Turkey days 4-6

Our first day out of Istanbul, we headed down the coast and took a short ferry ride to Canakkale. The archaeological site of Troy is about 22km below Canakkale. We drive to the site first, then back up to our hotel in Canakkale.

Troy is breathtaking. There is a huge replica wooden Trojan horse on site that we went up into, while Milan took our pictures from below. Then we walked arounf the site and marveled at its ancient feel. Its not the best preserved, but the stories behind it make up for all of that.

Canakkale is beautiful. We were very glad we stopped. We stayed in a little Ottoman period hotel called Kervansaray hotel. Their sultan suite was cute, and four small levels. The stairs were quite steep to the third level and the little guy needed some help traversing them. While I liked this hotel , I had two complaints. The first was the mains electricity box was right outside our door and kept clicking on and off all night. I'm a light sleeper to start with, so this woke me up a number of times. The second was the temperature of the water was either frigid or scalding, so it was a pain to shower the kids at night and myself in the morning.

Canakkale was a picturesque town, with a lovely walking shopping district and good food. We ate at a traditionsl turkish restaurant for dinner and the food was fabulous.

The next day we drove down to Selcuk where we stayed at the Richmond Ephesus resort hotel. The kids were happy because it had a swimming pool and a playground. It also was on the beach. Our drive from Canakkale to Selcuk took us through Pergamon (Bergama) one of the many, many ancient cities that lie on this land.

Pergamon housed the second largest library in ancient times, second only to Alexandria. The city is accesible by driving or by sky lift. We drove up, and the kids and I raced Milan down the mountain by sky lift. We all arrived at about the same time.

When we drove the rest of the way to Selcuk, the kids were eager to stretch their legs and play, so into their swim suits they went for a splash in the outdoor pool, followed by a turn in the indoor pool. Then we ate dinner, which was included in our stay. They had a huge buffet, with chefs making fresh food as well on the outside terrace. The food was superb, and we ate well!

The next morning, we were up early and the kids played on the playground and beach for a while after breakfast. Then we drove the short distance to Ephesus, where we took a horse drawn carriage to the upper side, and hired a guide to walk us through the site down to the bottom. This coty is amazingly well preserved, and housed the third largest library of ancient times. We even saw public latrines, (ancient ones) which was interesting to say the least! The amphitheater was intruiging, to know that St. Paul had given speaches there, and I finally put two and two together and realized that in the Bible when they talk of the Ephesians, THESE were the people rhey were talking about! Whst history there was here; if only the grounf could talk!

From here we drove the 7 km up the mountains to the serenly peaceful Virgin Mary's house. Here I lit candles for all my deceased relatives and said a prayer for God to watch over their souls. I'm not superbly religious, but I get overcome in places like this, and I think this was the first time my children had seen me pray.

In the afternoon we drove to Pumukkale. We expected this to be thermal springs only. The guidebook told us that there was a necropolis nearby, but oh my! This place was amazing! The necropolis was insanely extensive. Sadly it had all been pillaged, but many tombs remained intact, if devoid of occupants. There is a large amphitheatre there, and huge gates. Our daughter and I walked down into the travertines to the warm blue waters, and we got some fabulous pictures from that angle to. At the gates, there was a mommy stray dog and three adorable puppies. The kids stopped to play with them for a while, and had a blast.

We stayed the night in town at Hotel Apswana. The hotel was a little difficult to find, but worth it. Not for the room, but for the amazingly warm hospitality showed by the owner and his wife. She made us home made Turkish food that was delicious, and he kept bringing us blankets and such to help make our stay as comfortable as possible. The hotel was clean and comfortable, and the room had an attached bath with a cute little seated bathtub in it. It wad the first shower in two days where the water didnt fluctuate wildly on me! Thumbs up!

Day six had us up for breakfast and out of our hotel fairly early. We were trying to make to back to Istanbul for saturday night and figured we woul half the trip each of two days, as it was an 8 or 9 hour drive. We tried to stop in the Kaklik caves that are supposed to be like little pumukkale and have stalagtotes and stalagmites, but it was closed for renovation. We did stop several times along the way to checkout the ceramic and porcelain shops and to eat lunch. In the end we drove all the way to Iznik where we are staying at the Camlik hotel. The room is nice, and is similar to the Richmond hoyel in Ephesus in that there are bunkbeds for the children.