Pamukkale - Kusadasi (Day Twelve of the Trip)

June 17, 2011 – Friday

Our driver isn’t coming until 11:30 so we can sleep in as long as we like, and we’re pretty sure we’ll be up before the guys, so there is time for a little prank!  Ginger goes downstairs and borrows some letterhead from the front desk and we write a note to slip under Ben and Andy’s door.  It says something like:

Good morning hansom young Amercans

I saw you look at me

I would like have you for breakfast

Sophia, the manquin

Downstairs, where we have to go for breakfast, the mannequin is standing guard.  Her hair is messed up and she has been turned, and she is holding another note that says:

Hy seksi Amercans!

I would like meet you tonight in sauna!

Ginger and I fix our plates from the buffet and head outside to dine al fresco.  It is another beautiful, clear day!  We have had amazing weather!  The rain during our Thermosses exploration and the tiny drop yesterday are the only exceptions! 

 

A word or two more about our hotel.  It does have some amazing features in addition to the endearing puppy!  There are ripe mulberries on a tree near the pool, as well as blackberries that we have been picking from our balcony! 

 Ben hears an apricot drop and it is remarkably sweet!

The pool is refreshing and after breakfast Andy and Ginger have another swim.  They are the only ones enjoying the water again!  Last night there was only one other person in the thermal pool.

It is beginning to grow on us, although it is hard to get past “The Shining”!  It helps a little that a tour bus full of people showed up yesterday and left early this morning.  At least there are other tourists!  Last night during dinner we hypothesized that the other dinners were all spirits that took turns sleeping in the fireplace/sarcophagus!

There is a momma kitty and her three kits hiding in a drain, where they are safe from the tourists! 

AT 11:20 our driver, Ismael, brings the bus and we finally figure out that he is telling us that our guide has a flat tire, so Ismael will take us to a small, old village nearby that has “hot water” and we can look around and have our lunch.

The village is only about ten minutes away and we pass an entrance to the Pamukkale terraces.  This seems to be where the more upscale hotels are;  but even they are showing signs of wear and tear.  The tourist boom must have been quite a while ago.  An entrance arch has the date 1912 on it.

We hop off for a photo op with a beautifully decorated mosque and an example of calcium carbonate deposition.  The water is flowing down from a pipe in the middle of what has become a sort of mushroom top. 

A little further down the street is a small bazaar alongside a series of travertine terraces willed with blue water.  There is a small fountain where people can wash their hands, faces and feet. 

 There is a sign that describes the water as "jeothermal".  We usually can't even guess what we are reading!

Back on our bus and we are delivered to our lunch accommodation.  It is another banquet hall and we’ve learned that that means the food will be acceptable – only.  There is a large buffet with Turkish salad makings and another with the entrees, primarily chicken which is quite good, and there is a dessert selection.  The best of those is the little celebration cakes we had in Kapodocia.  Orange sections are the hit of the meal! 

Our guide arrives during our meal and introduces himself as Mehmed.  He says our driver is sweet as sugar!

While we’ve been eating a swarm of tour busses has disgorged far too many sunburned tourists.  Now we understand why there were so many waitstaff hovering around our table!  Happily their attention is now diluted!  (I wonder what happened to Faruk?  He was supposed to be our guide!)

Mehmed takes us to see the travertine terraces and the ancient city of  Heiropolis, a World Heritage Site.    

 

Only about five percent of the city has been unearthed, but the ruins are spread out and there is little vegetation, due to the heat and aridity, so you can really get a feel for what it would have been like when it was populated.    

 

The site was originally Hellenic, then Roman, then Byzantian.  The original Greek theater was destroyed during one of the many earthquakes that occur in this area.  It is the intersection of two major fault lines.  When the Romans rebuilt their theater, they moved the site to someplace that appeared a bit more stable! It could seat 15,000 people!

The thermal springs, heated by magma, have been a tourist attraction since ancient times.  There are lots of tourists soaking amongst the ruins of Roman columns.  25 & 38

At one time you could walk all over the terraces, but UNESCO put a stop to that, in order to preserve them.  Now there is one section that is accessible.  There only requirement is that you take off your shoes.   

There are tourists everywhere, even though it is really, really hot.  Some of the young women seem to posing for a photo shoot.  

 

Some of the other people shouldn’t be wearing what they are wearing out in public!  It is great people watching in addition to being interesting geologically!  Puma means “cotton” in Turkish and kkale means “castle”, hence cotton castle.  (I’ve seem “puma” when shopping for sheets.)  The vegetation is this area is very much like home, oleander, 

roses, thistles, although theirs are much taller, hollyhocks, jasmine, the aforementioned blackberries.

Mehmed offers us half an hour of free time for photos.  We say we only want fifteen minutes;  but he’s smarter than we and we used the whole half hour!  

Back to the bus for our three hour ride to the Aegean!  Where else can you see the Mediterranean, the Bosphorous and the Aegean so close together?!

Half way through the trip we stop for a stretch break and for “Mr. Sweets” to clean off the bus after the rain.  There is hot tea and ice cream and paprika Pringles to nosh on and some good souvenir shopping!

Once again we are on the leading edge!  Four other tour buses pull in while we are enjoying the fresh air!  Each one is white and we recall that Arif had commented that most Turkish cars are white because it is so hot in Turkey.  He also told us that the Turkish people are very impatient and hate to wait!

We are entering Kusadasi, our destination for tonight!  We are on the Aegean Sea and can see Greece across the water.  Our hotel, the Atinc Otel, is right across the street from the water!  Our room has an view of the water and a huge cruise ship!  I can't even guess how many people are cocooned there!

Settling in has gotten pretty easy with all our practice and we enjoy gazing at the harbor while we plot our next move.  That turns out to be a walk along the water, to delight in the shore breezes, check out the new stores and look for place from which to photograph the sunset!  There is a fascinating sculpture of a huge hand reaching toward the sky and festooned with birds.  It is quite lovely with the golden sun behind it.  The statue symbolizes freedom, both freedom of thought and freedom from occupation.

As the sun is about to set a huge yacht comes between us and our view!  It is so large that it has a helicopter on its upper rear deck!

When the sun has completely set we choose an Italian restaurant, The Gondol, and people have an assortment of pizzas and pastas, except for Nick, whose steak has the most spectacular presentation!  

During dinner we watch fireworks exploding in the distance.  They are wasted on the boys next to us who are engrossed in their hand-helds.   

After dinner the guys go off for their last evening's adventure and the "grups" wander down the shore to catch the end of the free outdoor entertainment.  It is a six-person troupe of acrobats and jugglers.  We watch the final act and the finale and by now are ready to turn in.