On Our Way to Antalya!

 

Up this morning about 6, and down for our last breakfast at the lovely Adana Hilton about 8 am.  Wanted to linger here until about 10, as we only had about 4 hours to drive, and didn’t want to arrive in Anamur too early.  Headed out to the freeway for the first part of the journey, but then, after Mersin, headed down to the coast, along which we will be traveling until Antalya.

 

Basically, all the photos today were taken from a moving vehicle, as R says, so he’s not really happy about the photography.  But, I just wanted to have him shoot photos of the passing countryside which we were passing, and then of course along the Mediterranean, along which we will be traveling the next few days.



Heading out of Adana and towards the Tarsus mountains!

Our first view of the Mediterranean 

Lots of uncompleted buildings along the coast!


 
















Ruin on a hilltop

Mamere Castle - Medieval


Interesting, though, is that some of the road was two-lane only – with huge semis and all sorts of vehicles going in each direction – and some of it was very similar to California Highway 1 – the Coast Highway!  Steep turns and then some!  They are putting through some tunnels, which cuts out some of the turns.  I was just thankful, though, that - in spite of the weather forecast for mostly rain today - it was really lovely almost all of the way here!  We had beautiful shirt-sleeve type weather, with lots of sun – although we did run into one rainstorm, but it wasn’t too bad, considering the roads along which we were driving at the time!  

 

There is quite a building boom* along the coast, with many more hotels and facilities than I remember from our visit 10 years ago, but Anamur is still a fairly sleepy kind of beach town.  The Luna Piena Hotel is very basic – I’m just glad they have Wi-Fi and heat of sorts.  Nice people, and we have a very large space – they’ve given us a family room which has two twin beds and a double bed in it, but the lighting reminds me of the AdanaMuseum, although there is no shortage of electrical outlets, which is nice.  The gal who showed us to our room was very helpful in getting us connected to Wi-Fi, and when we told her about the computer, even came up with a small folding table for us to work at!  Very accommodating!  



Just part of our "family" room!

View from our balcony!

 

Heading down shortly to look for some dinner – a place down the street is recommended.  Can’t wait!  At any rate, we’re only here for the one night, and tomorrow we’re off to Antalya, and our Casamax Suites for two nights.  So … an adventure, for sure!

 

More after dinner, I’m sure!

Much love,

m

xxx

 

*There does seem be a building boom, not just housing but also infrastructure.  New roads, tunnels, dams and irrigation.  The cities seem to have fleets of new buses.  But it appears that they went too far.  Interest rates were kept artificially low and now inflation has gone sky-high.  It has been dropping lately and is now at about 48%.  And the government is raising interest rates.  This may be the reason why one sees many unfinished major construction projects – developers have run out of money.  Maybe this is why Turkey has been running so many ads in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere) promoting tourism, which would be a good source of hard-currency income.

 

Back from dinner, and it was GREAT!  We went down about 6 pm and over to the restaurant that had been suggested … but they’re closed!  So!  Back to the main street along the beach, and there was a row of small restaurants/stalls that seemed to possibly be opening up!  (For a while, I thought we might be doing without dinner tonight, but that was not to be!)

 

We chose Mare Vista, which seemed to be a family place – Dad waiting tables, Mom cooking, and two daughters doing homework (or scrolling on phones!) at one of the tables.  Our kind of place!  Fortunately, while there was some English on the menu, there were also pictures, and a few Turkish words we understood.  We were the only folks in the place at that hour, although there were other people walking up and down the promenade.

 



Fabulous eggplant!

Wonderful chicken shish with salads and fries!

We ordered eggplant to start, and two orders of tavuk sis kabap – which translates to chicken shish-kabab.  Everything was fabulous!  The eggplant was beautifully done with cheese and tomato sauce on top, and the chicken was served on mounds of French fries, with pita bread, and several kinds of salad!  It was really great, and my fears of going to bed hungry were totally unfounded!  Back to the hotel a bit after 7, and now definitely in for the night!  The room has warmed up well thanks to Robert’s expert handling of the heating unit, and we’ve found all the light switches, so it’s not quite so dark as it was!!  So!  We should be good until morning at this rate!!

 

Lots of love to all!

m

xxx

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