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We’re Home!!

Wow!  Jet-lag, here we are!  So, to summarize!  We made it safely from Stansted Airport in London to Heathrow, where we overnighted at the  Hilton Garden Inn , Eastern Perimeter Road.  We had dinner that night at the hotel – not great, but adequate, fish and chips, but for some reason (possibly getting up at 4 am that morning, and then a 3-hour time change?) I was falling asleep in my chips!  So, back upstairs, and I went to bed at 6:30 pm.  Up again, this time for the trip back to Phoenix, at 4 am, which was going to make it a very long day!   Down for breakfast about 8, which was simply wonderful!  After no pork products for 3½ weeks,  R  loaded up his plate with bacon – which, if you’re familiar with English bacon, isn’t quite like ours in the U.S. – it’s more like Canadian bacon – but it tastes wonderful, and we both enjoyed it immensely!  And, I added scrambled eggs, mushrooms, potat...
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Leaving Turkiye!

  Up this morning about 4:30 am, and showered and ready to travel by 6.  We decided that, honestly, we would rather just get to the airport than wait until the hotels’ breakfast at 6:30, so we requested a taxi, and were delivered to  Sabiha Gokcen  just a few minutes later!  Check-in was really incredibly efficient at Pegasus Airlines!   They use kiosks, but a very nice Turkish gentleman assisted us through the process, and in just a minute or so, we had our two luggage tags and boarding passes.  From there, we went to another location to drop off our bags.  Again, we watched as the scanners read the barcodes, figured out where the cases were to go, and started the process to get them there! It was incredible! We didn’t receive any baggage tags, which worried  R – but then, on our phone popped up two separate messages saying that “This number bag was heading to Stansted on this flight, checked in to Robert (or Margaret) Br...
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To Sabiha Gokken!

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Well!  Up this morning about 5-ish, and down to breakfast about 7.  Truly, not a noteworthy breakfast at all, but we made do, as  R  says.  As it was still too dark to leave – as I’ve never driven these roads before, and we didn’t want to get to the hotel too early, we decided to wait until 8 am to get on the road.  So … that’s what we did!  It’s not nearly as cold today as it was yesterday – in fact, the  Weather   Channel  said it was 40, but it was still chilly for me!    Headed north out of town heading to  Istanbul  and  Sabiha Gokcen Airport , to drop off the rental car.  As per usual, there were new freeways that weren’t on our map, as well as yet another new bridge for us to cross over!  The government here has been really busy since the last time we were here, that’s definitely for sure! Sunset from our window! Lovely starters R's penne arribiata My beef casse...
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Made it to Troy -- however you spell it!

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Tuva – Troya – Troia – Wilusa – Ilios – Troy  – No matter how you pronounce or spell it, for me, it has always been magical for some reason.  I don’t think I’ve ever read the  Illiad , but it seems that I’ve known the story of the Trojans and Helen and Menelaus for as long as I can remember anything!  Which is why I really wanted to go back there just one more time!  We were supposed to re-visit on our last trip to Turkiye, several years ago, but my bout of bronchitis put paid to that, as we cut the trip – and  Troy  – short to get me medical attention.  So … suffice to say I REALLY wanted to see the site again, and their brand-new supposed-to-be-wonderful 4-story site museum!  And, it was!   To begin today … up about 4:30 am with enough time before showers to blog about yesterday.  Then breakfast, and  R  got yesterday’s pictures loaded on to the computer.  (Note:  First-r...
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