THE CURTAIN FALLS

Our final day of touring proved nicely balanced between sightseeing in the morning and leisure time in the afternoon followed by a congenial Farewell Dinner  this evening.  Tomorrow morning we all go our separate ways: some homeward bound to the United States; others, headed off to Greece or Spain.

To begin the day, we were bused to see the Cathedral of Saint John, the burial place and pilgrimage site honoring the apostle who composed the Gospel According to John here in Turkey during the first century of the Christian Era.  We found the ruins of the cathedral impressive indeed.  The structure was the second largest ever constructed in the area, bested only by the Temple of Artemis (destroyed long ago and never rebuilt).  Most interesting story of the day: at the time of John's (natural) death, Christ  appeared in a dazzling cloud into which the disciple disappeared; when Justinian and his mother Theodora later opened John's burial vault, they found no bones whatsoever -- and John is the only one of the twelve disciples over whose bones there are not multiple historical claims of ownership.

As we walked around the hilltop cathedral ruins, we watched a stork circle overhead.  Elvan told us that seeing a stork meant the viewer was sure to travel a lot in the future.  We all agreed to the accuracy of the prediction!  More interestingly, we discovered the stork's nest atop the Isa Bey mosque minaret just down he hill.  That turned out, as well, to be our next travel destination.

We found the venerable mosque the epitome of simplicity and quiet, housed in a beautiful stone structure -- at the front steps of which the retired imam had set up a very well stocked little store.  We proved ideal patrons!

Our final stop of the morning was the village of Sirance ("Cutie") , the name of which had been changed in the 1920s from the Turkish equivalent of "Ugly", the name earlier preferred by the freed Greek slaves who had founded the town centuries ago, hoping to put off unwanted visitors with their original choice.  The village now houses lots of charming little artisan shops and wine tasting rooms and boutique  hotels  drawing busloads of annual visitors.  "Cute" is was -- and a real shopper 's paradise.

The rest of the day, Lee and Heidi relaxed in our Charisma Deluxe Hotel room with its splendid views of the Aegean and the Port of Kusadasi.  We ventured out across the street for a delicious light lunch at Antepli and later in the afternoon for a swim in the hotel pool.  Dressing for dinner was about our most strenuous activity!

And so we bid adieu to the splendors of Tantalizing Turkey (although you can expect to find some final evaluative thoughts here shortly).  It has been a GREAT travel experience.  And so it goes ...

Tomorrow we're up and on the road to the airport by 5:00 AM, so now's the time to hit the sack prior to the long, long travel day that lies ahead of us.  Farewell.

EPHESUS, AT LAST!

Because the weather remained much too windy for our gulet to motor to the port of Marmaris as scheduled, we disembarked further south instead and spent a total of seven hours (instead of five) in our minibus enroute to Kusadasi and our scheduled visit to Ephesus.  The thought of making our visit immediately upon reaching Ephesus (rather than the morning after our arrival ) seemed more and more daunting, even as we drove through some pretty spectacular scenery approaching our destination.

Elvan, as usual, however, knew exactly what she was doing: our mid- to late-afternoon two hour tour avoided the cruise crowds (back aboard by five) and, due to an overcast sky, was cooler and more pleasant weather-wise to boot. 

To say the site is wonderfully spectacular is a vast understatement.  Imagine: we stood in the very same amphitheater in which Paul preached to the Ephesians centuries ago.  We wandered among temple columns and over marble slab streets to visit remnants of Roman era baths and brothels and libraries and agora shops and hillside tenements.  We saw age-old frescos and mosaics, statues and pediments. 

Even though Lee's camera battery died, and Heidi's iPhone gave up the ghost before we left to go on to our hotel, we still managed to capture something of the wonder of this spectacular UNESCO World HEritage Site.  Enjoy the results!

CATCHING UP, IV: OUT ON THE ROAD, AGAIN

[The four "Catching Up" posts were composed during our four days "at sea" -- and far away from any Internet connection.  They were added to the blog on Monday, May 19, 2014, after our arrival at our hotel in Kusadasi, near Ephesus.]

The "tour bug" hit us again today, after our day of rest.  Elvan arranged for a minibus to pick us up and drive the group to visit the Dalwan river and environs.  Once we arrived, we transferred to a river boat and cruised out to the Mediterranean to a protected turtle nesting site.  The egg laying season doesn't begin until early in June; however, we sighted a terrapin nonetheless -- and snacked on freshly caught blue crab, the turtles' favorite food.

A walking tour of Caunus, a nicely situated ancient port city (now kilometers from the coast), followed.  Although its location exposed the population to the scourge of malaria, the layout of the public building ruins still extant (a theater, agora, church and walled fort) made the picturesque setting quite enticing -- especially when we discovered the gift store carried a stock of Double Chocolate Magnum ice cream bars!

Back aboard ship by mid-afternoon, we ate our way through the remainder of the day: lunch at three, tea at four and dinner around eight.  Our cook comes from the area in southern Turkey especially known for its cuisine.  As a result, he really knows his way around his galley, so squeezing in three meals in such short order was hardly the ordeal it might have been, especially since it included "cheese cigars" (not the proper Turkish appellation) handmade by some of the female members of our group.

Several folks also made their inaugural swim off the boat, one way to burn off a few of those excess calories accumulated as of late!

CATCHING UP, III: AT REST IN PARADISE

[The four "Catching Up" posts were composed during our four days "at sea" -- and far away from any Internet connection.  They were added to the blog on Monday, May 19, 2014, after our arrival at our hotel in Kusadasi, near Ephesus.]

A pleasant day at leisure in paradise: while two thirds of the group went off on a hike, the remaining four of us spent the morning wandering along the rocky shore, exploring Cleopatra's Bath (a wedding gift, along with the whole of the Turquoise Coast, from Mark Anthony back in the day), and lazing around on our gulet.

Although the weather continues bright, sunny and cool, the wind has kept ship movement essentially confined to coves and waterways sheltered from the Mediterranean.  Our captain motors around from cove to cove, but we haven't really traveled far at all from our port of origin.  Not that it really matters; the scenery looks good from wherever we are, and moving from anchorage to anchorage -- even if only a short distance away -- seems to change everything.

And so, once the entire group reassembled, we simply continued to laze away the day, swimming, reading, napping, snacking on ice cream brought ship-side by an enterprising vendor: a nice "vacation" from our vacation ...

CATCHING UP, II: A DAY ON THE MEDITERRANEAN

[The four "Catching Up" posts were composed during our four days "at sea" -- and far away from any Internet connection.  They were added to the blog on Monday, May 19, 2014, after our arrival at our hotel in Kusadasi, near Ephesus.]

When our tour group boarded our gulet, the Sadri Usta, all confessed to harboring fantasies of being asked aboard a yacht in some harbor somewhere for "drinks and dinner" by some particularly hospitable boat owner.  Now, suddenly, we found ourselves experiencing a closely related version of that, even if only as part of a package tour.

And what a glorious experience it has been!  The boat is beautiful -- all varnished and polished wood -- and surprisingly spacious, housing its twelve passengers and three crew quite comfortably.  The scenic surroundings are unsurpassable: the coast full of scattered islands, quiet coves and rocky cliffs plunging precipitously into the blue, blue, blue Mediterranean.

During our first day on board, we trekked off to visit Kayakoy, a village deserted by its longtime Greek inhabitants in 1923 as part of a massive population relocation program initiated under the Lausanne Treaty.  The terms of the treaty required the Muslim Turks in Greece move to Turkey and the Christian Greek population in Turkey relocate to Greece, forcing close to two million people to up and move away from the place they had known for generations to their (essentially religious) "homeland".

The entire hillside community of some four hundred stone houses now has only fourteen occupied dwellings.  All that's left in most cases are the gray stone walls, steps, and streets of a once prosperous and well-established town.  After nine centuries of peaceful coexistence with their Muslim neighbors, tending grape arbors on the mountainsides surrounding a beautiful valley (where Turkish families grew various grain crops), now suddenly everything had changed for the local Greek Christians.  While many left house keys with Turkish neighbors, hoping one day to return, none of them has since they were expelled all those decades ago.

The area is now a UNESCO World Heritage Friendship and Peace site, part of an effort to keep alive memories of what is known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe.  Our visit -- and learning about he town's place in world political, religious and cultural history -- proved quite worthwhile, both sobering and informative.

Afterwards, while half the group hiked to the top of a nearby mountain, six of us relaxed instead at Muzzy's, in the shade near the swimming pool under an impossibly clear blue sky, ruminating on our experience -- and enjoying our chocolate milkshakes and Coca Colas.  Such is life on tour ...

The remainder of the day we cruised from one cove to another, had the chance to swim off the boat in mid-afternoon, ate three delicious meals (produced by our cook in an impossibly small galley kitchen) and generally just sat back, reading, resting, writing, conversing with our fellow travelers and enjoying the passing scenery.  Such is life on tour ...

Interestingly, while the shoreline and surrounding islands seem essentially deserted, the sea is alive with pleasure boats, enjoying the tranquility and the beauty everywhere surrounding us.  The Turquoise Coast is indeed a boater's paradise, one not to be missed if ever the opportunity to visit arises!

CATCHING UP, I: WELCOME ABOARD!

[The four "Catching Up" posts were composed during our four days "at sea" -- and far away from any Internet connection.  They were added to the blog on Monday, May 19, 2014, after our arrival at our hotel in Kusadasi, near Ephesus.]

Antalya proved one of those world cities we both would love to return to visit, taking more time to explore and appriciate.  Two nights just are not enough.  But leave we had to, fortunately on to an even better destination.

Another long day in the bus, but one that took us along an incredibly beautiful coastal route between Antalya and the port where we boarded our gulet for our forthcoming four night Turquoise Coast cruise.

Along the way we stopped off in Myra to see an outdoor theater and an adjacent ancient set of stone tombs set into a rocky mountainside.

  

Further along we visit the ruins of the cathedral associated with Saint Nicholas.  Evidently this church (in which the saint was initially interred) is a popular pilgrimage spot for Russian Orthodox Christians, a number of whom we observed placing the palm of a hand reverently on the stone tomb originally holding his remains.  There are lovely wall and ceiling frescos and stone floor mosaics visible throughout the building as well:

Our arrival at the port lightened everyone's mood as we settled into our small cabins, gathered on deck for dinner and watched the full moon appear over the peak of a harbor-side mountain.  Ahead lie several lazy days broken up by shore excursions and hikes - if the weather holds, that is.  Storms are in the forecast, but one never knows around here.  Wish us luck and better than expected weather.

ANTALYA: NOW AND THEN

Early this morning we walked around the Old Castle area of Antalya which is filled with charming restored Ottoman residences, lots of walled courtyards and a shopper's paradise of smart, hip shops.  Many of the narrow, winding streets lead  down to the harbor from which one can sail out into the Mediterranean.  In the morning quiet, the area's charm was palpable and hard to resist.

However, we had other places to go and other sights to see.  Our first visit took us north of the city to a national park and to the ruins of Termessos, a mountainside walled city built by a group of people known as Pisidians and the only city to successfully defend itself against Alexander the Great's military forces.  Our intrepid group of climbers soon discovered why: Termessos  is WAY up there in the Taurus Mountains, WAY, WAY up there!

The scramble to the upper city walls and beyond, however, was well worth the effort.  We were able to discern, among the heaps of fallen stone blocks, the Agora (market place), the Gymnasium (school) and -- most impressively -- the Amphitheater with it incredible view of the mountain peak across the valley.

Lunch nearby the park was followed by a late afternoon visit to the ruins of Perge, a Greek and Roman port city that once linked a branch of the overland Silk Road to the ships trafficking the Mediterranean.  The size of the baths, the agora and the city's Main Street, the latter two lined with shop after shop, was startling evidence of the city's importance as a commercial center.  The ongoing archeological work of discovery and  restoration should take many more decades of dedicated effort to achieve!

Our final adventure of the day took six women in the group (including Heidi) and Lee off to experience a Turkish Bath.  All emerged scrubbed, massaged and well oiled, looking ten years younger with skin as smooth as --well, you can imagine!

After all, when in Turkey, do as the Turks do!

FROM CAPPADOCIA TO ANATOLIA IN TWO LONG DAYS

We made it!  Our late afternoon arrival ended a two day drive across a significantly varied landscape, east to west, bringing us across flat, essentially treeless, plains green with new wheat and barley crops growing in abundance through mountains dotted with pine forests and placid lakes to the shore of the Mediterranean here in Anatolia.

Along the way we visited two significant mosque museums associated with Sufy Islamic patriarchs; visited with a prominent Muslim cleric at his mosque with its unique and original 13th century wooden ceiling; slept overnight in a small, five hundred household, farming village with a large extended family hosting us; observed apples being sorted; lunched by a lovely mountain lake and visited a museum filled with 2nd and 3rd century Roman sculpture unearthed in Perge.

Unfortunately, the accompanying images have yet to be sorted out.  Here's just one to whet your appetite  ...

RUGS FOR SALE !

Our visit to a carpet cooperative where patterns and types of rugs from through-out the country are tied, woven, embroidered and preserved was something akin to a participatory, feet-on museum experience as these images illustrate.  Too bad the purchase prices (including international shipping) ranged from $700.00 (8.5 x 11 inches) to $72,000.00 !

We enjoyed our first overland hike in the afternoon through the eroded stone mountains of Red Valley.  Right now, however, those images are stuck on Heidi's iPhone ...

Technology did manage to put us in FACETIME contact for Mother's Day greetings from both Evan in Chicago and Jonathan in Morocco;  Alissa left her message on FACEBOOK.  Imagine that!

A DAY IN THE LIFE IN THIRTY-SIX IMAGES

A Visit to the Gulip Pottery Workshop

A Short Stop at an Aluvev Islamic Museum

Lunch with a Turkish Family in the Village of Idiche

A Cave Home Visit near Goreme

A Whirling Dervish Ceremony at a Caravanserie (Silk Road Caravan Stop)

A BIT OF CAPPADOCIA

Our early morning flight to Kayseri (an industrial city of one million located in central Turkey) incorporated what seemed to be a second thought about landing the plane at the airport.  We ended up quickly gaining altitude instead, circling around and trying again -- this time successfully.

Our bus met the plane at the airport, and off we drove into Cappadocia ("Land of Wonderful Horses").  We'll be here in the area, staying at the beautiful Uchisar Kaya Hotel, for the next three nights.  During the course of our first day, we stopped at three different spots.  The first provided a general overview of the unusual geological formations that predominate hereabouts.

Once a sea, volcanic lava and ash displaced the water.  As the various layers eroded, "fairy chimneys" emerged and from several thousand years ago people began hollowing out dwellings, stables and store houses from the easily-carved, quite soft rock.  The resulting inhabited landscape is quite spectacular.

After lunch at a restaurant carved right out of the rock, we toured Gerome Open Air Museum, a World Heritage Site preserving an ancient monastery dotted with monk's cells, kitchens, storerooms and numerous chapels.  The earliest art we saw involved painting directly on the cave walls, principally using a red pigment and various Christian symbols.  Later plaster coated the walls and frescos appeared.  We ducked in to view chapel after chapel, marveling at the artistic skills of the eleventh century monks.

Our final stop took us into an "underground city" which could house up to 30,000 for an extended period whenever an emergency arose or attacking forces threatened.  We literally descended deep into the rocky labyrinth, sometimes bent nearly double to squeeze through narrow tunnels into larger rooms beyond.  We must have gone down at least four to six levels underground!

The crowds have been fewer here than in Istanbul.  The variety of cultures represented, however, is remarkable: German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Egyptian, Turkish ...  Most of the time, only by overhearing a conversation, however, is one able to distinguish one ethnicity or culture from another - quite fascinating!
                                                                                                                                                    

TOO MUCH TO TELL, TOO LITTLE TIME!

Lee and Heidi will need to wake up, ready to fly off to Kayseri  at 4:00 AM, Istanbul time, tomorrow.  This evening's post, consequently, consists mainly of several collages illustrating today's adventures and little else.  We have a long flight ahead of us, though, so look for an editted version in the near future ...

We began the day with an early morning visit to the nearby Sultanahmet Mosque, completed in 1616.  The extensive use of Iznik tile throughout the interior has earned the mosque the nickname "the Blue Mosque".  Many consider the building the most beautiful mosque in all of Turkey, if not the world.

Later the two of us lunched at a charming Art Nouveau cafe in the heart of the fashionable Iskikal district, after visiting Taksin Square and strolling the boulevard, carefully dodging its vintage streetcars and taking in all its rich European architectural heritage.

The afternoon passed pleasantly enough as we sailed the Bosporus, admiring how the global "one percent" lives along the shore. 

More tomorrow.  Now, to bed!

LA VIE EST BELLE

Julia Roberts got it right!  Life is beautiful, indeed!

This morning, following an general tour orientation, our newly assembled group of ten (two others were off on an independent excursion) under the expert and informative leadership of our guide, Elvan Birisik-Albayrak, set off on our first full day of activities with (for us) a return visit to Topkopi Palace.  We were happy to return, since it gave us the opportunity to visit parts of the place we had missed on our earlier visit, particularly the sultan's prized clock collection and the recently-installed (and excellent) display of weapons and armor.  Lee took advantage by snapping some additional pictures of the elaborately-decorated interior of the Divan, the hall in which the administrators met when discussing state policies and the bureaucratic apparatus maintained its document library.

After a quick lunch at the Pudding Club (!), we then walked over to Haja Sophia, one of the highlights of any visit to Istanbul.  For a thousand years, the building served as a Christian cathedral; for another thousand years, as an Islamic mosque. Since  1924, however, it has been recast as a secular museum.  Currently undergoing some significant interior renovation and renewal, Aya Sophia (as its known in Turkey) is still very impressive.  The surviving mosaics, dating back centuries, were particularly interesting; both Heidi and Lee, nonetheless, noted the distinct absence of any kind of spirituality associated with this supposed "sacred space" -- it seemed somehow hollowed out and empty of meaning, however architecturally significant, indeed more museum than either church or mosque.

A quick visit to an ancient underground cistern came next on our walking tour.  The bases of two pillar in the HUGE underground chamber were stone deity Medusa heads installed upside down or sidewise!

We then boarded our tour bus for the first time for the Spice Market where we were guests at a "spice tasting" led by a charming young entrepreneur who, having completed a degree in marketing in the United States, was clearly intent on leading her family-run business (she's the fifth generation owner) well into the future.  Among her employees was a young man who had studied at Ohio State University in Columbus and who had even visited Cleveland ("A real comeback city" in his opinion).

Our final stop of the day took us through the Grand Bazaar, a huge area filled with some 4000 shops.  We two didn't visit them all, opting instead for an early supper and a easy return walk to our hotel.

After all, we still have days and days ahead of us sure to be as interesting and informative (and exhausting) as this one has been ...

             

But, as Julia says, "Life is beautiful!",  and we aren't complaining!

Dinner this evening was a relaxing affair in a small restaurant attached to a hostel.  A boistrous crowd of Dutch college students were finishing up when we were seated; once they left, quiet descended. much to our waiter's relief.  Later, as we ate, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong's signature song, "What a Wonderful World", wafted into the room, setting the perfect mood by reflecting just what we ourselves were thinking at that very moment -- a reaction made even more satisfying when our waiter brought us some complementary hot apple tea "to make up for our earlier being inconvenienced by all the noise".

We had two items on our agenda today, both museum visits.  First up, a trek out to see the Byzantine era mosiacs at the Church of Saint Savior in Chora.  The mosaics (and associated frescos) date from the eleventh century.  They depict significant events in the lives of Mary and Jesus in exquisite and quite lifelike detail.  The audio guide commentary helped us figure out what to look for in each image and what Biblical text was being illustrated.  Best of all, because the mosaics are all overhead, high up on the walls and ceiling, it mattered not at all that there were throngs of other viewers sharing the same rather narrow space below and listening to the chatter of their respective guides.

The area around the Chora church features a number of the traditional wooden homes common in earlier eras of Istanbul's historic domestic architecture, many of which have been charmingly restored, largely due to the efforts of a local restauranter devoted to the preservation of the past, both in terms of architecture and cuisine.  Having spent years accumulating recipes from all over the country, he opened his own restaurant, Asitane, in 1991.  We had lunch at his place, then photographed some of the restored structures nearby.

Our next goal was to take in exhibits at the Archeological Museum.  To get there, we required the use of a taxi.  Our driver offered to take us for a flat fee, one not requiring the use of a meter.  Since we had come to Chora by taxi, we had a sense that the thirty lire cost was in line with expectations.  We hopped in and moved along quickly through the narrow city streets over to a boulevard along the Golden Horn.  Then traffic crawled to a halt.  Not to worry: our taxi took off "overland" - back and forth across the Golden Horn, uphill and down, in and out of impossibly narrow streets and alleys, often crowded with pedestrians, vans, trucks and parked cars.  No matter.  We zipped along and made good time to within a thousand yards or so of our destination.  

Lee recognized where we were, so we abandoned ship, with much gratitude and an extra tip for our  talented, experienced and knowledgeable driver, and made our way on foot to our next objective.  The museum exhibits (including some fantastic sarcophagi and beautiful tile work), however,  seemed quite pale in comparison to the wild ride we took to get (nearly) there!

What a wonderful world!

STILL NOT ALL ALONE

Heidi and Lee spent a fascinating five hours on our first full day in Istanbul roaming through the Topkapi Palace, home to Ottoman Sultans since 1478.  First chore, however, was obtaining the needed entrance tickets.  That took an hour, again due to the crowds who have all gotten the word that Istanbul is THE city to visit in 2014.

Nonetheless, once inside the palace complex, we found lots to occupy our senses, particularly our eyes.  So much intricate detail to observe!  So many colorful tiles to see!  So many diverse structures to wander through!  According to the brouchure accompanying our audio guides, the harem alone had 300 rooms, nine Turkish baths, two mosques and even a hospital within its private precincts.

Here is a set of collages illustrating aspect of the palace architecture, the exquisite tile work found everywhere, several of the decorated domes overhead, and a few of the more fanciful windows and doors encountered on our visit.

Other highlights: great food all day long, including a hearty beakfast at Turkish Kitchen near the Topkapi, a pleasant lunchtime chat with a Dutch couple from Leiden, and a ferry boat ride across to Kayakoy on the Asian side of the city for dinner,