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Leisurely start to the day – we could see it was going to be a scorcher - & off on a dolmus to town. We were dead lucky as 2 came alomg & we jumped on the one that went quite close to the base of the mountain where the Pergamon cable car started. These dolmus cost 1.75 TL each which is about 45p – bargain. Even better if you know where they're going!
So, we get off the dolmus & walk on up the hill to base camp, passing carpet shops & the like...oh dear. We buy our cable car ticket for 26TL; in this ticket office there are 3 people...but a chap comes out of a different office, tears the ticket, shows us through the 'automated turnstile', pushes the lift door & says bye bye! Unemployment is low round here I guess.... Then another chap jumped in the car with us – maybe H & S again but all he could do better than me in an emergency 100' above the mountainside was to shout 'don't panic' in Turkish...
Now, over the last couple of days it has been very hot but it
has also been very windy with some pretty strong gusts too, so much so our table & chairs have high tailed it across the grass. Well, the cable cars were swinging like Billyo, it was better than Alton Towers. The views were tremendous but the wind through the coll at the head of the valley where the dam to the blue watered reservoir was built burst through like a champagne cork being squeezed through the two mountain sides.
At the top it took a couple of minutes to remove Cathy's finger nails from my thighs.... before we ran another gauntlet of souvenir shops before buying our tickets to another UNESCO site. A pleasant Government official met us & a had chat asking if we had used the cable car. He said it was, of course, very windy but very safe, the cars being made in France & all the other equipment, including electricals, being made in Italy. All very well but Alfa Romeos are also made in Italy.... & my wonderful 164, despite being great fun, had a mind of it's own especially in the electrical department...he thought that was very funny.
He then declared it
was fine but never used it himself, he was too scared!
Anyway, the site was once again awesome in the true sense of the word; not just the scale of the city but the scale of the architecture. Some of the bases & the heads of the columns were 5' – 6' across. This city at it's height housed 200,000 people – it was as if each city down this coast was trying to outdo each other in architectural opulence.
Back down on the swinging cable car then a walk down past the carpet shop (Cathy didn't like any) to the clothes shop (Cathy didn't want anything...??) then to the grocery shop where we bought some beef steaks for dinner & some wonderful local bread. Then another rattling dolmus home to Billy for a lovely late lunch.
Tomorrow it's back to the shops as Cathy secretly liked a few things (oh dear)...
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