Day 8: Antalya - October 19

Leaving Konya. Some scenes on the streets.
Hmmmm, which way? So many choices.
I liked the detail on this building. Don't know what it is but I liked it. Click on any photo to enlarge.



Bored simit guy.
We're leaving this bread basket area. Going to see some pine trees soon when we stop for lunch.
Don't count these, you'll fall asleep.

We stopped for lunch in the Taurus Mountain area. Deep gorges, limestone cliffs, forests, dramatic and scenic. We had the option of traipsing through a cave. Half decided to hang out and read, rest, play backgammon. Backgammon is played everywhere. The game we play today probably started in Iran about 5,000 years ago and spread through Asia and Europe. Here are Karen and Rafet, our driver, duking it out. In college we would play backgammon all night long, literally.
Instead of cave exploration, I enjoyed nature photography.

Lunch was served. As usual, we had plenty.
We've got rice pudding cooked in those little crocks again.
Dining al fresco.
Sally had the fish and it was delicious. I had the lamb and it wasn't. I love lamb so I got it but it was blah.
This is a huge pile of dried carob pods at a roadside stand. Also for sale were bananas, nuts, fruits, pomegranate molasses and more.
Pomegranates are pretty much everywhere.


More country. We saw so many climates. Now we are out of the high and dry and into some high and not so dry.
Big basket of big pumpkins.
We reach the Mediterranean town of Antalya. What a difference in climate. The weather on the whole trip was unseasonably warm and shorts and a t-shirt were my basic apparel. But in Antalya we had humidity too. And palm trees, orange trees, another body of water, greenery in general.
Our home for the two nights we were in Antalya was the Pension Ninova, a small, very friendly place with a beautiful garden, a pond with fish and turtles, a tv room which opened into the patio, and Internet access. I should say that we had Internet access everywhere. Turkey is online and they love their cell phones! And this place offered laundry service. Very exciting after washing undies and socks in the sink for a week. But traveling allows you to prioritize your wardrobe differently. In fact, it's usually not the priority. You wear what you wear. We all did. You pick a few items that wash and wear well and you wear them over and over and that's ok. Pension Ninova, and several like it, is located in Old Antalya. In Turkish, Kaleiçi (KAH-leh-ee-chee), is the historic section, full of pensions, boutique hotels, restaurants, and shops. One of its access points is Hadrian's Gate. More on that later. I loved the winding streets. We kept to one small area of Antalya, right around the hotel then as far south on Atatürk Caddesi (the main drag, Atatürk Street, basically) as Park Içi Yollar, which ran west to the views of the water you saw a few photos back. West of Attaturk Caddesi you can get a little lost in the maze of winding streets, some are very steep, all are full of shops, apartments, pensions and people. The patio across from our room on the second level.Orange juice, anyone?Hanging out in the lobby which was opened to the garden. We're waiting to follow Mine on an orientation walk.I really liked these odd bits of stone used to fill the gaps in walls.Ah, the Mediterranean.OK, these ice cream guys are all over the place. Lots of chatter and acrobatics with the product. That long pole has a small flat end with which he scoops the ice cream. He also uses that rod to bang bells and as a spear to stab the entire contents of the ice cream bucket and pull it out. It's a fun routine for the tourists. Ann Marie was a good sport. She got to keep the ice cream cone for her trouble.She quickly learned the routine and was ready when the ice cream man tried to deny her again of the prize. Ann Marie, quick as Mr. Miagi, denied the ice cream man! For a fun video on this ice cream show put on by these vendors check out this link. We had dinner here. It was decent. Sure, not a place for locals but we were exhausted and hungry and the view was the best. Calamari, grilled veggies and, yep, more Efes.Not so bad, huh? It was actually darker than this but the camera really overcompensated. I tried various settings but couldn't get a truer image of the colors we were seeing in the sunset. Always crisp and clean, always available, Efes.

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Day 9: Mediterranean Cruise - October 20

Most of today was spent on a boat on the Mediterranean. Not a bad way to kill an afternoon. Our group had a private boat, a captain (at least, he wore a casual uniform), and a crew of three.
Love the Buddha. Serenity while sailing.We had to walk the plank to board.Glenda and Ann Marie scope out locations for relaxation. Those orange things are pads, like mattresses. Hoist your bum up there and nap or read or just watch the world go by.Lifestyles of the rich and unknown docked in this marina.A great place to just sprawl out.A peak inside the galley.
A peek out of the window in the head (bathroom).Approaching the first quiet cove. We stopped here so folks could swim.Walt and Stephanie. Someone loose a contact lens?Mine figures we couldn't get into too much trouble so she took a much-needed nap.
First swim stop. Neither of us swam. Sally was nursing her wrist and I didn't want to be salty and sticky.
Today is brought to you by the letter T - and Karen. (Sesame Street reference for those who grew up during its heyday.)Smiley para-sailing guy.
A ruined wall from Ancient Phaselis. Phaselis was a Roman port town built on three small bays. We stopped in two of these bays for swimming. The ruins are now contained within Olympos National Park.The boat crew put on quite the spread. Fried fish, various salads and vegetables
More ruins.
It was hot this day. And humid too. There were a couple of periods with no breeze, like in shipwreck movies in which the crew is languishing on deck, praying for wind. Ok, perhaps not that dramatic. But when it's hot and humid and you're on a boat, there are few places to go to escape.Glimpses of resort towns along the coast. In the distance, the Bey Mountains, part of the western branch of the Taurus Mountains.Yikes, that was a quick almost 5 hours. Is it over already? Back in the marina.Later that evening, Sally and I walked around town in order to work up an appetite for dinner. We pass under Hadrian's Gate to get to the main drag, Atatürk Caddesi. At one time, Antalya (Attaleia, back in the day) was surrounded by massive, thick walls. Every so often, the walls were punctuated with a gate. The sole remaining gate, and some of the wall, is Hadrian's Gate, named for, you guessed it, Hadrian. The gate dates from 130 A.D. We passed through this gate several times to get in and out of Old Antalya where Pension Ninova is located.

Here is the spice stand which served as a landmark for finding our pension.
The busy street life of Old Antalya.Back at Pension Ninova we took time to collect ourselves and take a rest from all that resting we did on the boat. The garden was always full of these kitties. Clearly, all feline rivalries are checked at the door when it's nap time .Dinner was at The Patio. It was really delicious. Of all things, we had Neopolitan style pizza. Hey, why not?
Back through the gate on our way home. Like in Ostia Antica, centuries of wagon and chariot wheels have worn deep groves into the road under the gate. So deep, that there is now a bridge over the ruts so folks don't twist ankles or take nasty spills. Lights illuminate the road so you can see the ancient details. Sally walks over 2,000 years of wear and tear.
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