So ... back to yesterday!

Whew! Just sitting down to do what I should have done last night … but just totally ran out of steam! So, went to bed last night at 8:30 pm, but up at 4:30 am, so a wonderful night’s sleep, which was just what I needed! So! To recap yesterday!

We were up early and down to breakfast in Izmir by 7:15 or so, and then out the door by 8 am. The drive to Çanakkale normally runs about 4+ hours, but it truthfully gets interesting when you realize that most of the roads aren’t even on your Atlas! And, our Atlas, which is dated 2008, is the most recent one available for Turkiye, believe it or not! As R has said repeatedly this trip, it’s so odd when the GPS just goes off into space – but he has been enjoying coloring in our Atlas with roads that aren’t even there! Oh well! I think we mentioned earlier the building spurts that we have noticed – and boy, do they seem to build a lot, especially when it’s around the coast! And we will now be pretty much following the coastline north up through the Dardanelles.

Getting out of Izmir wasn’t really easy, but much easier than trying to get “in” to Izmir on Saturday, and, we didn’t have the rain to contend with, which made it nice. It is really nice and “crisp” outside though – and until R got the heat up and going in the car, I was wearing my coat inside! Izmir and its surrounding suburbs are incredible, and, it seems, never-ending! Fortunately for us, we were heading out, while most people were heading in. Eventually, we cleared even the Izmir suburbs, and hit open road and countryside, and eventually, the Aegean! We even passed a lagoon with flamingos in it -- R hates the photos he snapped as I sped along, but I've included them as in at least one, you can sort of make out the neck of a flamingo and know what it is. I know it's blurry (which he hates...) but it was the best that could be done at the time!

The pinkish things in the water are flamingos!

The drive did take a while, but went well, until about an hour outside of Çanakkale, when suddenly, the low tire-pressure light went on … great …

Getting closer!!

Canakkale bay!

Beautiful hotel suite!

Living room

Bedroom

View from the room

I pulled over into a gas station, and the nice man there checked the stated tire pressure, and filled up all the tires. One tire was actually a bit low, which was what we figured set off the alarm, but visual inspection of the tires indicated that everything should be fine – only now, we needed to “reset” the low tire pressure sensor, which was glaring at me right from the center of the dashboard! UGH! R found a supposed Budget office about 12 km behind us, and we turned around and tried to find it – without any luck. We checked Çanakkaleand turns out the Budget office there had “closed permanently” on November 14, 2024. Great news! So, on we went. Made it to Çanakkale, and as we were driving into town, there was a Fiat dealership (of course on the other side of the road, and it’s not that easy to even GET to the other side of the road…) but we managed to find a turn around a couple of km away and come back to it. R disappeared inside, and reappeared a few minutes later with a very, very nice young man who came out and looked at the car – and spoke English! Turns out, one button, low down on the dashboard, and voila! The sign was gone – reset – whatever! Whew! Don’t you just love rental cars????

So, now on to the hotel! The DoubleTree Çanakkale is a fairly new hotel in town, and rated #1 – and, for good reason! We are in a one-bedroom suite on the 3^rd floor (top) at the end, overlooking the water, and it is absolutely sensational! Lovely furnishings, a huge bathroom, plentiful heat, and very, very comfortable! Settled in, and then decided that we wanted to go across the water to Gallipoli.

On the ferry boat -- even the right one!

Looking across to the Gallipolli peninsula

Looking at the dock as we pulled away

Turkish National Monument commemorating 1915

Approaching the dock "on the other side"

Part of a cargo ship passing us along the way!

One of many memorials on Gallipolli to the fallen soldiers

The gals at the desk advised us that the easiest way to get there was by taking the feribot – which, if you sound it out, comes out as: ferry boat, as opposed to taking the bridge which is about 25 km north of town. So, silly us, assuming there would be signage, headed into town to find it! Well … we could find the feribot to Istanbul, but as we didn’t want to GO to Istanbul, and certainly didn’t want to make a mistake, I made R get out of the car and ask a Police Officer. At any rate, we eventually found the right place AND the right feribot, and were the last car aboard! In just a few minutes we were headed out into the strait. (Apparently the boats run every half hour.)

Nice trip across the strait, about 15 minutes, and we were soon driving off the boat – but to where? Apparently most of the entire peninsula is dedicated as a National Historical Park – but there is NO signage in English, and we had no idea where to go! From what the gals at the desk made it sound like, everybody goes in tour groups – and if people have to find the feribot and make their own way, I can readily understand it! But, as we were there, with no real directions, what to do!

R suggested Anzac Cove, of which he had read, so that’s where we headed – and it certainly was a good decision. I had read of the total massacre of Australian and New Zealand troops who had been pinned down on the beach in a disastrous attempt by the British Navy in 1915 to take this part of the Gallipoli peninsula, but knew very little about the details. The memorial at Anzac Cove provided more, as well as being a very moving site in and of itself. Honestly, just like when we toured the beaches of Normandy in November in France, and had cold blustery days, it was nice that there were no other people there, and we had the place to ourselves. I do remember that two wonderful Australian friends of ours, Norm and Marg Cheale, had come here to Turkiye, I believe possibly this beach, a few years ago for a special celebration – possibly the 100^th year memorial, and had such moving things to say about it. No wonder.

A geographical place known as "the Sphinx"

People had left red poppies around some of the letters!

Explanatory panels about the battle

From Anzac Cove, we decided it was time to return to the hotel, as we wanted to make it there before dark – which we did, but barely! Drove north to the lovely 1915 Bridge and over to the other side – speaking of which, it was Xerxes, an ancient Persian King who (in 480 BC) had a pontoon bridge constructed across the Dardanelles so that he could cross over into Macedonia, which must have proven quite a feat – that’s quite a piece of water to cross over!

1915 Bridge from a distance

Cargo ship and bridge together

Back to the hotel and down for dinner! Huge dining room, but fortunately, we were there when they opened at 6:30 and were able to get a nice dinner. R had their jumbo shrimp with a cucumber and tomato salad, and I had their grapefruit, arugula, avocado and cheese salad with spaghetti bolognaise – definitely needed comfort food last night! Then, upstairs and collapsed into bed!