Marko

A short drive from Kusadasi to Priene. The climb to the city is quite steep but the view from the top and the surrounding mountain is quite stunning. The ancients knew good real estate !! The Theatre is quite small but in pretty good condition. You can get a really good feel of the layout of priene from the top row of the theatre, a very ordered and formal city plan. The really stunning part of the place is the Temple, only a few columns standing but the vista out over the Meander Valley was great, we sat on some fallen columns looking out over the valley eating some fantastic oranges we bought from a wheel barrow at the entrance ! You can see where the english word meander got its origins ! Back in the truck for the drive to Didyma, another quite stunning temple, this one in honour of Apollo. We took our time as our driver ( no guide for today, just me !) had a relative to visit and have coffee with....Murat the driver, lovely bloke and an excellent driver.. We had the temple of Apollo to ourselves !!! The kids climbed fallen columns and hunted down turtles and generally let off steam, lisa and wandered around and took the obligatory photos and sat on the steps and soaked up the sun. I have a blown up copy of my photo of the "medusa"s" head on the wall here in front of me now ! We had lunch at a fish restaurant with a view over the Temple, probably the best fish we have had so far, grilled sole ! I do have a bit of trouble with cats being allowed to roam inside a restaurant but...when in Rome !
The drive onto Bodrum was interesting from the point of view of seeing the Turkish version of coastal strip development, there are lots of quite lovely little spots that seem to be being uglified by unrestrained and managed small scale development.

Marko

Bodrum ,checked into the Marina Vista hotel which is modern style place, despite being on the busy harbour street it was very quiet. The rooms all suround a large central pool area. We walked around the marina area to get the kinks out of the legs, this is the busiest place we have been to since Istanbul. Lisa and the kids had an early dinner as I had arranged months ago to attend a meeting of the local Rotary club. A very interesting experience, the meeting in Turkish (of course), except for the bits referring to their esteemed visitor from Australia . I sat with a couple of members who spoke english and one of them had very good friends in Australia, one of which it turned out I knew......small world syndrome !! I was told that I was lucky, dinner that night featured some treasured national dishes. First course was "animal intestine soup", which was as far as I could tell a form of Tripe soup .... mmmm still not sure about it. Main course was a White bean and tomato sauce stew...better! and desert was profiteroles smothered in the darkest ,richest chocolate sauce I have ever tasted. At the meeting I met the Chief Archeologist of the Bodrum museum who has invited us for a private tour tomorrow.

Grasshopper

What a wonderful report, Marko. Thank you! How interesting going to the Rotary meeting must have been. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Marko

We met the fellow from Rotary this morning at 10am and we got a very much behind the scenes tour of the displays. We were able to enter all of the displays and see up close some of the treasure trove of material that has come from the ocean floor. He actually had done a lot of the diving for the original shipwreck finds and knew the details intimately ! The castle itself is a great place to wander around in, excellent views of the harbour on both sides. After the history and culture we got down and irty with some shopping ! There are some decent quality fakes at better than Grand Bazaar prices here. I knew I had to do it now so I went out and bought another el cheapo suitcase to start carrying the excess luggage around in ! Two of the kids had Macca's for lunch and the rest of us found a little restaurant on the beach, food was so so ( grilled lamb chops) but the wine was studendous, a Kalecik Karasi 2000 by Kavaklidere (KKK unfortunate alliteration ) A full flavoured red wine best so far in Turkey. More shopping and then we went looking for an internet cafe, easy to find but we were informed that the whole internet system for Turkey was down that day !!!!

Marko

We decided to walk along the waterfront tonight until we saw something we liked on a menu. First stop was a Tapas bar, Cafe La Jolla, sat outside as the sun set and nibbled on lots of different bits and pieces and drank the house red a very nice drop from near Edirne (can't remember brand). The owner of the La Jolla was the spitting image of Anthony LaPaglia and a very friendly fellow too ! We then did another lap of the harbour and watched the last of the suns light disappear from near the Castle. The walk back featured a stop for Pizza and more red wine, let me check.... yep still in Turkey . Early start Tomorrow as the Greek government has cancelled the PM hydrofoil from Marmaris to Rhodes so we have to catch the Am one !! Note for all, the passport guys at Marmaris harbour are particularly grumpy !! and so finishes the Turkish part of the journey other than the last day and a half before we fly out of Istanbul, Greece next.

sinan

Hi Marko,

Haven't you seen MILETUS? if you didn't you missed alot.

Sinan Akdeniz

Marko

always compromises in travelling away from home, Miletus is next time !
and Antalya.