Buses, Borders and the Balkans begin…
David continues…. Our trip today would be in two parts with two different bus companies. The first leg of our journey is from Eceabat to to the border town of Edirne in Turkey, and then another company from Edirne to Plovdiv, Bulgaria with an hour connection in between. The bus from Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula to Edirne was scheduled to take 3.5 hours and departed right on time at 7.30am. It started out as quite uneventful, except for when the girls were almost left behind at a bus station toilet. All the announcements...
read moreA Retrospective …
A fitting end to our time in Istanbul was a visit to ‘MiniaTurk’, one of the world’s largest miniture parks. With its 1:25 scale models of 122 notable landmarks, attractions, and ancient ruins from around Turkey, MiniaTurk is a great place to spend a few hours especially for kids. So on our last day in Istanbul we headed out to the north-eastern shore of the Golden Horn. Luck was with us too – the sun was shining brightly. The girls enjoyed recognising miniature versions of the places we had already visited...
read moreInspiring Istanbul…
After the short one hour flight from Dalaman Airport that serves Fethiye to Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport we were met by our hotels driver and taken into central Istanbul for our five night stay. Our apartment in Bansko (Bulgaria) was booked from the 15th of December, so we still had just over a week to enjoy our final stage of our Turkey stay – the delights of Istanbul, before working out our route into Bulgaria. The city has certainly changed since I was here last and over the following days I have the feeling of familiarity and...
read moreFarewell to Fethiye…
During the course of our stay we had totally emptied all our packs and given them a good scrub as well as washing all the contents, now it was time to get it all back in. How had we managed to spread ourselves and our stuff and fill the apartment?! We were meant to be travelling light! Maybe it had something to do with all the ‘stuff’ that kids seem to collect along the way – we now had pine cones (for making Christmas decorations) and enough smooth pebbles to sink a ship. We had also acquired some waterproof wellie boots...
read moreCruising in the footsteps of the Lycians …
While the dolmuş is an excellent way to get from point A to B, we decided a rental car would give us the greatest flexibility and freedom to see the local sights around Fethiye at our own pace. So after a few days of relaxing and clothes washing, (yay we have a washing machine!) Dave headed into town and got a good deal on a small Renault at 45 lira p/day ($25 ). This is excellent value as Turkey is not renowned for cheap car hire and usual prices average around $45 p/day, but being off season we had room to negotiate. It is also worth...
read moreFrom the Aegean to the Mediterranean and Fabulous Fethiye
From Bodrum on the southern Aegean coast we head west, passing the Marmara Peninsula where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean, also called the Turquoise Coast and oh what an apt name I can honestly say the seas around Greece and Turkey are the clearest and most amazing I have ever seen anywhere in the world, making me wish we were here when it was a little warmer, but there are advantages in travelling off-season which we will soon discover … The souring Taurus mountain range form a dramatic backdrop that runs parallel to the coast,...
read moreA visit back in time…following the Aegean Coast – Izmir to Bodrum
Our flight from Kayseri, Cappadocia to Izmir was due to arrive at 6.30pm thus we had a tight connection with the last train to Selcuk leaving the airport train station at 7:30pm. A late airport transfer from Goreme and delayed flight departure added to our concern about whether we would actually make it. Our landing at Izmir would be the roughest we have experienced in a jet aircraft – ever. The 737 touched down hard and actually bounced back into the air, flew for another 2-3 seconds before touching down again. David expressed his...
read moreGoing ‘Green’ in Cappadocia …
Feeling as though we should see more of the surrounding countryside of Cappadocia, we booked four seats on an organised day tour, something we rarely do as we are not usually ‘tour people’. However, it soon became apparent that the cost and convenience of the tour outweighed the cost of hiring a car and navigating ourselves. In hindsight, it was definately the right thing to do as the distances covered and things we did and saw would have easily taken us two days to cover! In nearly every travel agents window in Goreme they have...
read moreOut of this world! Ballooning over Cappadocia …
I don’t usually like re-visiting places I have been to before – there are too many new places to see before rehashing old ones. However, Turkey is the exception. Turkey had made a real impression on me 20 odd years ago when, with a group of friends, we had spent some weeks island hopping through Greece before landing in Kusadasi on the Aegean Coast, visiting the ancient ruins of Ephesus, making some scary overnight bus trips to the white mineral terraces of Pumakkale and the Gallipoli peninsula and onward to Istanbul before continuing...
read more“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” – Walter Streightiff
Agra – a place you feel almost obliged to go to when visiting India; and if it wasn’t for the Taj Mahal, one I’m sure most would miss, but there is more to see than the Taj – like another Fort! Our time here was…well, interesting. It got off to a bit of a shaky start though… Our afternoon train from Jaipur to Agra departed at 5pm and was scheduled to arrive at 9:30pm, but ran almost an hour late – although some people we spoke to said their trains ran over four or more hours late! Our delay was further exacerbated by...
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