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Published: April 30th 2012
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Let’s talk Turkey! We spent two weeks exploring this fascinating country. Because of our cancelled stop in Santorini, we arrived in Kusadasi a day early. Kusadasi is the gateway to the great ruins of Ephesus and close to the House of the Virgin Mary where the mother of Christ was said to have spent her last days on earth. This is a sacred pilgrimage site for Christians as well as Muslims who honor Mary as the mother of one of their prophets. We visited the caravansary in town where we watched some silk rug weaving and then walked the pedestrian streets of town. Many people are put off by the somewhat aggressive merchants. We never found them to be particularly insistent, since they are so good natured about it. "How can we help you spend your money?" "Now it is my turn for you." “Where are you from, my friend?” The shopkeepers all want to talk about America and their cousin or uncle who lives there. We ended up buying some nice souvenirs for our Cruise Specialists guests.
We sailed through the Dardanelles, site of the infamous WWI battle of Gallipoli. As we cruised up the Sea of Marmara we
could see snow on the hilltops. It was too cold to go out on the bow as we approached Istanbul. Spring comes late to this part of the world. We docked on the Asia side of Istanbul on the Bosporus, the waterway leading into the Black Sea.
Our farewell party in Istanbul was not only to bid goodbye to our guests, but for us to say farewell to the Mariner and her wonderful staff. During 97 days on board we touched on five continents: North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. We saw many wondrous sights and met many fine people and experienced very diverse cultures and also transited the Panama Canal, rounded Cape Horn and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariner carried us in high style to these far flung ports of call. It was a very memorable voyage.
We checked into the Antea Palace Hotel in the historic Sultanahmet area of Istanbul. We were literally in the shadow of the Blue Mosque. We could walk to the immense Aya Sophya and Topkopi Palace. We last visited all of these sites 17 years ago with Kevin’s brother Mike and wife Susan.
Istanbul was packed with
tourists so we really appreciated the quiet location of our hotel. We had a nice room with a view of the Sea of Marmara and the hotel had a small pool and Hamam, which is a Turkish Bath. We went up on the rooftop balcony for sunset cocktails and to watch the Mariner sail away to the Mediterranean. It felt so strange to see her leaving without us!
The next morning we met up with our good friends, Jeannie and John from Pebble Beach. Jeannie and I were roommates during our flying days with Braniff and I was maid of honor at their wedding over 40 years ago. John, like Kevin, is a graduate of the Naval Academy and was stationed in places like Bangkok and La Spezia during his military career. They love to travel and currently own a sailboat which is docked at a marina on the Bodrum Peninsula.
Over the next two days we set out together to explore Istanbul, one of the largest cities in the world. The only way to do this is to walk and walk and walk some more. The narrow streets and tiny lanes are jammed with cars, buses, motorcycles
and carts. It is nice that there are some parks and plazas which are traffic free. We had lunch at a typical Turkish restaurant and J&J introduced us to some of the local delicacies. We even tried the Turkish Delight. We hiked across town to the Spice Market and went to the Grand Bazaar which has over 4000 tiny shops, cafes and mosques all under one roof. It is an amazing maze! The next James Bond film is shooting on location here and many streets are closed adding to the traffic chaos. We had dinner at a restaurant under the Galata Bridge which crosses the Bosporus. It was quite a touristy place but we certainly had a fun evening there on this bridge which spans two continents. We toured the excellent Archeological Museum and it provided welcomed shelter on a very rainy afternoon. We spent a lot of time dodging rug merchants and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the winding back streets and soaking up the atmosphere of this exotic city. Then we all packed up and flew down to Bodrum.
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Jeff Cartwright
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Amazing!
So jealous! Hope you guys had a great time. I love Istanbul and cannot wait to go back. Hope you got to do some fun haggling in the bazaar!