Istanbul to Athens

Hello everyone,

We are now back on the air from Greece. I am having a great deal of trouble downloading pictures but at least I can write a little about our time in Turkey.

We began our Turkish adventure in Istanbul. We visited The Grand Bazaar, the Haiga Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and many other lovely places. We then went on a quite frenetic tour of Cappadochia, Pammukale, Kusedasi and Selcuk. We visited the fairy chimneys and amazing geological formations of Cappodochia and stayed in a cave hotel. It's an amazing part of the world. We were there on Monday and stayed overnight in the Peri Cave Hotel. It was a bit cold and musty but a unique experience all the same. The weather was very wet on Monday night, but it cleared in time for us to watch the hot air balloons on Tuesday morning. At least 50 balloons F=flew over between 6.00am and 8.30. It was an amazing sight.

After the balloons and breakfast we visited more of Cappochia with our lovely guide Aygen. She was very enthusiastic about her job and very open about some of the problems of Turkey. We left her and our tour group on Tuesday night to catch the night train to Pammukale, the "cotton" cliffs. The bus ride was long and uncomfortable, about 11 hours in all and we arrived in Pammukale at about 5.00am. Very early! We were taken to a hotel where we could freshen up, have a sleep, have breakfast and leave at 9.00 for a tour of the Pammukale white cliffs. We had a lovely time even though the weather was cool and damp.

After Pammukale we went to Kusedasi where we stayed in a nice hotel and were picked up for our tour of Ephesus. We first went to the "house of the Virgin Mary". Who knewA that she travelled to Turkey and spent the remainder of her life there!!! She  was visited by John the Baptist apparently and had a large group of followers.  A clever, money-spinning idea. There were thousands of people there and most appeared to believe everything they were told. Amazing. There were candles, fountains, shrines and wishing walls. The actual house was built in 1951 after archeologists discovered the foundations of the 'real' house house from the 1st century A.D.

We then went to Ephesus. An amazing Greco/Roman city. Much of it has been excavated since the 1800's. We had a lovely time there. After the tour we were taken to Selcuk and finally got to the airport in Izmir ready for our plane at 9.30. It left late and we did not get back to our Istanbul Hotel until midnight. We had to repack all our bags and finally got to bed at 2.00am.

I am finishing now as the connection keeps failing and I can't down load any photos.

Love to all

Maz, Andi and Great Gran.