Saturday 31 March 2012

Turkey - 2011 - an incredible experience

The beautiful Blue Mosque in Istanbul - a highlight of a friendly and welcoming city - a couple of days is nowhere near enough time in this amazing place.
Just outside Ankara is the ancient site of the city of Hattusus - an incredible experience realising that this site is dated at pre-5000BC.  The city must have been enormous - the site is many square kilometres in area.
Our accomodation in Urgup (Cappadocia) - MDC Cave Hotel - carved into the limestone of the hillside.  Very new hotel and quite luxurious.
Some trepidation but the balloon ride with Royal Balloons was fantastic - an experience not to be missed and the Fairy Chimneys National Park is amazing.  Over 40 balloons were launched on a beautiful September morning.
Our favourite photo of our balloon experience - sunrise over Cappadocia from 2000ft.
The Fairy Chimneys showing a shadow of our balloon.  The chimneys are a result of many thousands of years of erosion in a previously volcanic area.
Roman ruins - an agora (market place) at Perge near Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.
Our hotel at Kas overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
We spent a week cruising the Med in a gulet - sharing with Canadians and Germans was a great experience.
Sunset on the Mediterranean
At Ephesus - it is incredible how many Greek, Roman and even earlier ruins there are in Turkey - such a rich history and a wonderful society which values these sites and puts such tremendous resources into preservation.
Roman ruins at Pergamum overlooking the modern city of Pergama
Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli - a moment we won't forget
On the way home we stopped over in Abu Dhabi - this is the Grand Mosque - completed only a few years ago and the second largest mosque in the world.  Incredible riches!!!!!

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