site. This one is actually in a
national park, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to find it! So, more later, after dinner!
m
xxx
Us again!
We went
outside about 5 to take a look at Hadrian’s bridge, and thankfully it had
cooled way down.
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| Hadrian's bridge |
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| Fountain in the river |
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| Me and Hadrian's Bridge |
It was within easy
walking distance, so we headed toward the river (which I hadn’t even realized
runs through Adana!), and there it was!
There are still 14 arches left from the original Hadrian bridge,
although it has been repaired over time, and it is used today as a lovely
pedestrian bridge, with a park running along one side of it.
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| Carved detail on the bridge |
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| Sabanci Merkez Camii near bridge |
Robert took pictures, and then we headed back
to the hotel, stopping once, at a Migros grocery store for supplies.
Not a very good Migros, but enough for our
purposes, water and snacks.
When we got
outside, we saw some street vendors selling cherries and erik – so R bought
some cherries for dessert tonight!
Erik
tomorrow!
About 7:30 p.m. we went downstairs to the hotel’s
restaurant.
Very few people there, but
at least we weren’t alone for awhile!
We
both had salads to start – mine was mozzarella and tomatoes, but for some
reason, the chef grilled the mozzarella!
It was terrible, and about the consistency of a large white eraser!
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| My chicken curry |
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| My salad...note white "erasers" |
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| Robert's spicy shrimp! |
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| Robert's composed salad |
Truthfully, very difficult to cut, it was so
tough!
Robert had a green salad, which
came with cucumbers, tomatoes and corn, and he enjoyed it very much.
For main courses, R had a spicy shrimp dish,
and I had curry chicken – which came with rice, potatoes, onion rings,
broccoli, cauliflower and who knows what else!
Very, very good!
Back upstairs
about 9:30 and will be heading to bed as soon as this is posted!
m
xxx
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