Hello!
Dinner last night, here at the Yacht Classic Hotel, was delicious! We were seated right at the harbor’s edge; I kept thinking that one of the wait persons might actually land in the water (one of them said that he had…) We were among the first ones out and seated; there are many Brits and Germans here, but we haven’t seen or heard another American as of yet. I started with an appetizer of mushrooms stuffed with cheese and garlic – the only problem was that they brought FIVE large mushrooms! R had one, and I had two, and the rest were left over! Robert ordered the mushroom au gratin, which came in a cute but hot little crock of its own. I didn’t try them, but he said they were delicious! Our main courses were, sea bass (which we saw spelled see baas at one restaurant!) for Robert, which came actually already boned and beheaded (thankfully!) and I had chicken breast in cream sauce with mushrooms. (Yes, a lot of fungi was devoured last night!) Both plates included some twice-baked mashed potatoes that had been formed into a column, as well as well but not over-cooked veggies. Desert for Robert was crème brulee, and I had their raspberry cheesecake – both delicious! All this washed down with a large bottle of sparkling water, and two glasses of dry white house wine. The total came to something like 118 TLR, which equates to $67. Quite a bargain for a great meal!
Back up to the room about 9, and to bed about 11. In spite of the 3-hour naps that we had taken, we both had very peaceful nights, and it was lovely in our room with the balcony door standing open.
The breakfast buffet in the morning was good, albeit “interesting”. There were lots of things on it that I didn’t recognize. We had tomatoes, three types of cheese and bread, along with sliced grapefruit and oranges. As we were finishing, a waiter came up and asked if we wanted eggs. No takers this morning, but I think tomorrow I may add a scrambled egg to the day.
So…at this point, even though we didn’t NEED to have any laundry done (we had had it done in Selcuk) I hate to pass up a good opportunity to get everything clean again. We walked into the central part of town, and the Tourist Office told us where to find a laundry. Amazing place – not visible from the street, but under a staircase – watch your head! Problem was, the owner did not seem to understand what we wanted, and we had no idea if/when we would ever be able to get things back! Figured we would go back and try the hotel – they, at least, use the Holland American method – give you a bag, and they will wash whatever is crammed in it for 10 TLR. (about $5.60)
However, about this time, we got the idea of seeing if there was a Garmin store in town…and there was an electronics store not far from where we were, with a very mixed collection of GPS, computers and televisions and accessories. And guess what? They had a working Garmin Nuvi – albeit in Turkish, but it looks a lot like Emmy! As it was the last one of that model they had, R got a nice discount on it, and 20 minutes later, we walked out of the store with Emmy II, our new Turkish GPS! And oh! The index for the instruction manual is in English, but the rest of the manual is in Turkish! Go figure! Back to the hotel at this point, where we handed in two laundry bags of dirty clothes. R familiarized himself with Emmy II and we headed out for sites unknown…some of which are still unknown, at least to us!
Our first site was Pinera, one of the cities making up the Lycian Federation. Very interesting drive there. R hadn’t been able to find the site on Emmy II, so we were driving using a combination of the map, the GPS and road signs – and I have to be honest, Turkish signage leaves a GREAT deal to be desired (which is what makes having a working GPS so important!) My favorite (so far) is when you can actually find the name of the place you’re looking for on a sign, but the arrow pointing the direction is gone! Also, there is no consistency in the spelling of things – which is one of the reasons we can’t find them on the GPS. We will have something spelled one way in one guide book, and another way in the next book – with a third in the Turkish Atlas! So! A truly great adventure!!
We are now traveling along the Lycian Way, named for a population of people who inhabited the coast up into the mountain ranges, long before the Romans thought to come this way. As I have mentioned before, the mountains here were very surprising to both of us, and they actually do run all the way down to the sea. In some places it’s rather like Cinque Terre in Italy – small towns in valleys by the water, barely linked to each other by land; definitely the place to be with a boat! In addition, we saw six tortoises today, walking either alongside or across the road! In one place, R got out and moved the little guy to the other side of the road – hope that was where he wanted to go!
But back to Pinera. These were people who literally carved out indentations in the rock, in which they lived, buried their dead, and stored food and other possessions. (Although not all at the same time, I’d like to add!) How they managed to get to some of these places is beyond us, especially the VERY high in the cliff ones – but we do know that earthquakes definitely have changed the landscape over the past several thousand years.
From Pinera we went to Xanthos. As it turns out, today is Xanthos’ towns market day – and we had to drive through an incredible maze of booths, hawkers, and people with motorbikes and bicycles wobbling all over the road to get to the site. I really think that you could find just about anything – from food to clothing to hardware to cement and lumber – at this market – it was incredible! Finally found the site and had a good look around. The Lycian tombs are very different from any we had seen before, and there was a wonderful column in Greek and Lycian – the latter being a language which still is in need of decipherment! (Is that a word?)
By this time, it was after 3 p.m. and we figured we’d done enough exploring for one day. So, set Emmy II on a course to bring us back to the hotel, which she did perfectly! I think I’m getting somewhat the hang of driving in cities – not difficult, exactly, just a bit complicated by lack of lane markers and people, cars, bikes, etc. weaving in and out; would not want to do it at night, that’s for sure! Back to the hotel a little after 4, and our laundry has already been returned to us!!!!!! And everything has been IRONED! You’ve never seen such lovely t-shirts!! So – now I’ll not have to worry about laundry again for at least a few more days!
I walked down the block for more water and my afternoon Magnum Classic, while Robert logged in to the computer. Very happy to report that Garmin U.K. had answered his email message about Emmy hanging up – provided everything he needed to restore her to good health! So! Now we are a two Garmin family! Obviously we’re a belt and suspenders kinda family!
Much love,
m
x
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