A Long Driving Day …

 

Well, truly, not may pictures tonight, as today was basically pedal-to-the-medal to get from Antalya, on the Mediterranean, to Selçuk on the Agean.  Up about 7 and after last night’s wonderful meal at Vanilla, we neither of us felt like having any breakfast – although I believe R did have a piece of leftover pizza from the other night.  Then, down to check out and the car by 8:20, and out on the road again.  

 

We actually didn’t have too much trouble leaving Antalya, which was surprising, considering the amount of traffic we ran into getting back from the restaurant the night before!  We were, however, on the far western edge of town, which helped tremendously.  What really tied us up, though, was when their huge freeway leading every which way but the coast, wound up at a four-way-out round-about with traffic lights!  Wow!  And each light probably listed about a minute and a half, R was estimating.  It took us three cycles to get to the roundabout and actually through it, considering there were also sorts of semi’s and trucks of all sorts getting through at the same time.  No grid-lock there, I can assure you!!

 

General shots of the countryside

Driving along the plateau between Antalya and Selcuk

At any rate, we eventually got through it, and were on the road to Denizili, an intermediary point to Selçuk.  Denizili, turns out, is absolutely HUGE – as were several other towns I’m sure most people have never even heard of, and we worked our way east.  We managed just fine for most of the way, until we were about an hour and a half out – thanks to the government’s new building schemes, they’re building a brand-new freeway that’s NOT on any of our maps, our GPS or even our cell phones!  That was quite the challenge, especially as we made one wrong turn, ended up on a brand-new freeway, and there was absolutely NO way off of it!  Ended up going back 24 km and trying it all over again, adding a good half-hour plus to the trip.  Not a happy experience, I can assure you!

 

But eventually, we worked our way back to the right road, and made our way towards Izmir, turning off at Selçuk.  We’ve been here twice before, but not to the Akanthus Boutique Hotel, which, of course, is off one of the many side streets in town.  Found the hotel, parked where we could, and entered a beautiful courtyard. The hotel has a lovely pool – not that we’re going to be using that, of course, but it’s really beautiful!  Met our kind and obliging host, who told us he was moving us to an upgraded room – Yay!! – which has a nice balcony with a huge window seat, and overlooks the countryside!  Moreover, he carried both our cases up the stairs to it!  Thank you so much!!

 

It's really beautiful here!  Huge room, lovely bathroom with incredibly tiled shower.  Plenty of room to spread out – which we have done – and we are also getting some heat!  It’s been so warm lately, that heat hasn’t been an issue – but it did rain a bit today, so we’re definitely in the mood for warmth!  R set up the computer, while I went downstairs to talk about food.

Love our room!

And I've always wanted a window seat!

View from our window

View of St. John's Castle from our window

Our host recommended Kybele, the #1 rated restaurant in town by Tripadvisor.  It had two advantages – it was very close by, and it was open now (4:30 pm) and I was hungry!  So, down we went and in a very short time arrived at the restaurant and were seated in a nice room, which we had to ourselves … turns out when you eat dinner at 4:30-5:00 pm, you generally can choose your seat!  

 

Courtyard of our hotel with pool

Saw this on our walk; not sure what it is!  Any ideas?!

Our appetizers

R's lamb shish with rice and veggies

My thin-cut tenderloins with potatoes and veggies

We started with an appetizer of eggplant salad with yoghurt and garlic for me, to spread on bread, and a sauteed artichoke for R.  Both were very good.  R had their lamb shish with veggies, and I had their thinly sliced tenderloins with potatoes and veggies.  They were both good but not great.  Two glasses of excellent local red wines and water completed the picture.

 

Finished up about 5:45 and back to the hotel about 6 pm.  Now in for the night, and I for one will be turning in early!

 

Turns out that R’s colleague from Hawaii on whom R had been waiting for the schedule, sent it this morning, and R needs to go over it … which he estimates will take 4-5 hours.  

That being the case, and seeing that we’ve both already visited Ephesus twice, I’m going to go by myself tomorrow, leaving Robert to get his work done in peace.  That is, providing it’s not raining!  If it is raining, I’ll go to the Ephesus Museum, and he probably won’t have as much time to work as he’d like!  But we’ll see what it looks like in the morning!

 

So … once again, good night all, and more tomorrow!

Much love,

m

xxx