Pamukkale Day 1 (Day Eleven of the trip)

June 16, 2011 - Thursday

This is our last morning in Antalya!  Boo!  We are being picked up at 9:15 and Ginger goes with me to find our Kurd so I can buy a couple more goodies.  We're back at 9:10 and are just in time to meet our driver.  He takes us to the otogar (bus station) and it is nothing like what I imagined!  Think Greyhound station - now wash out your brain!  This is a huge, modern, clean building and our guide takes us through it and directly to our waiting commercial bus.  The big bags go underneath and our back packs come with us.

 

We have seats 1 through 6 and when we sit down we notice that we each have our own individual screen that receives twelve different channels!  There are headphones for each seat and before the bus even leaves the station, one of the two "attendants" (well on an airplane they're flight attendants!) is passing out ice cream!  In about half an hour he is back with juice and little crispy biscotti!  What a life!  And the windows are huge and perfect for picturfying!

See the little spoon molded as part of the lid?  It snaps right off.

Not too sure what kind of juice it was!  Sweet and good, though!

We're heading up into the mountains and the views are as magnificent as you'd expect.  There is a little village with red-tiled roofs.  The mountain behind look like gray-green velvet and the fields in front are almost an electric green!  Why is it that mountains are always so beautiful?

There is the occasional mosque, people working in their fields, and greenhouses.  Lots of greenhouses.  Much of Turkey's agriculture depends on them.

There is a lunch stop at another station and it is just as impressive, with a huge cafeteria and a gift shop.  The grounds have many rose bushes and there is a Shell station next door.  Prior to today I hadn't seen a single American gas company except Shell, but today I saw BP, too.  It is curious to note that our bus in nearly empty!

Check those prices!

We arrive in Denizli and are met by our driver who will take us to Pemukkale.  We gather our bags, wheel them across the parking lot and stow them in our fifteen-seater bus.  This is the first one that isn't a Mercedes!  It's a Volkswagon and just as nice as the rest.

Denzili is a huge city with gigantic car showrooms for Porsche, Toyota and lots of other car makers.  Before long we are in Pamukkale and being delivered to our hotel, the Pamuksu.

Our rooms are all together on the second floor.  The dining room is one floor down from the lobby and there is an outdoor pool in back.  The floor below the dining room has a hot pool fed by the thermal springs which are responsible for the travertine terraces we will see tomorrow.

While the guys settle in, Nick, Ginger and I walk into "town".  There isn't much there, really, but a place that Nick found to get Turkish pizza.  I have Turkish coffee and Ginger notes that these are the smallest soda bottles ever!  But soda is only one lire!  It begins to rain just as we reach the restaurant and by the time they've finished their pizzas, it has quit!

We walk back, only going slightly off course, and stop for water, since there doesn't seem to be any in our rooms (No where in Turkey can you drink the tap water.).  I go exploring and check out the pool and make friends with a puppy who is adorable (aren't they all?) and examine the local flora.

I think this is a pomegranate!

The swimmers in the group find their way to the pool and have it all to themselves!  Gentle swims become games of who can make the biggest splash and then Randy produces a frisbee and it is all down hill from there!

Everybody say, "Awwww!"

After the pool it is time to sample the thermal pool in the basement, then dry off, change and think about dinner.

We all go down to the dinner buffet and try to figure out what it is about the hotel that is so odd.  Randy's term of "withered opulence" comes close.  It was probably quite the place in the 60's with its marble floors and sarcophagus-like fireplace.  Now it just feels like it might be haunted!

We have been quite entertained by the resident sheep!  They cross the road to graze, then are chased back into the soccer field next door.  After dinner they are back again having a little snack before being led away again.

Why did the sheep cross the road?  To get to the soccer field!

After dinner no one is quite ready for bed and there is no urgency since our guide won't be back until eleven thirty or so in the morning.  Andy has gone to bed but the other four all have various electonic devices, phones, iPad, Kindles, etc, and I'm about to be completely caught up on our blog!

Night!  Night!!