Which way do we go?

Lazy Days and Good Times in Kaş

2011-01-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

October 2010
It was easy to feel at home in Kaş. We quickly settled into a routine that included almost daily trips to shop (the bakery for fresh bread, the green grocer for produce, and the supermarket for most everything else) and usually a couple of walks through town. There were so many little details that we enjoyed discovering, such as these two brightly decorated floors.

Porch steps decorated with tile bits

Tile floor in store on across from our apartment

or ancient windows into dusty yards.

Side street window in Kaş

and of course the street cats and dogs. We discovered that there are LOTS of street animals everywhere we went in Turkey. Most are well behaved, although when several dogs get together, it can be a bit dicey. The cats, in particular, seem to hang around outdoor cafes waiting for scraps. Of course, I found them hard to resist, and generally shared a bit of my meal with them. There seems to be quite a few places were people feed them as we would stumble upon little old ladies or little old men with bags of stale bread or, my favorite, this little feeding station in a stone wall right next to the King's Tomb at the top of our street.

Cat in a box - Kaş

This sweet little kitten was very hard to put down!

Can you tell that I love cats?

This one loved to sneak into our apartment through the open windows and doors. It's a bit disconcerting though in the middle of the night to hear the thud when he jumps through the window into the living room. It took us a while to get used to our new family member's nocturnal comings and goings.

Cat on our apartment balcony

One of the things I like best about travel is discovering the differences, as well as the similarities, between cultures. One difference was the prevalence of motorcycles and motor scooters throughout Turkey. This guy is a great example as he appears to be heading off to work on his motorcycle. Someone told us that cars are VERY expensive in Turkey with substantial taxes levied. So much so that many people choose to go without a car and use alternate transportation including bikes and the fabulous bus system.

Heading to work

So of course, I began looking for the perfect scooter for me. I think this one will do just fine!

Is this one perfect for me?

Another difference seems to be the pace of life. Storekeepers have time during the day to enjoy life a bit, to relax and visit with each other. We found store clerks and owners drinking tea, playing tavla and just generally visiting with each other on the stoops in front of the stores whenever they had a quiet moment in the store.

Seline in white blouse and purple skirt

and yet another difference - small stores such as this one (Thane's favorite) are found every couple of blocks and each seems to stock an amazing array of items. This one stayed open very late for any after hours urgent needs like almonds, chocolate or beer.

Every street in town offered a new vignette. This old boat is in front of a restaurant a block or two from our apartment.

This lady was carrying on an animated conversation with the older gentleman below.

We wondered what the chair was for. Is he going to climb up? is she going to climb down? I hope they are eloping!

I know- it's blurry, but I loved this scene

One of Thane's favorites was this hard worker who appears to be changing the curb color from white to yellow. Will he be ticketing the white van when he is finished?

Of course not everyday is perfect for strolling through town. We had some mighty storms roll through. Our little balcony proved to be the perfect vantage point to wait out some of the rain storms.

Our balcony also gave us a great view of the goings on in town such as this wedding which we witnessed from above.

When we decided to head downstairs to get a closer look we were promptly offered some of the delicious food being served. Just one more example of Turkish hospitality.

And best of all, our friendly landlord Coskun, his sweet wife Selin and lovely daughter Nadine.

Nadine and Coskun - Photo taken from Coskun's facebook pics

Selin - on her birthday

They were all so kind and made us feel welcome. We celebrated Selin's birthday at a local bar

with THREE delicious, home made desserts and

good new friends, Michael, ıtır, and Muge.

It would be so easy to slip into a life in this lovely town. We plan to return when we can and we make good use of facebook in the meantime to keep in touch with our friends from Kaş.

Up next: Our final days in Kaş including a massive celebration of Republic day and a end of season street party/BBQ/Potluck that Coskun organizes.

The Doors of Kaş

2011-01-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

Mid October 2010

Today I give you a simple photo essay. I was enchanted by the doors in Kaş. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Our back door which opens from the small street behind our apartment.

This door is on the second floor of a building that no longer has a roof or what must have been a balcony at one time. Careful, that first step is a doozy!

The dive shop behind our apartment

Front door on a building that has been mostly torn down to make way for big, modern building

These photos were taken during our stay in Kaş, Oct. 10 to Nov. 2, 2010.

Up next: Daily life in Kaş, some of the things that made this place special for us.

Tombs and Trails of Kaş

2011-01-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

Mid October 2010

After settling in our new apartment, it was time to explore the town. We immediately noticed the large number of rock cut tombs in the area. Modern Kaş was built atop the remains of the ancient Lycian city of Habesos or Habesa, built in the 4th century BC. It is one of the oldest settlements in the region of Lycia. The Greeks later called it Antiphellos. Phellos, the Greek word for 'stony place' was a perfect choice!

This tomb, called Krai Mezari (King's Tomb), is right at the top of our street. It was carved from a single block and has eight lines of script in the Lycian language which have yet to be deciphered. The lid of the sarcophagus contains four lion heads, two on each side.

Krai Mezari (King's Tomb)

Other tombs are scattered throughout town. This one has a house built right on top of it!

This one is carved into the hillside a few blocks from our apartment, near the edge of town.

I guess when you have so many tombs around, they just don't seem as special as they might if they were discovered in, oh I don't know, maybe Grass Valley! This tomb is in a dusty area used as the parking lot for the weekly market.

As we were exploring town one day, this little lady motioned for us to follow her. She took us down a little street, past a snarling dog, through rocks and brush and then to this tomb. Amazing.

And then to this one. Of course, she requested a little compensation for her efforts which we were very happy to pay. We would not have found these on our own.

We discovered this tomb overlooking the harbor at the edge of town.

After a few days exploring in town it was time for a bigger hike. We headed out to the Lycian Way, a 509 kilometer trail that extends Fethiye to Antalya. I think just a few miles will do for us today.

To get to the trail, we hiked south out of town, down to this little beach and back up the other side.

Through oak forests that remind me a bit of California.

And up through some homes built above the beach. Thane loved this sign! I wonder if they get many clients stopping in after hiking the trail. I'll have to keep this in mind for the way back out!

It took a while, but we finally found the trail.

And a guide! This little guy found us before we found the trail. He stuck with us for the entire hike. He seemed to know the trail very well and encouraged us to to follow him whenever we came to a fork in the trail. We eventually decided to trust him and he did us right!

We passed this house a couple of miles into our hike. With no road nearby, it appears that they have to hike in just as we did. The lady of the house was standing on the back patio washing dishes and waved a hello to us. It seemed like a history book photo come alive!

Another day found us heading north out of town, hiking around a peninsula of newer, very upscale homes over looking the Greek Island of Meis. Although it is only a 20 minute ferry ride from Kaş, and we were there for three weeks, we somehow didn't find the time to visit. We attended a couple of parties with the mayor of Meis and he chided us for our oversight. I guess we'll just have to go back!

Our next hike had a nice surprise for us - a torrential downpour. We ducked under cover to try to wait out the storm. When Thane pointed the camera at me I thought he was just playing around. Nope, he captured a soaking, tired, me giving him a "what are you doing?" look.

Time to head back to the apartment for some hot tea and a warm shower!

Up Next: More about Kaş, the people, the doors, the festivities!

Home, Sweet Kaş -or- Everyone Needs a Break from Traveling

2010-12-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

Kaş harbor

October 10, 2010
After many weeks of traveling we have reached Kaş, the little town on the Turquoise Coast of Turkey, that will be home for the next three weeks. If you've been following us for a while, you already know, we like to travel slowly. We generally like to stay a minimum of about 3 days in any place and prefer about a week or so when possible.

Even with such slow travel, we knew we wanted to break it up with a longer term stay. We feel that we are better able to meet local residents and get to know the culture when we really slow down. As budget travelers we also appreciate the lower costs of longer term stays such as one week holiday rentals or longer term apartment rentals.

After considering many small towns, we chose Kaş. We found and rented our apartment on a visit here a week earlier and are now very excited to be arriving at our new home! This time we arrive by bus and get a different view than our earlier visit by boat.

It is near the end of the season and the town center is not as busy as it would be in mid-summer.

Restaurants on town square

Our apartment is above a jewelry store on a street of small shops, just up from the harbor. That's us on the left side of the street - the green balcony!

Uzuncarsi Street

Our landlord's shop with fabulous silver jewelry - some of his own design, some Ottoman style, some imported. I'm not much of a shopper, but I did find a beautiful Ottoman design pendant I just couldn't live without. Stop in if you are ever in town and please tell Coskin (pronounced Josh for short) that Melissa and Thane say "Hi."

www.mencilis.com

Ah, home . . . .
Our front balcony looks over the shops and cobblestone street below.

My own kitchen!!!! - A refrigerator, 4 burner stove and a WASHING MACHINE!!!! It will be such a treat to wash our clothes in a machine after weeks of bathroom sinks. We even tried washing them in the shower a couple of times. You know, dump dirty clothes in shower, drizzle shampoo on clothes, stomp naked on clothes until feet and clothes are both clean. A washing machine is just so civilized!

We also have a lovely patio at the back of the apartment. Oh, there's Thane using the "small broom." We've seen these brooms all over Turkey. Lots of people, young and old, uses them. The first time we noticed them was in a store. We thought the handles must be sold separately, but no, they are used just as they come, sans handle. We asked a couple of people about them and were met with blank stares. "What's wrong with the brooms??" I think I'll stick with a long handled broom myself.

The peaceful view from our rear deck. Ah, curl up on the cushioned bench, read a book, and watch the light change on the hill as the sun goes down. I LOVE traveling slowly....

The small street behind our house. Quaint isn't it? That's what we thought too. . . before we discovered that the bar on the right, with the little stone walls, plays loud American disco every night. They start at about 10 or 11 in the evening and go until 2 or 3 in the morning. Did I mention "LOUD"? It's summer and we sleep with the windows open. Since there is nothing that we can do about the music, we change our schedule to match theirs. We have no where to be early in the morning, so we stay up quite late every night, although not always until they are done playing. I even discover that, after a few days, I am able to sleep through the music. I've always been a light sleeper who needs quiet to sleep. I am delighted to find that I can change!

After unpacking our meager bags (we travel with one backpack each which includes our clothes, books, shoes, and bathroom stuff plus a small daypack each for computers) we head out to do a little grocery shopping. Kaş has a couple of supermarkets that are similar to American markets, although considerably smaller. We also discover there is a weekly market where we can buy spices,

Spices at Kaş weekly market

fresh produce, honey, eggs, olive oil, clothes, DVDs, shoes and . . .

Kaş weekly market - with the handle-less broom

every metal gadget that a man could want that is related to cooking over wood. Wood fired samovars (you saw one if you read my blog about our picnic with Ahmet), round gözleme pans, wire flip baskets - perfect for cooking chicken wings. Shiny metal objects and fire - every man's dream!

Kaş weekly market

One of the fun parts of shopping in a new country is seeing all the things you can't identify - here's one. This seems to be a fruit, it was about 5" long with bright red, juicy seeds. Anyone know what it is? We sure don't.

Here's another interesting item - Our butter comes packaged like this. It has a clear plastic lid that covers the butter when not in use.

Turkish Butter

The shopping is finished and we have our first home cooked (well, maybe I should say "cooked by me") meal in weeks. It is all cooked Turkish style (we really love Turkish food!). Green beans cooked with tomatoes and onions, but no water. Rice cooked with orzo and plenty of butter. A loaf of bread, fresh from the bakery and costing about 50 cents! And a Chicken Stew, so thick it goes on the plate. Yum. Happy us. . .

Now a glass of wine and a game of backgammon on our little front balcony overlooking our new home town. The shops stay open until about midnight. Soft breezes, voices drifting up from the shoppers below, the sounds of dice rolled and backgammen pieces slapped down on the wooden game board, glasses clinking at the bar across the street, sweet life. Sweet indeed.

Evening on Uzuncarsi Street

Up Next: More adventures in Kaş (we stay for 3 weeks)

Magical Mystical Olympos and the Eternal Flames of the Legendary Chimera

2010-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

October 8 - 9, 2010
After sailing on a small boat with about 17 people for 4 nights, we were ready for a little more privacy and space. Olympos was the PERFECT hidden gem for us! This idyllic village began life as a hippy hideaway with little tree houses tucked into a forested valley. It's matured a bit, of course, but retains the same, laid back, alternative, hippy vibe. Our shoulder season visit was perfect! Crisp weather and no crowds.

Check out "main street" Olympos. Well, really, it's the only road and it appears it is only passable in decent weather as it crosses a significant wash area in the middle of the village. The term "village" is used loosely, as the area includes only some treehouse and bungalow pensions, a few cafes, and a couple of very small stores.

The accommodations in the valley are all generally pretty rustic with significant variations in the level of partying. Some are laid back and quiet, while others have loud blaring music and cater to the late night party crowd. After reading reviews we decide to stay at Saban Treehouses in a little bungalow. It sounded like it was one of the quieter establishments, perfect for a couple of peaceful days of hiking and exploring. Although the treehouses were cute, they were only semi enclosed and the nights were just a bit too cool for that. Our little bungalow also has it's own bathroom which is worth the upgrade to us.

Our expenses here are some of the lowest of our trip so far. We paid 80 Turkish Lira (about $68 US) for a private cabin with heat/ac, bath, breakfast and an absolutely wonderful dinner prepared each night by the very talented and gracious manager, Meral. The same delicious meals are available with a treehouse stay for 60 TL, or in a small dorm for 25 TL per person. Breakfast and dinner are served on the covered patio, in raised Turkish style cushioned platforms, or tables under the trees.

The valley itself is beautiful and reminds me of a small Yosemite, with tall trees, big boulders, steep rocky walls, and FEWER tourists. We spotted these climbers across the valley from our cabin.

We explored the "village" a bit, stopping in for an afternoon snack at a little cafe. Momma prepared fresh gözleme for us while Grandma fed the sweet baby girl.

As we continue our stroll through town, we came upon this little celebration. We had been hearing drums and music for much of the morning and Meral explained that a local couple was getting married. The celebrations were to continue for two days. I soooo wanted to join these guys, but it appeared to be a "men only" group so I decided to take a video instead.

Nestled between the treehouse pensions and the Mediterranean sea lie the ruins of the ancient city of Olympos, one of the leading cities of the Lycian federation. What is unique about these ruins is the setting. All of the ruins we've explored in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey until now, were set out in hot, open spaces, devoid of much greenery or wildlife and frequently over run with tour groups. These ruins, conversely are hidden away in a valley, overgrown with wild grapevines, lush fig trees, fragrant bay trees, and flowering oleanders. The ruins span a quiet freshwater creek and climb up the sides of the valley. It is so quiet that the only sounds we hear are the birds singing, the breeze through the trees, and the trickle of water flowing through ancient aqueducts.

Tomb

Roman Bath

Tomb

With almost no one else in sight, we explore to our hearts content. At times I feel like Indiana Jones, discovering these magical ruins, some covered in vines, some with their feet now sunk in murky water. We explore without restrictions, walk through still standing rooms, and peek into ancient tombs (all with holes in them from earlier grave robbers).

Anything still in there Thane?

Crumbling tile mosaic floors

Tombs

Several times we spot little signs pointing us towards another tomb or building but we soon run out of trail and begin scrambling through the brush. We find many ruins almost completely hidden including this stone structure with it's feet now in dark, murky water. After 20 minutes or so, we decide we better head back the way we came, it's been too long since we've seen a trail and it's getting a bit late.

Ruins in standing water

We both agree that these are our very FAVORITE ruins - and Olympos is a sweet, relaxing gem. This stopover makes our Top 10 list of places/experiences in Turkey!

The next day we set out to explore the rest of the area. This beach is just beyond the the ruins and again it is very quiet with very few people this time of year. The water is a bit chilly and we have a hike ahead, so no swimming for us. We want to see the Chimera and Meral tells us that if we want a bit of a hike, we might enjoy walking along the beach rather than taking the shuttle bus. Sounds like a good idea, so off we go.

Olympos Beach

We find several small cafes, beach chairs and umbrellas for rent, and

Cafe on Olympos beach

kayaks for rent along the way.

Kayaks on Olympos beach - Mt. Olympos in the background

The hike turned out to be a bit longer than we anticipated (maybe because we took a wrong turn or two), but a stop at a little store along the way for a snack and drink provided us with the stamina to continue.

After about a 4 mile hike along the beach and another 1/2 mile up the hill we spot several bunches of flames bursting from the ground. The Chimera are natural gas flames that sprout from the rocky flanks of Mt. Olympos. Centuries ago they were much taller, easily visible by sailors who used them as a landmark. The story of their origins though are not so mundane. This spot is considered to be the very place where, according to Homer's Iliad, the hero Bellerophon battled the mythical Chimera, a fire breathing monster that was terrorizing the local area. The flames that erupt from the flanks of the mountain today are proof that Chimera remains, still dangerous, under the mountain.

A short video of the flames - get your marshmallows ready!

Thanks for traveling with us!

Up next: Settling in to our new, temporary home town and our sweet little apartment in Kaş.

Blue Cruise on the Gorgeous Mediterranean and a Visit to St. Nick

2010-11-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

October 4 to 8, 2010

After many cruises with our friends from BN, we find ourselves preparing for a cruise without them. We'll miss them, but it should be fun being a passenger with no staff duties for a change! We arrived in the little coastal town of Fethiye the night before the cruise and met up with our soon to be boatmates for a seafood dinner. We enjoyed a beautiful view from our room.

This time we are heading out for a Blue Cruise on a Turkish gulet. A Blue Cruise is generally a short cruise aboard a small sail boat with about 6 - 8 cabins and a crew of 3, including captain, cook, and general deck hand. The cabins are quite small and not air conditioned, so that most people sleep on deck at night. We are cruising rather late in the year, so the cabins are relatively comfortable. I understand that during the heat of a Turkish summer, they are pretty much unbearable. Good news for us then.

Day 1 - Depart Fethiye mid day. Stop at Butterfly Valley for a swim. (note the light colored bluff on the left of the pic - we stayed at a small pension in the little village of Faralya located at the top of this bluff about a week or so after our cruise).

Butterfly Valley and beach - over 100 different types of butterflies and moths live in the valley

A little time for swimming before lunch.

The water is amazingly clear - and just a bit cooler than perfect

And a little hammock time with a self portrait by Thane!

And of course, there is always tavla!! Looks like we both take this very seriously - no smiles at all.

We spend our first night tethered to St. Nicholaus island. Turns out that ALL the gulets spend the night in the same place. By the time it gets dark, the place is starting to look a little bit like a campground for motorhomes. The other boats are so close that you can hear them and smell their food. I don't much care for the parking lot vibe of this setting. The sea is so beautiful with such a dark starry night - it would have been so much better to be in a quiet little cove with just our boat.

Day 2 - Off we go to more beautiful bays.

One of several small boats that approached our boat selling goodies such as ice cream, gözleme and pashminas.

Also on Day 2, we stop at Kaş. Kaş is where we hoped to find an apartment to rent for the rest of October, so we were very excited to check things out. We found an apartment within the first 20 minutes! Our soon to be home has the little green balcony that you can see in about the middle of this pic.

Day 3 brings us to Sunken City of Kekova (this Lycian-Roman archaeological site is protected, so only looking!) Kekova was partially destroyed by an earthquake which left some of the city underwater.

We stopped at the quaint village of Simena, a very small traditional fishing village accessible only by boat and located across from Kekova. It is topped by a Byzantine/Ottoman castle.

We took off immediately for the top of the hill and passed this tiny school on the way up. It is the primary school in town. Five students, three grades, and one teacher.

Lycian tombs are scattered down the hillside from the castle to the water. These olive oil trees are several hundred years old. The tombs, much older!

As we walked up the hill, a local woman joined us. She told us about the school, the tombs, the castle and was generally good company. We liked chatting with her, but at some point would have enjoyed being alone for a while. Try as we may, we were unable to get away. As we walked back down to town, we found out why. Of course! She wanted to sell us something. After having her as our unofficial "guide" I felt obliged to purchase one of her lace edged sarongs. Although I have very little room in my backpack to add souvenirs and don't generally buy things, I'll now have a beautiful memento of this island when I use the sarong next summer!

One of just a few small walking streets in "downtown" Simena.

Day 3 also included a bus transfer to Demre for the St.Nicholas Church. St. Nicholaus, the inspiration for Santa Claus, was born in this area .

Church of St. Nicholas - Interior fresco

Church of St. Nicholas - Interior

The Tomb of St. Nicholas

The cruise ended on day 4 with a bus transfer to Olympos. A very sweet place, and our next blog entry.

Overall the cruise had it's high and low spots. The scenery was great but it would have been much better in hot weather when the sea would have been much more inviting and refreshing. It was also fairly expensive, the boat never sailed, it only used it's noisy diesel motor, and it had a bit of a motorhome caravan feel since each night was spent in view of adjacent gulets. We don't think we'd do it again, although keep in mind that we do frequent cruises as our side "job."

Up next: A delightful stay in a little bungalow in Olympos, and a hike to the Chimera, an ever burning flame erupting from rock on the side of the mountain.

Kaleici: A "Steamy" Hamam Tale, Ancient Maze of Streets and the Best Ever Sarcophagi Collection

2010-11-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

Evening in Antalya - Hıdırlık Tower on the right

September 29 - October 3, 2010

Kaleici is a small, walled, tangle of ancient, narrow streets surrounding a natural harbor in use since Roman times. It is the original Antalya and has been inhabited since the 2nd century BC. Modern Antalya has grown up outside the city walls and is now a sprawling city of over 1 million. The ancient city walls are still in place however, and are still protecting the old quarter, now called Kaleici.

Hadrian's Gate

The difference in architecture and tempo between the new and the old cities is quite distinct. Outside the gate and walls, modern Antalya moves at a quick pace with scooters, cars and trolleys zipping past. Modern buildings and large sidewalks line the street.

We even spotted this Mickey D's built right up against the wall - that stone wall on the right side of the picture is part of the ancient city wall. No, we did not eat here.

While inside the quarter, ancient Ottoman style houses with secret courtyards line the pedestrian only streets. We understand that just a few years ago, this area was not desirable and that some of the houses were abandoned and left to the wind and rain. That has changed recently with many of the old houses newly renovated and turned into upscale hotels and restaurants. As you can see though, there are still plenty left to be renovated, but they are no longer inexpensive.

We've learned that we need a good amount of "down" time on our extended travels. We have learned to take it easy and see the sights on our schedule. That means quiet walks on cobblestone streets with stops for fresh squeezed pomegranate and orange juice from sidewalk vendors like this.

And checking out the goods at the local carpet store (although this also required that we learn the art of rebuffing the sales people).

And strolling through town just to enjoy the view!

Harbor in Kaleici, Antalya

And discovering new sweets like acibadem, my new FAVORITE, an amazing almond, macaroon, meringue type cookie.

Photo from Wikipedia

Or this nifty invention - the flip top beer bottle. Generally here in Turkey, beer means Efes. You order a beer, you get Efes. We rarely found anything else. So it was with a little bit of excitement that we ordered Tuborg. When it arrived we discovered this cool pull top. Efes is decent, but it was nice to have something different.

Tuborg at sunset

And enjoying a dreamy hour or two at the 700 year old Balık Pazarı Hamam where I was turned into jelly after a steam room, rough scrub to remove dead skin, soapy scrub, hair wash, and oil massage. All this for only 40 TL ($28 US)! - sorry no photos allowed.

Just picture an ancient, domed stone building, a maze of marble tiled rooms edged with marble benches and a steamy fog which blurs everything. Naked ladies stretched out on low marble benches, light streaming in through multiple small round holes in the dome roof, each sound echoing loudly off the marble walls. The women are resting their heads on upside down copper bowls, periodically dowsing themselves with cool water, relaxing in the steam and waiting for the bath attendant. This is a traditional hamam with men and women in different areas, in case you were wondering.

After steaming sufficiently, the attendant commands me (she doesn't speak English) to lay on the central, elevated marble slab where she proceeds to rub me down with a kese (a coarse cotton mitten) and scrubs away a good amount of dead skin. This is followed by a full body wash. This is no ordinary "grab a bar of soap and wash" wash. This feels like being washed by an Angel. The attendant puts olive oil soap into a cloth pillowcase, blows into it filling it with air, then twists it shut and presses this giant air pillow onto me so that warm soap bubbles smother my body. She then massages/washes the soap over me from head to toe. An enchanting experience. The rest went by in a blur, shampoo, rinse and an oil massage. All in all, a wonderful experience and my favorite hamam so far!!

And of course, there is always time for good food. This is part of the mezze buffet at our hotel.

We stayed about a block from the water at a small, family owned hotel. We usually prefer to choose our own dining options, but when we checked in to this hotel, the manager offered us a half board option for just 30 additional lira for the both of us ($20 US). The dinner included the self serve mezze buffet above plus the chef's choice for dinner. Since mezza's typically cost 4-5 lira each, this proved to be a great deal, AND delicious! We are so glad we chose this option.

Pool side dining area

Pool side relaxing - almost finished with this book.

Although we spent most days wandering through the old quarter and talking with fellow travelers at our hotel (we met a great young couple traveling the world for a year - hi Bart & Sarah, and another couple on holiday from London), we did manage to find our way to the Antalya Museum. As many travelers know, museum and "ruin" burnout settles in after a few weeks/months of travel and we are no exception. Something about the description of this museum caught our attention though so we took some time off from wandering, reading and sunbathing to check it out. We soon decided this was our favorite museum of the trip so far. The collection is amazing and it only takes an hour or two to see most of it.

Saint Nicholas relics

Glass items in the Hall of Small Objects

The Hall of Gods had an amazing collection of perfect, larger than life size, marble statues. We found ourselves alone in this gallery and quietly strolled from statue to statue. As we approached each statue, an individual spotlight lit up the white marble - our own private show.

Statue of the Emperor Hadrian in the Hall of Imperial Statues (117-138AD)

From the Marble Portraits Hall

And finally we arrive at our favorite room - The Hall of the Sarcophagi. There were maybe 20 or so unbelievable carved sarcophagi. Simply incredible!

As I mentioned earlier, this is our favorite museum. I haven't even included photos from the Pre-History hall with its neanderthal remains and stone age artifacts, the Byzantine Icon art, or the Ethnographic Hall with still life sets showing a typical Anatolian house and a Yörük tent. This gets a "don't miss" in our book.

Well 'tis time to bid Hoşçakal to Antalya. We splurged on drinks at a nearby rooftop cafe for our final night here.

And because Thane is always the one behind the camera, I am slipping in this photo of him up on that rooftop. Did you enjoy your Tuborg?

Up Next: A night in Fethiye and a 3 night "Blue Cruise" sailing the Mediterranean on a gulet.

Kizkalesi - Lazy Days in the Sun

2010-11-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

September 23 to September 28, 2010

After a busy week of sightseeing in Göreme, we headed to Kizkalesi on the southern coast of Turkey.

Our plans ? ? ? Lay around, get some sun, eat, sleep, repeat. We did a fine job of it starting with our room with a view of the castle and beach.

It was very easy to laze around here. Just about everything you could wish for is brought to you right on the beach. Here are two of the sarong sellers.

Then the simit seller strolls by with his wares balanced on his head.

The çai man and his son.

Ah, hot çai at the beach! There was also vendors selling hot ears of corn on the beach, and beer and icecream vendors on the boardwalk. Not a bad life at all!

A little swim for me (in my new bikini!)

and one for Thane too! The water was just cool enough to be refreshing and it was so shallow that we had to walk out about 300 feet to get up to our shoulders in the water.

A relaxing day people watching on the beach - cute little ones,

babies with their grandmas,

naked - just perfect for the beach!

Or fully clothed, depending on your preference.

Or dressed somewhere in between.

A little tavla before dinner.

Walk to a nearby cafe for dinner with fresh, hot from the wood fired oven, bread.

Then stroll the boardwalk in the evening after dinner.

Repeat for 6 days. . . . .

Good night moon, goodnight castle, goodnight beautiful warm Mediterranean water. I've loved being here.

Up next: 9 hour bus ride, on cliffs, to our next destination, the old town, Kaleiçi area of Antalya.

Cappadocia - Balloons, Cave Churches and Goodbye

2010-11-25T04:45:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

Balloons over Göreme

September 21 - 22, 2010
This morning we awoke with a start. What was that noise?? Huge whoosh, whoosh sounds. Loud. Close. We got up to take a look and this is what we saw! A sky filled with hot air balloons. Some were just above our room, so close we could see the passengers faces! Absolutely beautiful in the cool, crisp morning.

With our time in Goreme beginning to run short, we decided to head over to the "don't miss" Goreme Open Air Museum, a short walk from our sweet home in the village. We came upon this interesting pottery display just outside of town.

Pottery Tree outside Göreme

The museum is a complex of medieval churches with beautiful Byzantine frescoes, carved into the hillside. This is another UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was easy to see why. The complex included several churches, chapels, a refectory - with long stone benches, and monasteries.

Overview of Goreme Open Air Museum

As these are all cave churches, the light is not the best. I've included a few pics so you can get a peek inside.

Chapel of St. Barbara

St. George and St. Theodore in the Chapel of St. Barbara

Us in the "Snake Church"

The church above is actually the Church of St Onuphrius. It was misnamed when the painting of a dragon on the wall was mistaken for a snake. The dragon was used in Byzantine times to symbolize paganism. The shot below was taken looking back out of the "Snake Churck."

View from the "Snake Church"

The next couple of pics are of what's left of the large rooms at the entrance to the "Dark Church."

The "Dark Church" or Karanlik Kilise is the most famous church here, filled with well preserved frescoes. Photos are forbidden, to preserve the condition of these lovely paintings. After a quick search on the net for some pics, it appears that lots of folks have ignored that rule though - so here is a link to a page with lots of interior pics of this church. We did not take any, just enjoyed the amazing paintings, while listening to explanations of each though our audio tour headphones. I can only say that these were amazing!!

After a big morning of hiking around the museum, it was time for lunch. Meals out in Turkey can be very inexpensive. Pide, sometimes called Turkish Pizza, is one of the least expensive meals around. We watched as these pide bakers prepared our lunch, which was then cooked in the wood fired oven.

Delicious! A simple, freshly made dough crust, with minimal toppings. This one is the combo pide which has the most toppings. Others have only one topping.This was about $3 US. Very tasty!

This is a typical afternoon for our good friend, Ahmet. He is playing okey, a Turkish game similar to rummy and played with tiles. You may notice that it is only men playing here. That was so typical throughout Turkey - men playing tavla (backgammon), okey, and drinking tea in small cafes with sidewalk tables.

It is finally time for us to say good by to our much loved home in Goreme. We felt so welcome here, so included. By the time we left we had a larger, extended family here, waiting for us to return. We hope it is not long. We miss you Ahmet, Ramazan, Mehmet, Ibo and Goreme!! You are the BEST!

View from a roof top restaurant for our last dinner in Goreme

Up next: A week of lazing around on a beach with a view of the island castle just off shore in Kizkalesi

Cappadocia - Underground City, Turkish Shave, and a Wedding

2010-11-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

September 18-19, 2010
We don't usually take group tours, but today will be an exception. This particular tour facilitates a one way hike through a canyon and gets us to hard to reach places. It is a small group of 8 and includes a professional tour guide*. Our first stop is at the Göreme Panorama overlook (above). The view is so expansive that it just about takes my breath away. I stood at the edge of this overlook gazing out over the vast landscape and listening to our tour guide explaining the formation and overall geology of this area. I'll just stick with Amazing!

Next up is a visit to the underground city at Derinkuyu. From the top, we see absolutely nothing that hints at the vast complex beneath our feet. Our guide, Zeynep, explains that the entrances were hidden as these cities (there are more than 100 in Cappadocia) were used in emergencies to hide from attacking armies. Whole villages could quickly escape below ground and live for months. This expansive complex included water sources, air shafts, stables, storage rooms, chapels, sleeping rooms, kitchens, and a winery.

Some of the tunnels were too small to stand fully upright

Thane is climbing up from the 8th level, about 280 feet below ground. This tour is NOT for the claustrophobic!

*Tour guides in Turkey are well trained professionals with University degrees in Tourism. They study art, language, architecture, history and psychology. Zeynep was a gem and filled in lots of details throughout the day. We were so glad that we decided to go with a professional tour instead of on our own. Thanks Zeynep!

These little old ladies were selling handmade dolls just outside the underground city for 3-5 Lira each or about $2 - $3, USD. Very sweet, but we are traveling light and are very limited in what we can carry so we are only able to take pictures this time.

One of the advantages of this tour is that the driver drops us off at an entrance to the Ihlara Valley and picks us up at the end of the trail. Not easy to accomplish in your own car or by public bus.

We hiked for about 2 hours deep in this valley, along side this beautiful stream to find many Byzantine rock cut churches.

With a dependable water source and the deep valley to hide them, early Christians fled to the area to escape from Roman soldiers. There are hundreds of rock carved churches in this valley.

One of the many frescoes from the churches in the valley.

As we climbed up out of the valley we found this little stash of corn, drying on a flat roof. We saw peppers and beans drying on other roofs.

We worked up a good appetite and had this lovely lunch in the tiny town of Belisirma at the end of the trail. I'm starting to get used to eating fish that still have eyes and a tail. Not the typical filet I cook at home.

Next up, Selime Monastery - another Star Wars looking rock complex with churches carved in the 13th century.

Church interior

Thane

View of the valley from caves above

It was a long day with lots of great sites, hiking, food and a great guide. Then to top it off we had this fabulous sunset!

After another sweet night in our cave room we decided it was time for Thane to experience a classic Turkish Shave and Haircut. We'd heard these were great and Thane was not disappointed. He was in the chair for almost an hour!

We couldn't keep track of the lotions, potions, masques, massages plus the ever popular flaming giant Q-tips for removing ear hair!

Good thing that Thane is now so well groomed as Ahmet invited us to a wedding reception that evening! Again, we were honored by Ahmet's invitation and gladly accepted! I was very nervous walking in to the huge reception hall filled with people whose language I couldn't speak, wedding guests I didn't know, and where most of the women were dressed in conservative head scarves. Ahmet's wife noticed my hesitance and grabbed my hand, leading me to a table next to her friends (she doesn't speak English). It was just so sweet of this woman, whom I had just met, to take me in like this. I felt so much more comfortable after that kind gesture.

This is Elif, Ahmet's daughter. She is attending University and dresses in western clothes while her mother and sister choose to wear headscarves.

Elif would not accept "No" when she asked me to join her on the dance floor. So, when in Rome . . . . We danced to a LOUD band with flashing lights (disco style). Elif explained that the men typically have the floor for a while, dancing together, followed by the women - again dancing together, and then the children join in as well. I was very self conscience found that most people just smiled at me. Some women at an adjacent table smiled and took pictures of Thane and I while we were snapping pictures of the gathering.

The wedding cake was an amazing affair - 10 layers - stacked on a stretcher type server and paraded through the reception for all to see.

After some dancing, a piece of cake and a juice box (no alcohol at a Muslim reception) we called it a night. Once more, we felt so lucky to join in this celebration! Thank you Ahmet and family!

Next up: A visit to the Goreme Open Air Museum with its Byzantine era cave churches with murals dating from 900 AD and our last few days in this wondrous land.

Göreme, Cappadocia - Picnic with Ahmet

2010-11-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

Posted by Melissa

Good Food in a Cappadocian valley

September 17, 2010
Ahmet, whose son owns the Star Cave Hotel where we are staying, said "I am garden" "you go with me" "we picnic". Through a little back and forth conversation we discover that Ahmet has a country garden and wants to take us there for a picnic. Sounds GREAT to us. We hop into his car and make a couple of stops along the way, first for fresh peppers and tomatoes at this street market and then a stop at a little grocer for bread and chicken wings.

Ahmet speaks some English and we speak VERY little Turkish. We converse as best we can as he drives us out of town and then down a little dirt lane. The lane gets narrower and narrower with branches scraping up against the car. Ahmet parks when the car can go no further and indicates to us that we will now walk. We wonder just a little bit, "was this smart?" We are now wandering around a remote valley, far from home, with someone we just met. My daughter insists that I am too trusting, hmmm - just a little worry begins to work its way into my head, but we both agree Ahmet is a great guy and this will be a fun adventure. So off we hike through this valley, passing through many orchards and gardens. . . .

to Ahmet's garden and camp/picnic area.

The simple outdoor kitchen where our lunch will be prepared. Ahmet fills the water jug from a source further up the valley.

A lovely shady little spot, just right for lunch.

Thane checks out the one room house, built partially into the hillside. Nice and cool inside.

We picked melon and mint in the garden and started preparing lunch.

Ahmet put Thane to work watering new fruit trees that he planted earlier this year, telling him that lunch will be ready when the trees are watered.

Simple BBQ, fueled with tree clippings stacked neatly next to the house.

Ahmet roasted an eggplant (directly in the coals) that would become part of our lunch. Peeled and mixed with chopped tomatoes, green peppers and mint, it became the filling for our sandwiches.

Thane says "Yum!"

Dessert - straight from the garden. Very sweet!

Oh, must NOT forget the çai. Ahmet retrieves his wood fired samovar and tea glasses from the house and fires it up. Turkish tea generally steeps for 15 minutes, leaving some time for . . .

play!

Tea is ready AND Ahmet even has some Nescafe with creamer and sugar for Thane!

Time to clean up.

The leftovers are bagged up and ready for our hike back out. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon at Ahmet's family garden and picnic/camp area. What a treat to be included in something as personal as this. One of our goals in traveling is to get to know people living in other cultures as much as we can. This day was very special to us. Ahmet, we feel so honored to have experienced your generous hospitality.

On the drive back home, we take a little detour. Again, we are not sure where we are going, but we are along for the ride so we'll soon find out! Ahmet parks the car and takes us into this old house.

We discover that his son, Ramazon, has purchased an old stone house with cave rooms, to remodel into a new hotel/pension. This is just the 2nd day of cleaning out the debris and seeing exactly what he has.

A couple of items found in the rooms.

Wine amphoras found in another room.

And just uncovered a few hours ago, a large cellar room that looks big enough to make a couple of additional rooms in the pension! We hope to go back to Göreme sometime soon and see this new pension.

Still to come in Göreme - descending deep into an underground city, attending a Muslim wedding reception, touring a vast complex of Byzantine churches, oh and probably some more hiking and food.

Göreme, Cappadocia - Fairy Chimneys and Trogolyte Living

2010-10-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

September 14-16, 2010
Late this evening we boarded the overnight bus to Cappadocia. I had hoped for some empty seats so that I could stretch out a bit and maybe get some sleep, but NO, this bus is full! So a wide awake nine hour ride for me (yes, Thane slept), winding through big towns, little villages, curving roads through the hills, and then, blessedly, watching the sun rise - we'd soon be there! I guess you've figured out that I can't sleep sitting up - not in cars, on planes or buses. It was worth the all-nighter though, to catch the first few glimpses of this surreal, magical, fairytale land as we pulled into Göreme.

Göreme is another Unesco World Heritage Site (we try to see as many Unesco sites as we can in our travels). Looking around, it is easy to see why this spectacular landscape with its rock carved churches, troglodyte villages and underground towns, should be treasured and protected for future generations.

Rock cut Roman tomb, in the center of town

We spent our first day wandering around, getting our bearings and marveling at the numerous cave dwellings and pigeon houses carved into the sandstone hillsides.

View from the roof top patio in our hotel

At work, roof top terrace

Dinner was a delicious bowl of beef güveç and delicious flatbread for Thane and a lamb roll-up plus salad for me. Yum!

We watched the moon rise over a minaret next to the Roman tomb fairy chimney as we ate this dinner in the warm evening air at our little sidewalk cafe. . . . What can I say but "Magical"?

We were able to check into our home away from home, The Star Cave Hotel, the next morning (we had arrived a day early after leaving the mosquitoes in Pamukkale behind). We were soooo excited, we were going to sleep in a cave room! Real troglodyte living for us! AND - we have eight days here!!

Our front door - Room 104

All of the etching/carvings on the wall and the niches in the wall are original to this old cave room. The owner added only the lighting.

Interior - Our room

This room (pic below) is located on the upper level of the hotel. The only access is via the wood ladder leaning on the rock. Thane was checking it out, but I prefer a walk in, not a climb-up room.

The Star Cave has a large, out door lounge area covered in pillows and rugs, just right for reading on a hot afternoon.

or for a good game of Tavla with Ahmet. He won!

and of course, a little internet time, researching travel options and getting caught up with family and friends.

After a day of checking out the local area, we road the local dolmuş to nearby Uçhisar....

Uçhisar street scene

... to climb the Uçhisar Castle! Yep, to the top of this we go!!

Fairy Chimney seen while hiking up Uçhisar Castle

Almost there! Hi Thane! Wave to the camera!!

Woo Hoo!!! Made it to the top! - The highest point in Cappadocia!

The panoramic view is spectacular!

These Byzantine graves are carved into the top of the castle mountain.

Because climbing the castle was just not enough exercise for the day we decided to hike back to Göreme through Pigeon Valley which connects the two towns. But first - lunch in this little cafe with views that go forever.

Street scene below the cafe

We walked the dusty trails, past houses like this (this one is for sale!)

and more fairy chimneys (this one is occupied)

through the canyon and home. But, not before making lots of wrong turns and ending up in places where only mountain goats could get through and other places where I had to walk like a crab on all fours to keep from sliding down the loose, sandstone slope. Once was enough for me in this canyon!

Up next: More Göreme, a hike in another valley to a little campsite and garden for a picnic lunch with Ahmet, a visit to an underground city, a visit to a Byzantine monastic settlement and pilgrimage site, AND a WEDDING!! ~ I may need two more blog posts to cover it all.

Pamukkale: Travertine Hiking and Healing Waters

2010-10-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

September 13, 2010
Today we rode our first long distance bus in Turkey. We found the bus to be very nice with reclining seats, an attendant who served us tea, Nescafe (if you want American style coffee here it will be instant Nescafe), sodas and small snacks. After snacks, the attendant came around with the ever present, lemon water that Turks love to use to freshen up, splashing it on hands, arms and face. It is quite effective and definitely made me feel fresher. Our destination: Pamukkale and the ruins of Hierapolis.

This photo shows the town with the travertine terraces of Pamukkale in the background.

We stayed at The Allgau Pension, a very inexpensive little place (30 Turkish lira or about $20 US including breakfast for both of us). The room was a no frills, clean room with a bed and small bath - shower head in the middle of the wall. That's about it, no desk, no chairs, no dresser, but clean and functional.

The pool here looks very refreshing in the pic, but it was actually so milky that we could not see the bottom. It is filled with water coming off the nearby travertine terraces, however it flows though an open ditch along side the road for about a mile or so before entering the pool. Although I saw a few people swimming, it just didn't appeal to me much.

These little treehouses were located in the garden of our hotel. It looks as though they may have been open air rental rooms in the past, but now they were quite rickety and didn't seem to be in use.

Just another stone building along the walk to lunch.

Tap water in most places in Turkey is not considered clean enough to drink, therefore nearly EVERYONE buys bottled water. If you have a large refillable water dispenser in your house, it's not a real problem, but while traveling we, like most all others, have to buy our water in smaller, disposable bottles. We are very careful to buy the biggest we can carry and refill our little personal size bottles.

Although Turkey does many things very well, sometimes better than the US, the lack of potable water in homes leads to a disposal nightmare. I'm not sure what the solution is though, in the US we waste clean filtered water on lawns and toilets and in Turkey, there is the mess of the empty bottles.We stumbled upon this stash of empty bottles along side the road. Sad...

Before our hike up the travertines , we stopped for lunch of at a little restaurant with a lovely breeze and delicious gozleme. We mentioned gozleme in a prior post but I wanted to post a couple better pics for you. It reminds me of a very thin tortilla. The dough part is made fresh, rolled thin with a small dowel to about a 24" diameter, then sprinkled with toppings and cooked on a large metal pan, typically with a wood or coal fire beneath. Delicious and very inexpensive at about 4-10 TL or $3 to $7 depending on where it's purchased.

The one above has cheese and meat sauce and the one below has spinach and cheese.

With full bellies and the hot sun shining on us, we started our hike up the blindingly white travertine hill. Hmm, no one told me we'd be hiking THROUGH the water.

This spot is about midway up the hill. We're all moving pretty slow - no shoes are allowed and the rock is slippery in places and hurts your feet in other places. The water was cooling and felt great though on this hot day when temps pushed 100. Despite the hot weather, we saw several women covered in conservative coat type garments. They, like us, had to take their shoes off though - Risque!

There were several small pools along the walk up the hill. I loved this pic with a bikini clad young girl and a fully covered woman, both enjoying the water.

These terraced pools on the way up are now off limits for swimming as excessive use was damaging them.

Yay! We made it to the top. This is the view looking back to the town, pools, and valley below.

The reward for all good hikers?? Swimming in this amazing pool with marble ruins scattered underwater! The natural, hot spring waters have a high mineral content and are said to have healing powers. I am a believer! It soothed my body, soul and hot tired feet. I felt a distinct peacefulness as I paddled and floated away the afternoon.

There are also significant ruins here of the ancient city of Hieropolis, founded sometime between the 4th and the 2nd century BC. We strolled through them on our way back down the hill, taking the long way home rather than hike back down the travertine. Sorry though, no pics of them. You'll just have to go there yourself!

As our readers already know, we are traveling s l o w l y on this trip. Although many people recommend going to Pamukkale as a day trip, we planned to stay here for two nights to enjoy the scenery. After being eaten alive by mosquitos and finding that there was really nothing to do or see here other than what we had already done. We checked out a day early, boarded an overnight bus and headed off to Cappadocia.

Up Next: The Surreal Landscape of Cappadocia Here is a sneak peak.

Tuesday Market at Tire

2010-10-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane

September 7, 2010
About a half an hours dolmus ride from Selçuk is a small village where the locals purchase most their needs for the week. We were told that in Tire (pronounced Tee-ray) we would find most women in traditional dress and very few tourists. We started to see this as we rode the dolmus out of town and stopped at each small settlement along the way to pick up Tuesday shoppers.

We wandered off into the congested, covered streets to find everything from clothing, fruits and vegetables, lace and dry goods to the donkey saddle maker.

Melissa found it hard to not purchase something with so many beautiful things available. But if we buy anything, we have to eliminate something else in our already stuffed backpacks. If we can't eat it, drink it or store it digitally we probably just have to look.

While some of the local shoppers rested their feet,

we stopped by the one of the many old Mosques in town for a respite from the crowds and noise.

We strolled past the men having tea and discussions outside the Mosque and wandered down little back streets with beautiful colors on our way back to the dolmus stand for our ride back to Selçuk.

We stayed a couple more days in Selçuk enjoying the town and going to the beach.

Next up: Pamukkale, a Unesco World Heritage Site with hot springs, travertine pools and the Sacred Pool at Hierapolis.

Şirince: Ottoman houses, Cobblestone streets & Wine

2010-10-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane and Melissa - a joint effort this time.

September 11, 2010
This lovely morning we headed out for a little excursion to Şirince (pronounced shi RIN jay), a small hilltown above Selcuk. We rode a packed dolmus (14 passenger van/bus) up the narrow road, switchbacking it's way up steep, dry canyons dotted with vineyards, olive groves and peach orchards.

This little village traces it's roots to about 1,000 BC when Greeks started building settlements in the area. It was inhabited by Greeks until a population exchange in 1922 when most Greeks living in Turkey were "relocated" to Greece and Turks living in Greece "relocated" to Turkey. Today it is a picturesque village with views of the valley below.

The architecture is Ottoman Greek and is protected by an historic district regulation. The houses have changed little for centuries. Many are dilapidated and cannot be remodeled without going though extensive applications.

Bring your walking shoes if you want to check out this little village, the cobblestone streets are steep and uneven - built to handle donkey carts. We especially enjoyed exploring the back streets, away from shopping and crowds. Although several little grannies did shout at us and tried to get us to go into their houses to look at their handcrafts. Since we are traveling for seven months with a backpack each, we have to stick with photos, memories, or food as souvenirs, so we passed on their kind (pushy) offers.

We didn't think about it before heading up the hill, but today was the 2nd day of Bayram, a three day celebration at the end of Ramizan (Turkish Ramidan). With perfect weather and a holiday, the town was filled with Turks on vacation. We were so thankful that we had taken a bus and did not have to find a spot to park a car off the edge of the road somewhere as so many tourists were attempting! We had a great time despite the crowd, wondering the busy little lanes.

We sat down to eat at this outdoor cafe where the gozleme (often described as a Turkish pancake or crepe) was freshly baked on a wood fire.

Melissa had a spinach one with Ayran (a yogurt drink) while Thane chose the meat and cheese with Turkish tea.

We shared a table with a family from Kusadasi. The Dad was a Principal at a K-12 private school and the Mom was an English teacher which was very helpful. We enjoyed chatting over lunch about our different cultures.

We came upon several women dressed in village dress selling freshly baked bread. This bread was on it's way to the oven.

It came in all different sizes and shapes and appeared to have been baked in whatever container they could recycle. We picked up a very hefty loaf (3-4 pounds) from this sweet lady. It was tough getting it home without eating it as the smell was amazing but we had promised to bring a loaf for our lunch at Adem and Sheryl's the next day. It turned out to BE amazing - much moister and heavier than the typical lightweight, fluffy white bread that is ubiquitous in Turkey. That's our loaf, wrapped in white paper!

Oh, must not forget the wine. Although vineyards have been tended in Turkey since 4,000 BC, Turks are not known for their wine. There is a reason folks... it's just not that good. That might be because wine consumption was prohibited for about 500 years under the Ottoman Empire. Little Şirince now has a reputation as a wine town and it certainly has plenty. Much of it is sweet, syrupy stuff made from various fruits such as peach, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, kiwi, melon, and blackcurrants. We stopped in and tasted a few and somehow got caught up in the moment and purchased a bottle. We enjoyed drinking it as an aperitif and somehow, by the time we left Selçuk several days later, that wine bottle was empty!

I didn't take this - pulled it from the web - http://www.homedecorators.com

Misc. pics from our day in Şirince.

Dried peppers and mushrooms

Motorcycle with sidecar - just the right size for local roads!

Sunflowers

Squash or melons

Next up a visit to Tire (prounounced tea ray) a little, non tourist town for a big market day.

Ephesus and our FIFTH Wonder of the Ancient World

2010-10-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

September 9, 2010
Our tour of Ephesus began early in the morning with a drive up the hill above the ruined city of Ephesus, through the pine trees to the hidden Meryemana, The House of the Virgin Mary. This is the hideaway where St. Paul brought Mary to after Jesus died. It was a really amazing place to visit and I was taken by surprise at the deep response I had to being here.

Despite the parking lot full of tour buses, I found myself alone inside this house. With the soft music playing in the background and contemplating who had lived here, I was very moved. It boggled my mind to think that I was standing in the house of the woman who, in a way, was the origin of the Christian religion. She walked here, ate here, drew her water from a spring here, and died here. The sense of peace was powerful and I had a hard time tearing myself away from here.

I found it interesting that this is also a sacred site for Muslims who honor Mary as the mother of the Prophet Jesus and believe in the virgin birth.

These candles were located just outside the house. I lit one and said a prayer for my loved ones and for peace throughout the world. Every little bit helps!

After a quiet exploration of Mary's house, we headed to the main ruins at Ephesus. Ephesus is reportedly the best preserved classical city of the Eastern Mediterranean. The oldest settlements in the area are from the 5th to 3rd millennia BC. That is 3,000 to 5,000 years BEFORE Christ. Amazing. Most of what we saw was from the period called Ephesus III built around the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. This city had about 250,000 occupants.

This marble street was a main city boulevard, lined with statues and small shops and inns - including the requisite brothel.

Another shot of the same street. I thought the crowds actually helped me to get a sense of what it may have felt like when it was a busy commercial center.

The public toilet, built in the 1st century AD, was an amazing place. It is a very large room lined with toilets seats. There is a channel running below the seats that held running water. Our guide told us that rich merchants and politicians had slaves to sit on the marble toilet seats to pre-warm them as needed. Oh, sorry Thane, looks like you are a bit busy there...

The terrace houses, located off the main street, were the homes of the elite and wealthy. These homes were amazing with their frescoed walls and mosaic floors. They were generally two story homes with hot and cold running water and central heating! Each house also had it's own well in a central courtyard, for use when the city plumbing was not working. The light in these pics is a bit off as this whole area is covered by a protective roof.

Check out the pipe at the bottom of the doorway. These houses had piping for cold water, hot water, and heated air!

stone tile floor mosaic

another stone tile floor mosaic

We walked on these glass walkways throughout the terrace houses. They were great because we could see everything through them without damaging anything - but a couple of times they were quite high up and I DIDN'T like that at all!

The Celsus Library was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world, holding about 12-15,000 scrolls.

The theater is the largest structure at Ephesus. It was constructed in the 3rd century BC and could hold 25,000 people!

Leave it to Thane to notice this pile of clay pipes. They were stacked along side the path and looked like a pile of current construction materials. We asked, just in case, and amazingly found out that these are ORIGINAL pieces of plumbing from the city.

Ancient clay plumbing stacked in front of the Odeon

Misc. pics from our day ...

Winged Nike, Goddess of Victory

Another shot of the Celsius Library

Temple of Hadrian

Small detail from a fountain

Well you made it this far and I think it's about time I get to another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We've already taken you to The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the seven wonders still standing. We've also already visited the sites of the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnasus, The Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. I shan't make you wait any longer. Here is Ancient Wonder #5 - The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Drum roll please.....

Is that all there is you ask? Why of course not silly! There is also this:

Sadly, this is about all that remains of this Ancient Wonder after earthquakes, fire, and looting by Goths.

OK - the following couple of pics may be considered X rated. If that is a problem - then please wave goodby until our next post ......

Up next was the Ephesus Museum in Selcuk. It was filled with lovely statuary, glassware and numerous artifacts. But of course, the most photographed is this little guy Priapus. He was found in a well outside the brothel. I bet you'd never guess that he is a fertility god!

This guy is Priapus' neighbor at the museum. Also a fertility god, note the large basket of fruit held up by his broken, but still erect body part.

Well, with those visions in your head, I bid you adieu until next time when we visit the little villages of Şirince and Tire.

Selcuk - Stepping into Turkey on our own

2010-10-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

Our cruise aboard the Star Clipper came to a close. We had such fun with the gang, it was hard to say goodbye - but lucky us, we had plans for a BIG trip and it was time to venture out on our own.

Instead of negotiating the Greek Ferry system and the Turkish Ferry system, we were able to book passage aboard the Star Clipper for the first two days of their next cruise. A pretty luxurious ferry to get from Athens to back to Kusadasi, Turkey!

We checked out this caravanserai in Kusadasi before hoping on a dolmuş (small local bus/van) to Selcuk.

Our first stop in Turkey was Selcuk. We chose this town in part due to the rave reviews for Jimmy's Place on TripAdvisor.com. We were a bit nervous about traveling to Turkey, few of our friends had been here, and we hadn't heard too much about the area (although our research told us that the Turkish people are amazingly hospitable and friendly). Jimmy's place has a very good reputation for helping travelers AND they speak English - a good combo for our first week. Our slow travel speed (about a week in each location) also helps to get to know local people and culture. It is so much easier to make connections when staying for seven days instead of two!

We chose to splurge a bit (easing our way into our Turkey travels) for a large room with a balcony overlooking the mosque as well as the castle up on the hill.

We soon realized that we had a front row seat for the call to prayer - the five times daily call, via loudspeaker, where the Muezzin calls the faithful to pray at the Mosque. We also found an unexpected added acoustic bonus - a daily morning drummer . This guy walks the streets VERY early in the morning, drumming away, to wake the faithful (and everyone else) so that they may eat before the daily fast begins. What fast you ask - well, our visit coincided with the last week of Ramazan (Turks call it Ramazan while most of the rest of the world calls it Ramadan) and devout Muslims fast during daylight hours during the month of Ramazan. Amazingly, we got used to this after just a couple of days and managed to sleep through it.

Wondering through Selcuk we found these Roman Viaduct ruins

- with nesting storks on top of some of the sections

and a few pedestrian only streets with small shops and restaurants (although we discovered that pedestrian only appears to include motorcycles and motorscooters so watch your step!).

So much to see in Selcuk - too much for one blog post! First up - The Basilica of St. John.

The walled perimeter of the Basilica with a Mosque in the background

I was surprised to find out that the Apostle, St. John (as in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John), was buried here. We learned that Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother, Mary. After Jesus' death, John brought Mary to this area and they lived out there lives here. We toured Ephesus another day and saw Mary's house there - another blogpost. We enjoyed walking through the beautiful ruins which are located up a small hill from town.

The views of the surrounding countryside reminded us both of Italy.

Happy Melissa

Happy Thane

Next up - Ephesus - to be posted as our internet connections allow. Sometimes they are good, sometimes not so much...

Turkish ports from the Star Clipper

2010-09-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane
When we arrived back at our ship in Alexandria, Egypt there seemed to be some delay in our sail away. After quite a few hours and much whispering among staff we heard that we would NOT be leaving Egypt today. Usually an itinerary would not be changed for anything so everyone was a bit nervous about staying in this port without knowing why. The next morning we received our "official" announcement from the ship that we were sailing without a flag and that the Egyptian port officials wouldn't let us sail until it was taken care of. The main office for Star Clipper had arranged for us to change registration from Luxemborg to Malta while we were in port for two days in Alexandria. Apparently the inspector from Malta didn't get the message in time. We were without registration and through much discussion the port officials let us stay out at anchor in Egyptian waters until it was taken care of.

Sailing again

Finally after two days awaiting the Maltese inspector and being wooed by the Star Clipper staff with an open bar and free internet access, he showed up by private jet. It was an eight hour inspection, but the authorities let us sail while he completed it. We never saw him or else I would have posted a pic of him doing whatever it is he does. We did lose three ports in the process - Limmasol, Crete; Antalya, Turkey; and Dalyon River, Turkey. Those ports were replaced with Marmoris, Turkey and Patmos, Greece. With the passengers well placated and two extra days at sea, all was well and we were back on our sailing adventure. We managed to entertain ourselves quite well.

Egyptian night

Tom

George

Alina

Jennifer

We all dressed up in our best imitation Egyptian clothes.

Tom, our fearless leader

George, our resident Egyptologist,

Beautiful Alina, and

Jennifer, looking just like Elizabeth Taylor.

Melissa and Rolando

Rupert

From our new stop in Marmoris there was a tour to Dalyon River. We didn't take it because we would be back in a few weeks with more time to spend. This was our first stop in Turkey and we were excited to find out more since we would be spending three months in this country.

The shopping bazaar in Marmaris kind of reminded me of the Galleria in Milan, except Turkey style. We were invited in for tea many times.

Walking the back streets of Marmoris we had many photo opportunities and met some beautiful Turkish ladies on the way.

Here I am doing my best Carnac impression while Melissa is busy learning HTML in her new found office.

Our next port was Bodrum where we went to the Castle of the Knights of St. John and the Underwater Museum which is actually not underwater but a collection of artifacts that were found in sunken ships.

These are wine Amphoras that stacked easily in the bottom of the ships. The next photo is the view of Bodrum from the top of the Castle.

We stopped for lunch on our way out of Bodrum.

When we arrived in Kusadasi most passengers went to Ephesus but since we would be back here the next week we rode a dolmus up to Selcuk where our first hotel was booked. Up to this point we have been on a two week cruise with friends. In just a few days, we will begin our personal adventure of 6 months touring through Turkey, Italy and Spain. We decided that we wanted to check out the town that we had chosen for our first week. We met the owner of the hotel and he showed us all the rooms and gave us a choice. We chose a room with a balcony overlooking the Mosque and the Castle for a total of $53/day.

When we arrived back at the ship we had an evening of local folk and belly dancers to entertain us, a great evening.

We finished our two week cruise with our friends by returning to Athens on the ship. We stayed on the ship with the crew while they did the changeover and filled up all the appropriate tanks. We stayed busy surfing the net and sunbathing on deck. The next group of passengers arrived and out we went for a two day sail back to Kusadasi.
Next up, our week in Selcuk.

Exploring the Pyramids

2010-09-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

Day 2 in Cairo and it is still amazingly HOT! August in Egypt, who would have thought?? We woke to this lovely view of the gardens and the pyramids at Giza from our balcony.

Breakfast in style and then out to explore.

Breakfast room at the Mena House

Our first stop is the The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khurfu), just down the road from the hotel.

Our group - Thane, me, Jennifer, George, Alina, Kathy, Nancy & Tom

This is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. I found it so hard to believe that I was standing next to, and even crawling up, this iconic structure. Every little child has seen pics of this pyramid and now I found my adult self lucky enough to be here.

Sweet Hubby and me

Cheops/Khurfu Pyramid

Khafre Pyramid

We also checked out Khufu’s Solar Boat which was found buried next to his pyramid. The thinking is that this boat was intended to convey the Pharaoh's spirit to heaven in the afterlife. Several other boats have been located around other pyramid complexes but this is the best preserved specimen of all Egyptian boats found to date. It was hard to believe that this was about 4500 years old!!

Up next was the obligatory camel ride!! For me this just meant getting up on the camel long enough to have my pic taken. Yes I am scared of being on a camel! Thane and the rest of our group of eight rode around the desert for a bit.

Just a short ride away we come upon another iconic wonder of the world - The Sphinx.

The ramp in the background of this pic was built for a recent visit of President Obama. Our guide also told us that this was built so that Obama could walk up to, and touch, the Sphinx - but that the President of Egypt himself has never touched it!

Nancy T

Next up a visit to the Saqqara complex where I found these cobras on a wall near the Step Pyramid of Djoser .

We went inside the Tomb of King Unas, down to the underground funerary chamber. Unas was Pharaoh of Egypt from 2375-2345 BC, 5th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. This particular pyramid doesn't look like much from the outside, more like a mound of stones, but inside we found three rooms which were covered in hieroglyphics. I was awestruck to be standing next to these ancient writings. Pretty amazing stuff built some 4300+ years ago by ancient Egyptians (Thanks George! - my personal Egyptologist)

Both interior photos taken from the internet

My personal wishlist included a stop at an Oasis, and, lucky me, that is exactly where we found ourselves for lunch today! I'm sorry to say that our pics didn't really do it justice, but here are pics of our lunch.

Vegetarian portion of lunch

Mixed grill - we think the small chicken like meat was actually pigeon...

As we left the little outdoor cafe, a couple of musicians were drumming away and Thane caught our lovely leader, Nancy, doing her famous Egyptian Dance. Thank you Nancy and Tom and all of the BN staff for making this trip possible. Love you guys!!

Intro to Cairo

2010-09-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

Our ship made an overnight stop in Alexandria to allow us time to visit Cairo. A small group of us booked a private tour through Ramses Tours. This was a great option as we had our own private Egyptologist with our little group of eight instead of being on a big bus of 40 people. If any of you are considering a trip to Egypt, I highly recommend Ramses. Their prices are great (much lower than the large group tour through the cruise company) and our guide, Mohamed, had a master's degree in Egyptian studies.

This was our first time in Egypt, and furthermore, our first visit to an Islamic country. We do not usually chose to go on group tours, but I am so glad that we did. The traffic was intense and the sights were as well. First impressions include the overwhelmingly drab appearance of most of the buildings in both Alexandria and Cairo.

I'm sure there are prettier sections of these cities, but what we saw from the main roads was pretty bleak.

As we traveled out of town and through the country side, we were reminded of the area around Indio or Cabezon in southern California as far as vegetation and terrain. Most of the buildings were saw appeared to be unfinished shells, just concrete block with no windows or doors. Buildings that appear to be somewhat finished frequently had an unfinished upper floor. We also saw lots of ramshackle, almost lean to style buildings that appear to have been made of scavenged materials, much like some of the poor sections of Mexico.

We also noted the majority of women wore extremely conservative clothing. We saw lots of stores like this in Alexandria and Cairo. The women in the foreground is wearing a typical hijab.

We also saw lots of little tiny lingerie stores with brightly colored and fancy undergarments. Looks like some of these ladies are wearing some pretty extravagant items under those drab exteriors.

A couple more pics of what seemed to be typical dress for women in the area.

Our first major stop in Cairo was the The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. This museum was NOT air conditioned, had several broken windows and poor lighting. Again, I'll remind you that we were in 100+ temps (mid August heat wave). The Egyptians loved to remind us that many of their original treasures are in the The British Museum. Our guide told us that a new museum is in the works, so maybe England will return some artifacts after that is completed. After touring this museum, I understand why some items have not been returned. That said, the collections here are amazing!!! Included in all that we saw were the items from King Tutankhamen.

All 4 museum pics pulled from the web

We crossed the Nile river on our way to our hotel. The water looked cool and refreshing, but I had been informed by an expert (That's you George) that the water carries dangerous parasites this time of year - so this is the closest I came.

Our visit to Egypt coincided with Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Both our guide and our driver were fasting. We enjoyed learning as much as we could about the purpose of Ramadan from these lovely, thoughtful people. I felt so bad for them though as the temp was CRAZY hot and they could not drink at all from sunrise to sunset and at the same time they were handing us bottled water and taking us to lunch.

Mohamed took us to the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, one of the world's oldest bazaars. The crowds are a bit intense as are the shop keepers, each trying to entice us into their stores. One even asked Thane "How can I take your money?" It was a bit difficult to window shop because if we stopped to look, then we had to either buy something or explain that we weren't interested in buying. I missed being able to just window shop or even walk through a store easily. The stores were generally very small, specializing in just one type of product. I would liked to have strolled around slowly and looked at more, but it was a bit too high on the intensity meter to take for very long.

Typical street in the bazaar

Another great contrast to the typical clothing of women in the area. These fabrics and costumes were beautiful!

I like this picture because it shows the minaret of a mosque towering over the market. We found that mosques were located every few blocks throughout the city and even out in the countryside every few miles - or less!

Another difference between our American culture and that in Egypt is our/their modes of transportation - which ranges from sleek, expensive import cars to donkey carts and hand pulled carts - even baskets on the head all sharing the same roadways. The motor vehicles had no regard for striping which seemed so dangerous to us, but normal to our driver. We also noted that it seemed to work very well.

Street at the edge of the bazaar

Snapped from our moving vehicle - a little blurry...

Bread baskets like this were all over, stacked on the street with flies buzzing around them.

Our tour was supposed to include a couple of the nicest Mosques in Cairo, however we found that, although usually open to visitors, they were closed to visitors due to Ramadan. Our guide told us that about 95% of the people in Cairo are devout Muslims, fasting and praying several times a day. During Ramadan the mosques are very crowded so that we were not allowed in. We took this picture from the door of the mosque at the bazaar.

One of the five pillars of Islam is Zakāt. Zakāt is a financial obligation and includes taking care of those who are less fortunate. Mohamed told us that this table is for people in need - they will be provided a meal at the end of the day, when the fast is broken. This meal is called Iftar. As we walked past, several of these people waved at us to sit down and join them.

We found a small, local restaurant where we enjoyed a typical Egyptian meal of mixed grill (lamb and pigeon cooked over a grill, brought still sizzling to our table), hummus, falafel, babaganoush and flat bread. Mohamed told us not to look when he ate, because he was sooo hungry. He drank 2 canned sodas in just seconds. After that, he didn't actually eat too much because he was full from the soda. He told us that many Muslims stay up quite late during Ramadan so that they can eat and drink (no liquor!) - he planned to eat something later, before going to bed.

Our intrepid group at dinner (low light conditions, best shot I had)

At the end of a long, hot, intense day, we headed to our home for the night, the Mena House in Giza. This hotel was a luxury splurge for us. Their website says "This palatial hotel in the shadow of the Great Pyramids in Cairo has enchanted guests since 1869. Located in forty acres of jasmine scented gardens, Mena House Oberoi has played host to kings and emperors, Heads of State and celebrities." I don't think they were exaggerating. We felt very lucky to be able to stay there. We enjoyed a quick dip in their pool and headed off to bed. Looking forward to visiting the Pyramids and Sphinx tomorrow.

We snuck into this pool after dark for a lovely swim.

Three story chandelier in our hotel

View of the Great Pyramid from our balcony

StarClipper and the Greek Islands

2010-09-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane

We left Athens aboard the Star Clipper, a four masted sailing ship on August 21st for Santorini. The ship had 143 passengers on this 14 day charter which included the Greek Islands, Alexandria Egypt and a few ports in Turkey.

The Star Clipper

view from my massage area

Pool and Deck area

Morning on deck

The first night at sea was a bit rough with the the ship rocking and rolling all night. The ship's staff had set the morning breakfast place settings in the dining room after dinner and we could hear the crashing of dishes as the ship would list. From this night on the seas were calmer much to Melissa's chagrin. She loved the rocking at night.

In Santorini we only had 6 hours to explore so as soon as we were anchored out and could get on a tender (small boat holding 40 people) we went in to the port. There are three ways of getting up to the top to town of Thira. The first was a cable car which had about a 45 minute wait. The second was riding a donkey up to the top. The third was hiking up the 588 steps which is what we chose. Extremely hot and fragrant (donkeys ya know) but the views were amazing and the little town cute although touristy.

Looking back down on the donkey trail we had climbed

Church at the top


View of town

View from the cable car on the way down

The next Island we went to was Rhodes where we hiked up to the clock tower for a view of the city. Lots of great photo ops in this walled city which was home to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.


Entrance to the walled city

View from the clock tower

We also stopped at Patmos and Paros, two very small islands with quintessential blue and white buildings and small restaurants overlooking the water.


Patmos


Patmos

Patmos

Paros

The Journey Begins - Athens

2010-09-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa
After getting together with friends and family to say our goodbyes, we headed out for our big adventure. We plan to be traveling in Europe for 6 months. We began our journey with three days in Athens.

Lucky us, we managed to arrive for a (not so) lovely HOT spell. Temps were around 100 with high humidity. A bit too much for a couple who are now acclimated to summers in the Pacific Northwest. None the less, we enjoyed the many amazing sights in Athens.

We stayed in a small hotel in The Plaka neighborhood with a spectacular view of The Acropolis.

This was the view from our balcony.

We enjoyed walking through the small, traffic free streets of The Plaka.

Lots of fun window shopping!

The gold here is 18 carat and so pretty!

We hiked up the Acropolis to the Odium of Herodes Atticus, built in 161AD. It seats 6,000 people.

and, of course, the Parthenon. It was just so amazing seeing this structure in person after seeing so many photos of it.

From the top of the Acropolis we could see 360 degrees over the city of Athens. The city has notoriously bad air, however the days we were there were not bad.

Next up on our agenda was strolling through the ancient Agora. We found this11th-century Byzantine Church of the Apostles. It was quite small and had some nice frescoes.

This is the Temple of Hephaestus, completed 415 BC. Some people claim it was used as a model for the Parthenon, built just a few years later. What's nice about this building is that it still pretty much intact, including the roof. It helped us to picture what the Parthenon would have looked like if it had not been severely damaged by an expolosion in 1687.

We checked out the changing of the guards at the Parliament building. These guys stand almost perfectly still for four hour shifts. How they can do that in this heat is beyond me. The new guys who are starting their shifts look so fresh with crisp uniforms while the ones leaving have completely sweated through their uniforms.

Two years of military service is mandatory in Greece for men. The guards here are the Evzones, considered the best of the best. They must be over six feet tall and be able to stand motionless for long periods of time. It is considered an honor to be chosen.

This 11th century church, The Agia Ekaterini, (St. Catherine's) was just across the sidewalk from our hotel.

This skull is a relic from Saint that is on display - we could even touch it!

Our first meal in Athens - A seafood risotto, a tasty beef dish with a wonderful tomato/herb sauce, and fried anchovies. Neither of us had ever had fresh anchovies. It was interesting. We found that we liked them, although I don't really like eating the bones.

We spent several hours touring the National Archaeological Museum. Their collections were amazing!!

16th Century BC gold death mask

Mycenae Funeral Diadem

Amazing piece of gold jewelry

We also saw the original frescoes from ancient Akrotiri, Santorini. We where going to be visiting Santorini and were excited to be able to see these frescoes before heading to the island.

Before leaving Athens for our cruise, we met several friends for a roof top dinner. Good friends, good food, and good wine - it doesn't get much better than that. Oh yeah, it also had an acropolis view - very sweet evening.

Hiking & Vaudeville

2008-07-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane
I just wanted to keep up the Bellingham connection and we definitely prefer goofing off in this beautiful weather rather than unpacking boxes! This weekend we went to Whatcom Falls Park.
It was one of the first places we visited in Bellingham when we came up here 2 years ago. One of the reasons we fell in love with this area was the wonderful trail system that they have right in the city. Whatcom Falls Park is just one of many and is a 241 acre park right in the middle of the city with over 8 miles of trails within the park. This bridge was part of the WPA project in the 1930's. There is a bench to sit and view the falls. A beautiful forest in the middle of the city. The trails lead throughout the park to many of the neighborhoods in town.
After the hike we went to Boulevard Park on the Bay to see the Aqua-Chautauqua Vaudeville show. There was a flyer at our local library, it was free, and just a short walk away so we couldn't resist. We found out later that this group was in Grass Valley in February and this tour was dedicated to Utah Phillips! It was an amazing show with lots of stuff for the kids to do and great entertainment for the adults.

Great music with a 15 piece band. Juggling, acrobatics and comedy for all. Great people watching in the crowd.
Well, wish you all were here. We should have our place fixed up for guests fairly soon and we love company. Also we would LOVE to hear from anyone on our blog list. Tell us how you're doing and whats new.

Landing in Bellingham

2008-07-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

View from our new front room.

Posted by Thane
On our way from Glacier we stopped in Spokane to see some of the old places that Dave, my Stepdad lived when he was a kid. He would talk about his childhood but as a child I never got to go there. It is a beautiful city of about 200,000 people. The neighborhoods seem great with plenty of parks and a nice sized downtown. I called my Aunt Jean to find a couple of addresses of where Dave used to live as a kid. This first house was where he lived when he was in grade school, what a mansion! The next house was when he entered Junior High. It was on a tree lined street with a large parkway down the center of the street. I think I could live here! On leaving Spokane I changed my mind though. Heading south toward Oregon it got pretty dry and desert like. I need moisture. We traveled on to Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge and then the backroads by Mt. Hood. Beautiful orchards in this area, just in time to bring some fresh fruits and berries to Stef and Paul (Melissa's sister and brother-in-law) in Corvallis. We mostly rested in Corvallis thanks to Stef and Paul. Thanks you for the wonderful stay, with gourmet meals, and a fluffy bed with beautiful views of your garden. These pictures are from the year before because I was so rested I forgot to pull the camera out here! It has grown exponentially since these pictures were taken. We also visited Melissa's Mom and showed her some photos on the computer. She's not too computer savvy and following a blog wasn't in the cards. We finally were able to get in to our Bellingham house on the 3rd of July just in time for fireworks out on the Bay. We lived with no furniture for about a week until this badboy came.They're having fun up the steps. Looks like we have some weeding to do! They had to back the truck up for 4 blocks to get out of here! Kat, Melissa's daughter, had plans to move in to the downstairs apartment but it looks like it needs a bit of remodeling before that will happen. Luckily we have a back bedroom and bath upstairs that she can use till the apartment is finished sometime in August. She already has a special ed teaching position in Mt Vernon about 25 minutes away which start around Labor Day.

From the house we have been walking almost every night. It is 10 minutes down to Boulevard Park on the water and then you can travel the interurban trail along the water either south to Fairhaven or North to Downtown Bellingham. Both are about 15 minutes either way from the Park. Most nights a sax player plays here at sunset. It gets dark about 10 or so now but we usually stay out later getting a gelato or a beer at Archer's Ale House, the local pub. Here you can nurse one of their many fine beers and play cards or darts or have some pub food. It reminds me of Cheers. Everybody say a big HI to Alicia, the best waitress in town! We went over to Whidbey Island where Penn cove Mussels are raised. Even Kat , who always hated them, now loves mussels. These really are the best! Here is a shot of Mt Baker from the Island. After unpacking boxes for several days, we needed a day off so we all piled into the car and headed out for a drive. We ended up on Lummi Island with more great views. Must have been laundry day on on Lummi!

From the house we can see the Olympics, Mt Contstitution on Orcas Island, the Canadian Cascades, and Whistler - also in Canada.
We went down to the wharf to get fresh Halibut. Melissa had this cooked up and served less than an hour after I bought it at the wharf.Our neighborhood is called South Hill - it is the green hill in the background on the right - this shot was taken from the dock where I bought the halibut. This great local produce and flower market called Joes is all organic. They don't even use organic pesticides so I guess you could call it all natural.. We've been cleaning up the garden with the help of Green Man gardening. He has been hauling off truckfuls to the Greenwaste at the community garden. Here is a picture of the front of the house. It was built in 1907. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, a dining room, sunroom and living room upstairs with about 1600 sq feet. It has a basement downstairs in the back half and a studio apartment in the front half with about 500 square feet. It is on a little over 2 lots with the house on one lot and the garden on the rest (to the right in this pic). Spring in the garden - with all the blooms from last year. We haven't managed to escape those nasty deers - they walk right through our yard. We had 3 big bucks in the yard the other day. These little guys are next door under our neighbors porch! A shot of the kitchen. And the bath. More pics to come as we fix Kat's apartment and unload the rest of our boxes. Meanwhile we will be looking out at this and thinking of ya'll.

Big Decisions .... GV or north to Glacier National Park??

2008-07-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa
Sorry it has been so long since we last posted. Internet access has been a bit of a problem. The following entry is actually from the end of June.
Well, the time finally arrived when we needed to make a really tough decision. As most of you know, we left Carlo, our sweet cat, in Grass Valley while we were on this trip. Carlo enjoyed time staying with our friends, Marsha and Steve, for a few weeks and then moved back to our old house where the new owners, Kerry and Dave, welcomed him back. We have been missing Carlo very much - especially at night when he usually slept at our feet. But - we also knew that he had become very comfortable with Kerry and Dave and that he had really bonded with their young son.

They were really hoping that they could adopt him. We decided that since he was so happy back in his old house and especially with his new buddy and because a 2 day road trip may be very stressful for a cat that howled the entire time whenever he was in a car, that we would leave Carlo there. (We are still missing you very much Carlo!!!)

We then realized that we could decide whether to return to Grass Valley to pick up a few things we had stored with John & Tracy and visit with friends or to just head north to Bellingham. Also if we headed north, we would have time to see Glacier National Park before arriving in B'ham at about the first of July. The smoke and heat (we heard that California had 1500 or so fires and horrible heat as well) sealed the deal! We headed north!!

Much of Montana is wide open spaces - Big Sky Country is an well deserved moniker. The horizon was flat for much of the drive so that when we began to see mountains off in the distance we were excited! We stopped for lunch in the little town of Wolf Creek (the name reminded of us home), but it was sooo small we couldn't find an open cafe. We stopped in the Post Office -about the only open place - and asked about something to eat - she recommended that we drive another 40 miles or so to the next town and stop at the Buckhorn Bar. We had been really hungry for a steak lately and thought this might be a good lead so we headed back out on the road.

It was a little scruffy on the outside - but in we went. The inside was about the same - but with the added bonus of smokers!*@#%! Have we mentioned lately that we miss some things about California! Oh well, we settled in and ordered - 10 oz top sirloin for both of us. It turned out to be one of the best steaks ever. It came with the standard baked potato and a HUGE salad with house made dressing - all for $10. WOW sorry no pics of lunch - it was all gone by the time we thought of it. But if you are ever near Augusta, Montana- try it out!
After that it was off to Glacier National Park. We began taking pictures well before we were in the park - this was the road to the park. Another view from the road outside the park.
It was absolutely beautiful, quite different from the Sierras that we are used to. We spent two nights here and can't wait to go back. I'll let the pics do the talking...

The park was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. - an engineering marvel that crosses the park . We were here around June 30th and the road was still not cleared over the pass - it had about 10 feet of snow left and required surveyors to lead the snow equipment safely through. Thane thought about returning to work for about 10 seconds - but instead he bought a hat with the Going to the Sun logo on it!! We drove up as far as we could - to Jackson Glacier Overlook. From here we could see one of the few glaciers remaining in the park.In 1850 there were 150 glaciers in the park, today there are 26. They are all expected to be gone by 2030. Get there fast if you want to see any!!

We were also able to see where the Hudson Bay Divide meets the Continental Divide at Triple Divide Peak from this road. This peak is the dividing point for three major drainage systems in the US - the Hudson Bay, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico (it is the sharp peak just right of the center of this picture). We didn't hike it so we will have to take their word about the 360 degree view - maybe next time.

We toured the Many Glacier Hotel with a park ranger. He told great stories about the hotel and the park. The hotel is closed for the winter and sometimes in the spring when they come to reopen the hotel they find great snow drifts inside. This old black and white photo was in the hallway of the hotel (those are about 10' ceilings).
Well, it didn't look like that when we were there.
This old hotel was built in 1914 by the Great Northern Railroad as part of an overall plan to get people to ride the railroad. It prospered right away and through the 20's but was nearly closed down in the 1930's during the depression. One story was that the hotel employees fought valiantly to save the hotel from a forest fire and when it was all over and they notified the owners - the owners replied with "why didn't you let it burn?" Lucky for us they didn't.

Here is the view of Swiftcurrent Lake from the hotel balcony. Yep, this view and a glass of wine and I am set for the evening! Trivia Question: Did you know that the movie scene in The Shining where Jack and Wendy Torrance are driving through the mountains on their way to the Overlook Hotel was filmed in the park? Now you do!

We stayed at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and Cabins with a great view of the mountains.
Thane found this van parked outside of our hotel on our first night.And we found this sign the next day on a trail (sorry about cutting off the left side of the sign!)We were really hoping to see a grizzly on this trip (from a distance and while in our car! ) but alas we did not.

This ... ...and this was about as exciting as the wildlife got in the park for us.
We found this little wayside cafe just outside the park. I'll tell you right away that they poured about the best margarita of the trip. Seconds?? - No way - I was hoping to be able to walk again before lunch was over. I think the bartender was pouring for heartier mountain types than me! It sure made up for some really lousy margaritas we found elsewhere on this trip. Did I mention that I am really loving margaritas these days? ahhh - retirement!!!

This place was so cute with murals and artwork all over the place. I loved this map of the US.

and these cute bathroom doors.

Overall we absolutely loved Glacier Park and hope to return there soon for a longer stay.

Next up: Spokane family roots and visiting family in Oregon before arriving in Bellingham.

Cody & Yellowstone

2008-06-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane
We ended up getting in to Cody, Montana kind of late, but just in time to sit down at a great club to hear a female singer/guitar player. A relaxing time hearing covers of Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt etc. We shared a table with a cowboy who worked summers at a dude ranch with his son who gave us a tip as to where to get the best steak in town. Down to the "Prime cut" we went and indulged ourselves in the first steak of the trip, a flatiron,rare that was perfection.
We also went in to Sunlight Sports, a great outdoor store, how they got that snowcat in there I don't know. It was on the second floor!
Going in to Yellowstone from the East we came upon a Moose and it's calf and a couple of Buffalo right on the side of the road. Also a sign warning of Grizzly Bears, something we don't encounter in California when we are out hiking! Further in to the park we saw many geysers and waterfalls of all colors and types and colors. I see some paintings in here. And here. And here. Then off to the Old faithful Inn to grab a beer, play some cribbage on the deck and wait for Old Faithful to blow (check out our little video below).

Next up-Glacier National Park.

South Dakota Badlands & Mt. Rushmore

2008-06-28T19:59:00.001-07:00

Posted by Melissa
Heading across South Dakota towards the Badlands, we couldn't resist driving through Mitchell to get a picture of The Corn Palace (thinking of you Kat!).
We continued a bit down the road and began getting hungry. We pulled off the highway looking for a small cafe and a gas station. We kept coming up empty handed as the towns we found looked like this...Yes, this is the main downtown section of this small burg and there is not a single car on the road. I will point out that this was a Sunday, so maybe on a weekday these places are open - but we really thought there would at least be a small cafe where we could eat lunch. We managed to find about 3 of these kinds of towns in a row before we actually found something open. Seems like there are a lot of little towns that are barely hanging on.

We made our way to the Badlands National Park and settled into our little cabin at the Cedar Pass Lodge. It reminded us a bit of our old home with a knotty pine interior. The temp was just right and the wind was blowing mightily through the open window. It was nice to not use a/c for a change. We are getting a bit tired of hotel rooms with wall a/c units blowing right on the bed. We were treated to a fierce lightning and thunder storm in the night (I've always loved thunder and lightning) but woke up to blue skies.

The little guy on the right was just outside our door...the prairie dog (on the left) was a little further out.

The badlands kind of sneak up on you - after driving across the flat, grassy prairie, they start with just a few little peaks and then quickly open up to views like this.

We were hoping to see large herds of buffalo, but found they were a little too far away to get good pics - maybe we'll have better luck in Yellowstone.

We headed from the Badlands through the South Dakota Black Hills to Keystone, SD. This town has an amazing array of tourist shops selling candy, t-shirts, and other souvenirs -a bit overwhelming. There is a mini shoot-out on the street to try to entice you into their wild west show. This has to be one of the tackiest tourist towns I've seen - but in a beautiful setting with the forested black hills serving as a backdrop to the little shops.
After visiting Mount Rushmore - pic at top - we headed out a scenic drive in the Black Hills. This little road has great open views of the mountains, lots of scenic pullouts, amazing "pigtail" bridges
that were designed to be used in tight areas instead of switchback roads. Of course, Thane was interested in the design and engineering aspect of these (you can click the pic if you want to read it). There were even 3 tunnels on the road (this one is a double tunnel) and Mt Rushmore is perfectly framed in one of the tunnels. We drove through miles of forest that had been recently cleared with the trimmed/downed trees neatly stacked. It really opened up the views and I'm sure will prevent the kinds of fires that are currently burning all over Northern California. We both wondered though how they came up with the funds to do such a big job.

Up Next: Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone

Chicago

2008-06-26T07:38:00.001-07:00

Posted by Thane
Arriving in Chicago even at 7 pm the traffic was less than desirable, but it was just in time for a Chicago style deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's. We decided to stay out by the airport and take the train in to town, a much better choice (thank you Ruth) than staying downtown.

The El Train was great, just like I remembered it in the movies , going past old, brick apartment buildings with a variety of people on board. The day we went the White Sox and Cubs were playing each other, so there were lots of fans were on board. Like a sign said on the train said: "The Red Line," the only thing Cubs and White Sox fans have in common!

We got off at the Miracle Mile (great architecture and high end shopping), walked past the Old Chicago Water Tower, the Wrigley building and then spent some time at Millenium Park where we had to get a Chicago Style dog. Go girl!

I tried to get a picture of our reflection in the "Bean"

and checked out the fountain, a cool respite in downtown on a hot day. This fountain flashes pictures of different faces and the eyes move and/or twinkle. Kinda cool.

I knew that Chicago was on Lake Michigan but didn't realize it as such a harbor town!

After the Chicago fire I'm sure these fire escapes were mandatory.

Would you climb down these?

or these?

We went to the Field Museum a natural history museum to check out the dinosaurs, ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

There have been several mass extinctions in earth's history. We are currently going through another one. This sign tells us why - click on it to make it larger so you can read it.

Makes ya think!

another sobering fact....

I always wanted to see the Chicago Art Institute.We were able to see Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, a favorite painting of mine.and Georges Seurat's Sunday at the Grande Jatte, a favorite of Melissa's. It is so cool to see the originals after seeing them reproduced in art books. Melissa was excited to find an exhibit of paperweights and we were both amazed at the extensive collection of beautiful art. It would take two days to really see everything in this museum and in the Field Museum.

We loved Chicago and will surely be back. From here we had planned to go to Iowa to see where Melissa's Mom was raised but with all the flooding we decided to re-route our trip more northerly. We went through rural Minnesota staying at this B & B in Jackson that used to be a boarding house for railroad workers. We walked down to the fairgrounds on a Saturday night to find stock car races - check out the video below. People came from far and wide for these races as well as for the famous (per the locals) homemade caramel corn, as did we.

Up next: the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills

Lucy & Chautauqua

2008-06-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa
We headed from Niagara Falls to Chicago via the scenic Chautauqua area of New York - thanks in part to my son Spencer who called us after reading a travel article on this area. Jamestown,NY is Lucille Ball's hometown. We stopped by the Lucy-Desi Museum and really enjoyed seeing all the photos, costumes, and memorabilia. We watched some of the old TV clips and really enjoyed her character's silly antics.

I am continually impressed with the age and character of the towns we have seen on the east coast. Even the alleys are interesting - this is in downtown Jamestown where both the sreets and alleys are paved with brick.We drove around the lake stopping for lunch in Bemus Point. We stumbled upon the Hotel Lenhart, a quintessential east coast resort overlooking the lake. This hotel has been owned and operated by the same family since 1881. Is this old school or what??The prices are not too bad considering that they include both a full breakfast and full dinner. The prices are less on the second and third floors because there is no elevator.I think I could manage to while away a few days here!As we continued our drive around the lake we found that there is a sizable Amish community here as well. Our drive through the Pennysilvania Dutch area was on a Sunday so the Amish were not working, but instead were out and about visiting. This time it was a work day and we saw a farmer working the fields..and several Amish men building a barn.Hey Spence - This is your kind of country - check out what we found at a country gas station.....
Yep - that is a bait dispenser machine!

Up next: Chicago

Niagara Falls

2008-06-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

This is on the way to Niagara falls. If I could only paint clouds like these!

Posted by Thane
We stayed on the American side because we forgot to renew our passports before we left! Oh well, we got to see the Canadian side anyway by taking the Maid of the Mist boat tour under the falls. Here is a picture of the boat heading toward the falls. Boy did we get wet and the falls were loud. I'll let the pictures tell the story.Here's a video from the wettest part.

This was our only night in New York so we had to find an original New York pizza. We found Aldo Evangelista who has been in business for 47 years here in Niagara falls. Great pizza and he kept us amused the the whole time with his tales.

Up next - We're heading off to Chicago by way of Jamestown NY on Lake Chautauqua.

Pennsylvania Amish Counry

2008-06-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Posted by Thane

What a great change to head to the rural parts of Pennsylvania from DC. We traveled through this peaceful, bucolic setting on a Sunday when all the Amish were out in their buggies visiting. It also meant that almost nothing was open, even the gas stations were closed! We finally found an open restaurant called Plain and Fancy that served "family style" Amish food that was delicious. Fried chicken, roast beef, chicken pot pie, sausage, chow chow, mashed potatoes, greenbeans, corn and wet bottom shoo-fly pie for dessert. I guess if you do a lot of manual labor out on the farm you could eat like this more often! We learned quite a bit about the Amish culture but the sign that hit me the most was this one:

Want to become Amish? Here is some words of advice from the Small Farm Journal written by an Amishman. "We realize that not everyone is cut out to be one of the plain people. Many have not the opportunity; but here is the challenge: If you admire our faith, strengthen yours. If you admire our sense of commitment-deepen yours. If you admire our sense of community spirit, build your own. If you admire the simple life, cut back. If you admire deep character and enduring values, live them yourself.

The Amish farms were usually white and immaculately kept. They had no power lines going to them, although recently the dairy farms have added power to the barn only to meet government requirements for refrigeration.The Old Order Amish do not drive cars, although they will ride in them for necessary trips (doctor, work etc.). Some of the more modern Amish will drive cars, but the car will usually be black and plain. Some will use bicycles, but many will only use scooters because the bicycle is too fast.Here is a scene from one of the small towns we went through.
Next: Up to Niagara Falls

Washington, DC

2008-06-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Posted by Melissa

DC is filled with huge memorials, immense government buildings, wonderful museums as well as residential neighborhoods which varied from near ghetto to fabulous gated estates.

We visited most of the usual sights - The Lincoln Memorial (The Gettysburg address is one of the two speeches engraved on the inside wall of the Lincoln Memorial. I am brought to tears every time I read it. This was the bloodiest battle ever fought in our country - On July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, more men actually fought and more men died than in any other battle before or since on North American soil. Over 172,000 men fought. An estimated 569 tons of ammunition was expended. There were over 51,000 casualties. The wreckage of war also included 5000 dead horses left on the battlefield. I can't imagine the scene with that many dead men and animals. Sobering...)

The White House - at nightWe also found homeless people every where we looked - this scene was within 2 blocks of the white house.Shame on you Bush!! Maybe you could spend more money at home and less sending troups to Iraq!!!!

The Mall -(Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool) also at night -

We visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at night also. I felt a sense of getting deeper and deeper into the war as I walked down to the center of this memorial which is recessed into the ground and then as I walked back up/out, the sense that the end is approaching - up until the very last name on the memorial when it ended.

The Jefferson Memorial -

The National Cathedral -
This is the main, central interior of the National Cathedral:

This was one of the smaller, secondary alters in the National Cathedral.
Another absolutely beautiful church in DC is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This church is filled with tile mosaics featuring gorgeous colors. It also has HUGE pipe organs - yes organs - not just one but I saw at least two! Our pictures did not turn out all that well since we could not use flash - but if you go to the website and click on Virtual tour you can see probably hundreds of mosaics - check out our favorite Saint!
We also visited the Holocaust Museum (no pics allowed). This is a DON'T MISS museum. We spent several hours here and we were absolutely drained by the end. It would take 4 trips through to actually see it all. Everyone and their children should see this. One fact that I took home from here is just how much can be done when people care.

One of the exhibits compared Jewish survival rates in different countries. The difference was amazing. In Denmark, Jewish people were considered part of the fabric of society prior to the war. During the war, the Danes refused to follow orders and turn over and/or arrest Jewish citizens. Instead they hid them, took their children into their homes and disguised them as their own, and helped them escape the country. Only 1 in 10 Danish Jews perished compared to 8-9 of 10 in some countries. Some more interesting facts and personal testimony are here.

Note - we are actually in Minnesota right now. We typically run about a week behind on posting our blog entries. - DC was hot and smoky from the fire in North Carolina. We are thrilled to be out of the hot weather and smoky air! It actually cooled down about a 4-5 days ago, when we were in Niagara falls. We have had cooler temps and rain since leaving DC and we are LOVING it!

Up next: Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) country and Niagara Falls

Monticello

2008-06-19T06:49:00.001-07:00

Posted by Melissa
Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration of Independence (you know - "all men are created equal" and have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness") which established the foundations of self government and individual freedom in America also owned slaves - up to 150 slaves lived on his 5000 acre plantation. It is hard to reconcile this paradox....

Jefferson grew up on this land and as a child this hilltop was his favorite spot. When he inherited it he immediately began building on the hill. He started with a smaller, classical building. After spending years in Paris, he returned and began remodeling the house to incorporate ancient Roman features. All in all, he spend 40 years designing, constructing, and remodeling Monticello, his "essay in architecture".

He was also very interested in gardening and designed beautiful gardens with included both vegetables and ornamental plants. Some of his gardens have been recreated based on his meticulous record keeping.Mulberry Row was home to workers and craftsmen (both free and enslaved) that worked on the plantation. Homes and workshop buildings like a blacksmith and nail shop (NOT manicures!!), smokehouse, and a carpenters shop were located here. The slaves were housed with entire families in SMALL 20 x 12 houses. They worked from sunup to sundown. They tended their own personal gardens after dark. Jefferson's records show that he purchased some vegetables and chickens from his slaves. I thought that was very interesting - if he owns them how can they sell him things? What we found out is that this practice was common among some plantation owners because it improved moral slightly. The thinking was that happier slaves may need less supervision and may be less likely to run away. Hmm, I'm thinking decent pay may have accomplished the same thing...

I love these tree alleys that we have seen all over the south. If I ever live in the country again, I want one of these - minus the slave quarters!!

Jefferson was a very complex man with many interests and Monticello had many innovative features. If you are interested the website has LOTS of information. Just click here.

Up next: Washington DC