BsKnee on the Abra

Last night, we went to the most fabulous restaurant: Pai Thai in the Madinat complex. There is something magic about catching a quiet abra through well lit canals to a classy restaurant. We just loved the whole experience! The meal itself was also top rate – one of the nicest we’ve had on the whole trip. Thanks again for the recommendation Delanie! The evening closed out with an abra back to the Madinat and a quiet wander through the Madinat souk.

Inside the Mosque at Abu Dhabi

For our last day, we chose to take a trip (with a private car and driver) to Abu Dhabi.  We drove past the Yas Marina Circuit (where they have the V8s and Formula 1) and a weird circle shaped building in Al Raha. First stop was at the Al Nahyan Mosque (the real name is longer – but we don’t want to bore people). The mosque is apparently the second largest in the world – and is brand new. It is all white with gold on the spires – and looks spectacular from a distance. Up close it is quite dazzling. Inside, there are three main domes – with very large colourful chandelier type lights hanging from each of the domes. There is a floral theme throughout the place – repeated on all the columns, the carpets, and the walls.

Sharron and Karla

Once we had finished our quick tour, we met an old friend of Karla’s – Sharron – and she took us to the Shangrila Souk for lunch. We caught up with our driver again and looked through The Emirates Palace Hotel – another massive structure that exudes opulence. A quick tour through the cultural village and a drive home and we were done for the day.

Tonight we’ll have a quiet one, and prepare for the long journey home.

Our top 10 highlights from the tour are:

1. Best hotel: Sheraton Antalya in Turkey. Great food, good rooms, balconies, great location. All in all, the best package out of the many hotels we stayed in.
2. Best driver/guide: Ibrahim in Jordan. You just can’t beat the personal touch.
3. Best Roman Theatre: Aspendos in Turkey.
4. Best Roman Ruins: a tie between Jerash in Jordan and Ephesus in Turkey. The amphitheatre, church with mosaics, oval meeting place and roman roads etc are the highlights of Jerash. Ephesus has the library and the outstanding roman road. We couldn’t split the two.
5. Best meal: Friday brunch at the Dusit in Dubai. All you can eat and drink in 4 hours – and the food was outstanding. We’ve had some close seconds – notably dinner last night at Pai Thai.
6. Best flight – undoubtedly flying business class on the A380.
7. Worst hotel: Spa Hotel Collossae Thermal (aka the prison or Stalag 5). Nothing was good about this place and we’d like to see it removed from the tour for future visitors.
8. Best souvenir: the glass plates we got from the mosque in Amman.
9. Best scenic drive: tough one this – but the drive through Wadi Al Mujib takes the cake.
10. Best museum: the archaeological museum in Antalya.

Unexpected incidents include: seeing a half hour old baby goat on the side of the road in Jordan, coming across a poisonous snake at Aphrodisias, the snow in the morning in Cappadoccia, and the great pub experience in Bursa.

We hope everyone has enjoyed reading the blog as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. Ciao for now!

A serious sleep in was the order for the morning. Apart from a swim for Neil and Sandra, there was no action until 11am today.

BsKnee and Delanie at lunch

BsKnee then took a whistlestop visit to the Gold Souk, and met Delanie for lunch at the Basta Art Cafe. We’ve discovered that the world is even smaller – so a big hi to Damien, Tracey and Alexa!!!

Off to the Dubai mall for last minute presents (thanks again Delanie!!!) and we struggled to find a shirt for Macca. Hope this one is OK… it’s all we could find.

Maccas Shirt

Tonight we’re off to a Thai restaurant at the Madinat (one of our favourite places) – then tomorrow to Abu Dhabi for a day trip. That will be the end of the BsKnee Travel Company for now.

We’ll close the blog with our top 10 (or 20 depending on how much discussion we have) tomorrow.

Thanks for everyone who posted comments, and those shy people that didn’t. We’ve enjoyed the effort it’s taken us to post almost every day – and we hope you guys have enjoyed our adventures too!

After a strategy meeting with two of our fellow tour members, our plan for the last day in Istanbul was hatched. In order to make the best use of our remaining time (which was only really a half day), we picked the two sites that we wanted to see: Dolmabaçhe Palace and the cistern.

Neil Karla Glenn Hazel and Denise

We were warned that you need to early to start the palace tour – and we definitely were. We caught up another couple of fellow tour group members (Hazel and Glenn) and along with BsKnee and Denise, we had a good group of six for the tour of the palace. The palace itself was built in 1856 – and is absolutely huge. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside – so we’ve included a photo with the six of us (minus Sandra who took the photo) waiting outside the palace to get our tickets.

The tour took us through the ceremonial entrance, various ornate halls (just how many did they really need???), the bedroom where Ataturk died, the harem, and culminated with a stop at the Great Hall. The hall is 2000 square meters, and 36 meters high – so it is a very impressive place. Everything is ornate, gold everywhere, frescoes on the walls etc. AND it has an enormous chandelier weighing 4.5 tonnes. Spectacular!

Neil Denise Karla and Kathy at the Cistern

From the palace, we met up with Kathy (minus Glenn and Hazel) and went to the Basilica Cistern via tram. The cistern is a complex of arches and a subterreanean cavern where water was stored in the 6^th century from 19km away. An impressive engineering feat for the time.

A tram trip and a walk, saw us arrive back at the hotel with 7 minutes to spare – talk about well organised. A trip to the airport and a flight to Dubai was all that was left of today.

Turkey is a very interesting place with a lot of history, very friendly people, and vast distances to cover to see the sights. We saw a lot in the time we had – and met some fantastic people.

Denise – hope your stopover in Dubai was as pleasant as possible – we look forward to being in touch!

Blue Mosque

We encountered more highlights to finish the tour of Turkey today. First up was the Sultenahmet (otherwise known as the Blue Mosque). Built from 1609 to 1616, it represents the first time a mosque was ever built in a rectangular shape – and using architectural concepts not previously considered. The mosque has very elaborate tiles which our guide estimates are worth about $50k each – and there are 20,000 of them! Mind if we borrow a couple???

The mosque is near a park that used to be the hippodrome (where they had chariot races many years ago). Now it has four key monuments, notably an obelisk from Egypt that was erected in 390AD, an old bronze serpent statue and a couple of others.

Hagia Sophia was simply magnificent! This church/mosque (now a museum) was built in the 6^th century (and is still standing) after some riots in the hippodrome caused the previous place to burn down (for the second time!).

Inside Hagia Sophia Museum

There are some original foundations for the older churches in front of the museum – and then we went inside. The architecture, the sheer size, mosaics, decorations, winding ramps – they all just take your breath away. This will definitely rate in our top sites of Turkey (still to come).

Next, the Topkapi palace was on the agenda. This is the original palace of the sultans – an absolutely huge area, surrounded by gardens that once led down to the sea. There are three courtyards – you reach the third by going through the first two. There we saw some stunning relics (including an 86 carat diamond set amongst other fabulous diamonds in a teardrop setting – just magnificent); and some gold candle sticks that must have been 5 feet tall and were encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones. Unfortunately, they weren’t for sale. For the first time in our trip, we were surrounded by masses of people – it wasn’t that great. Guess we’ve been spoiled so far. We would hate to see this place in the high season…

Last stop for the day was at the Grand Bazaar.

Shoes at the Bazaar

What a great place – a maze of shops and restaurants, where you get to try out your bargaining skills. We had a lot of fun here. The photo of the embroidered boots is specially for Vicki!

Tonight is our last night, and we are heading out to a farewell dinner with most of our tour group. Tomorrow morning, we’ll get to squeeze in a bit more sightseeing before heading to the airport back to Dubai. May not get a blog done tomorrow – but as usual we’ll make up for it the next day.

The extremely early start today was totally worth it – as we managed to beat all the crowds to Gallipoli and had time to look at the memorials without being pressured.

BsKnee at the ANZAC Memorial

The ferry crossing from Canakkale across the Dardenelles to the peninsular (where the Gallipoli landings took place) started the day. A short bus trip to ANZAC cove, with the various memorials being pointed out on the way was quite moving. Our guide gave a detailed description of the movement of all the troops – the British, Turkish and ANZACs, which helped paint the picture for us. We had a chance to wander around the beachfront cemetery where about 22 New Zealanders are buried. We moved on to the ANZAC memorial – where the first service of the ANZAC day takes place. Interestingly, it isn’t ANZAC cove – which none of us had appreciated before now. They are setting up great grandstands for the commemoration in a month’s time – so that kind of marred the photo opportunities. Both us Kiwis and the Aussies asked where the people slept overnight for the ANZAC ceremonies and our guide told us they slept in front of the grandstands. Funny that – we had views of a large area – and it is actually quite small.

BsKnee at the NZ Memorial

We stopped at the real ANZAC cove for some photos and then moved on to the ridges defining the extent of the penetration made by the ANZAC troops. Along these ridges are the memorials for the Australians, Turkish and New Zealand troops. We stopped at all three memorials and paid our respects. Hard to believe that the battle here was almost one hundred years ago.

Relief at the Turkish Memorial

Particularly moving for us was the New Zealand memorial at Chunuk Bair. Rashid took us along the Turkish trenches – and we had a view towards Suvla Bay. He told us the stories about the troop movements, commenting on the ‘what ifs’ always presenting things from a neutral perspective. At one stage, he made us all visualise the troops coming up the hills – and made it very real. As we are the only Kiwis in our tour group, Rashid asked us if we would like to see the name of Colonel Malone (the NZ commander from Stratford who took the Kiwis to capture Chunuk Bair) on the memorial wall. We agreed – and he took us to the wall, where we also saw the name of Neil’s great uncle, E J Earley. Fantastic for us.

Neil’s thoughts are: While the objectives as explained appeared logical, the arrogance and the poor planning and communication by the leadership of the Allied forces, is hard to comprehend. When you look at the topography of the land and the small area that they fought over, I felt angry that so many lives were lost. I felt for the common troops on both sides and some of the command who could not or were not given the chance to have a say in some of the ridiculous orders to attack.

Sandra’s thoughts are: As a Kiwi no trip to Turkey would be complete without a visit to Gallipolli.  Something I have wanted to do for a long time. Was particularly moved, particularly when we arrived at Anzac Cove and thought about the events that took place in that area. Another special moment was when we found Neil’s great uncle’s name on the plaque at the NZ Memorial at Chunuk Bair. We were privileged to be able to leave a poppy there and also at the Turkish Memorial and At Lone Pine (Australian Memorial).

Karla’s thoughts are: I was always aware of the senseless loss of life that our ANZAC day represents. But, having it described in such detail (by Rashid), and seeing it in person has made a real difference to me. I think I’m glad I was here ahead of the crowds and able to think about what the events of nearly 100 years ago means, without the hype and the sheer volume of tourist that must invade this place. Definitely one of the top sites for me in Turkey.

A hazy morning this morning prevented us from seeing the great views of the hills and the sea around Izmir.

Theatre at Pergamon

A short drive took us to Pergamon, an ancient settlement fortified by Greeks and Romans high on the hills of modern day Bergama. The drive up was scenic but a bit dodgy – the locals are going to ruin that experience by building a modern cable car that will ferry passengers to the top – instead of allowing buses to drive up. Makes some sense – but the tour company indicated that they aren’t pleased about it – and will probably amend the itinerary to include some other sites that are “just as good”.

The site has been very tastefully restored – one of the main attractions – Trajan’s temple has had a corner restored – so you can appreciate the size of the structure. The sub-structure for the temple was impressive too – we were able to walk underneath it and view the amazing arches that were built (and are still standing) to support the massive temple. The amphitheatre was the next stop. It is an unusual shape – most of the Roman theatres are semi-circular, this one is a lot short of that. It is also incredibly steep – so those with bad knees and a fear of heights were warned not to walk down it! There are the remains of several other temples at the site, notably the Temple of Dionysus at the bottom of the theatre. Most of the original ruins (the valuable parts anyway) are now in Berlin.

Asceplion was next on the tour, which was a notable health spa come hospital of sorts in its day.

A pretty good lunch followed by a long drive, led us to Troy – where we scrambled to climb the horse as fast as possible. If you look closely, you can see Neil and Karla in the top story of the horse.

Neil and Karla inside the Trojan Horse

A quick whip around the site that shows the ruins of 9 different civilisations dating from 3000 BC – all built on top of each other.

South Gate at Troy VI

We would have liked a little more time to comprehend and take in what we were seeing – but the tour must go on (that – and it was very windy and a bit unpleasant). A quick stop to view the Gallipolli peninsular ended our touring for the day.

An extremely early start will greet us tomorrow – as we aim to get to ANZAC cove, then back to Istanbul in reasonable time.

 The main site for the day was Ephesus! Finally! We packed up (this one night stay thing is getting a little tiring) and headed towards the ancient city.

 First stop was the Odeon (a small theatre), which has been restored quite tastefully – but is still restored. We’re now starting to compare the individual places in each site against each other – and we think the Odeon at Aphridisias is better. However, if you look at the sheer size of Ephesus, and then you get told that only 10% has been uncovered – you realise what a marvellous city it must have been!

Roman Street

The most awesome thing about Ephesus was the Roman street leading towards the library. The paved street – which was once lined with shops and columns presents the most spectacular picture of what an ancient Roman city must have been like. The library too is stunning. It is a two story building – certainly the most impressive building at Ephesus. We stopped at the old public toilets on the way (old Roman ones that is) that are also well preserved, and then headed to the amphitheatre (only able to climb half the steps – as it is still being restored from a Sting concert 20 years ago that caused the foundations to destabilise).

Earley Statues

The walk along Harbour Street (Arcadiana) followed the footsteps of Anthony and Cleopatra (and countless others) thousands of years ago. Quite surreal!!!

 A leather demonstration (and purchasing of course) was next on the agenda. We watched a fashion show, they showed us the different quality leather and then led us into the purchasing rooms. Our tour group made a reasonable investment!

 After lunch (another forgettable one) we went to Mary’s house (the Virgin Mary), a historic site now turned into a religious pilgrimage site. Next was the museum housing original Ephesus artefacts (not a patch on the Antalya museum).

 The last stop for the day was at the site of the temple of Artemis – one of the sites of the ancient seven wonders of the world. There isn’t a lot to see here – but if you use your imagination…..

BsKnee with Elaine

Tonight we’re in Izmir – thankfully at a decent hotel. We wandered along the waterfront – what a bustling place this is!!! We watched the sunset with one our tour group, Elaine, over a pleasant drink. What a nice way to end the day.

Tomorrow is an early start, visiting Pergamom and Tory.

By the way – Turkish bath will probably be in Istanbul – so all those concerned can now rest easy.

We escaped from Stalag 5 (cell block 5 – which our other tour buddies referred to as a prison) this morning, couldn’t be soon enough. The hotel was a disgrace – and they are rated 5 stars. What a joke!!!

We were on our way soon enough, and our only stop of the day was at Aphrodisias. This place is remarkable because the ruins are reasonably intact. There has also been significant efforts undertaken in reconstructing the ruins – making it more meaningful for us tourists.

Tetrapylon

Our guide Rashid, took us through the main parts of the sight, always promising a new surprise around every corner – and they way he showed us through the site – he delivered. Firstly, we went to the Tetrapylon – a monumental gate into the city. It was then a short walk to the athletics stadium – which is one of the largest and best preserved buildings in the ancient city.

Stadium

It could house about 30,000 spectators, and in an elliptical shape was quite stunning. Then we walked through to the Aphrodite temple (one of the places to see here) then on to the Odeon. Our procession to the temple was halted by a snake – which we later found out to be poisonous! No walking through the long grass again! These are all amazing sites – and we hope some of the photos do it justice!

Past Hadrian’s baths, and on through to the main theatre was also spectacular. We got some great photos of this too.

Theatre

Then last stop before the museum was the Sebasteion – which has been reconstructed, brick for brick. It really is spectacular – as we hope the photos will show.

After a long-ish bus ride, we made our hotel in Kusadasi, which was such a relief after the terrible hotel last night. It is right on the Aegean sea – just s short walk from the restaurants and bars in the main area of town. Definitely deserves it’s 5 stars this one!!!

What a day – we left the sanity of Antalya for a long bus ride heading up to the north of Turkey. We saw some beautiful sights, and ended the day …

After a couple of food stops (gee – we hope the tour leader is getting good commission) the major stop for the day was Pamukkale. Here there are amazing white terraces and an ancient Roman city.

The Amphitheatre

Karla remembers pictures of sister Lynne bathing in the white Terraces many years ago when she was here. Well, we were in for a big surprise. First of all, the water is only partially flowing over the Terraces – as they need the rest for irrigation. Such a small part – and us as Kiwis were thinking of the pink and white terraces in NZ – it was really disappointing. Apparently the terraces part only flows water in small bits – and is deteriorating the terraces themselves. If you want to see this – get here soon – because it isn’t going to last. Even our tour guide took photos of the damage that has been made to the Terraces from a walkway that was built recently. All the mud flows through from the walkway to the terraces – spoiling the white terraces.

Heiropolis is the old roman town above the terraces, and it was built on solid rock – with little dirt. The excavations here apparently need to use jackhammers – which of course ruins artefacts. Nevertheless, Neil and Karla climbed to the top of the main theatre of the town – and the walk was worth it.

Terraces with no water...

There were only 3 people from our tour group that made it to the theatre (including us). We also insisted on going to the Suburban Theatre – despite our tour guide insisting that we were wasting our time. What we saw was a theatre in complete ruins which contrasted to the main theatre which had been restored (in a limited way). Nice to see stuff that hasn’t been touched. The view from here is awesome – and it was worth the walk.

We walked among the necropolis – essentially a graveyard with about 7000 tombs – awesome stuff. When we arrived at our hotel nearby, we walked off the bus with bottles of water and got told “nein” (guessing German for “no” – they think all white people are german here). We told the tour guide and he went ballistic with the hotel staff. Apparently, they don’t want us to bring water in, and insist that we pay hotel prices for bottles of water (some smuggling then ensued). We completely disagree (as does the tour lead) with this approach – and it put us off from the hotel for a start. Add the pokey rooms and the feeling of Stalag 19, and we took a hike as quickly as we could. There was no way this hotel was getting one brass razoo from us!

Neil and Karla met up with another tour traveller, Elaine, and headed down a dodgy track (going goodness knows where). Thankfully our efforts paid off, and we found a little township and a pub (of sorts) where we had a couple of beers. The locals were amusing, and we were glad to be free of the ‘prison’.

Beer in the local town

The latest start of the tour so far was well appreciated. The food at our hotel in Antalya is great – the best of the tour so far. So, with a full stomach and rested bodies we headed off to explore Antalya.

Kesik Minare

Initially we grabbed a ride with the tour group – most of who were going on a cruise to see a waterfall. We opted out – choosing instead to see all we could in the old town and some museums at our own pace. After ditching our travelling companions at the Roman harbour, we first came across the Broken Minaret Mosque (Kesik Minare) which was built as a Roman temple, then converted to a church, then to a mosque. Now it’s just a very picturesque ruin (requiring plenty of photos). Next stop was Sun and Inan Kirac Kaleici museum, which is housed in an old Ottoman building. They had displays showing old pictures of the area, and life size rooms depicting both the male and female aspects of a traditional wedding ceremony. It was well done. There was also an old church that had been completely restored that housed a couple of further exhibitions.

We made our way towards Hadrian’s gate, and saw stairs. On asking the guy next to the stairs if we could climb and how much, he asked us where we came from. We said NZ – and he said that it was free for us! It was actually free for everyone, but he enjoyed the joke (we laughed too once we realised we had been had).

BsKnee washing down lunch

On the tourist map, the old stone tower looked like it was next. However, it was just a stone tower – nothing really to see or climb. After a wander through the local mall, we stopped for a bite for lunch – finally local food that tastes good – and Rashid was nowhere in sight. We might just give him some advice next time we see him…

We just had to catch the local tram – it wasn’t far, but was part of the experience of being in Antalya – and boy we were pleased we did later. We’d been given advice (thanks Di and Bruce) to go to the Antalya Museum. What an experience. We saw some of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen in this place!!! All the statues from Perge (which we visited yesterday) were on display, as well as sarcophagi (also from Perge) – they were simply outstanding!!! This has Karla’s vote for one of the most awesome things she’s ever seen.

Sarcophogus

The museum also had the most spectacular coin collection, pre-historic items, artefacts from all ages, jewellery, etc. etc. Two hours were lost in this place – and we’d certainly also recommend it to anyone who comes here.

The feet were a bit sore by this time, so we stopped at a local park, watched the hang-gliders and had a quiet beer (and orange juice) watching the locals and the scenery pass by. And, a quick toe in the Med completed the day for us (pre-dinner of course).

It was great to have the day at our own pace, doing what we wanted to do, having the potential to get a bit lost, and just exploring the back streets by ourselves. That’s what we love doing. But, we also know that there is no way we could see as much as we are seeing without the tour. We’ve met some really neat people, and Rashid is a bit of a card. He is incredibly knowledgeable about all things Turkish – so we think we are on a winner.