Turkey Holidays day 1 & 2

 

Autumn Holiday in Turkey

Earlier in the year our very good friends in Berlin said that they would be celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary, and  Wille would be celebrating his birthday in Turkey this year and anyone that fancied coming was welcome. So that was it we booked and got a very good early booker deal.

We had an early start on Sunday morning the flight was at 05:00 so this meant getting up at 01:00 and setting off for Hannover airport, great at this time of the morning no traffic, so an uneventful trip, drop Linda off at the departure terminal and parked the car in the adjacent multi-story car park.

Cup of tea and through the check in, normal security checks, all quite painless. We got on our plane to discover that the plane was only 60% full and the hostess said you can take your booked seat of change to any free seat that you wish. Normal aeroplane breakfast , I do wish they would have a bit of imagination, but it wasn’t too bad I suppose.

Turkey

Arrived in Atalya picked up our bags got our transfer bus and arrived at the Royal Atlantis Spa and Hotel.

 We arrived before our room was ready (we had been originally been in another part, but we asked about which area our friend was in and they said did we wish to be in the same block, we said yes that would be nice. The reception said our room would be ready at 12, but no problem we got our all-inclusive band and got shown down to the breakfast room, we had our 2^nd breakfast and this was a great improvement on the first.

We went out to the beach bar and sat in the shaded tree covered area, I drank a cold white wine and watched from the side-lines as the midday meal was started, I had a look at the menu and much to my delight all of the items had their calorific values, now this is something that other hotels could take on board.

The complex has 6 restaurants, 2 buffet type, the beach, the pool a la carte , a fish a la carte and a Turkish a la carte. The a la carte restaurants must be pre booked in the morning, as this was the last week that they would be open, we booked for the Tuesday and Wednesday so that was taken care of.

One of the pools as seen from our room

The View of thr Taurus Mountains from our Balcony

We got our electronic key and our bags got taken up by the ever friendly porter. We unpacked and had a quick shower and a bit of a nap (we had been on the go since 01:00 don’t forget). Our Friends had been out on the beach and phoned us to inform us we would be meeting for dinner at 18:30.

We had a look around the locality right in front of the hotel is the main Bazars, we had a look around popped into a bar for a couple of beers (was a footy match on the tele).

The entrance to the Bazars, this covers about 2 blocks and you can buy most things here!

The date palms at the hotel entrance

Our Friends had selected the main buffet restaurant for our first evening, it did have something for everyone, salads of every sort, hue and taste, at the buffet you could select from any amount of warm food, fish, meat, vegetarian, you name it something for everyone (except pork eater of course). Red wine came fast and plenty, the waiters and waitresses so attentive as soon as it was empty.  Linda even had a pudding tut tut bad girl.

After we had finished, our friends suggested we go to one of the bars that had live music on and dancing, so we popped into the bar and drank a few beers and couple or three raki’s it was a smashing start to our Holiday.

Monday and the ancient harbour city of Side

We had decided that we would go into Side on a recce, it was a smashing day, so we got on a dolmus and after a change of busses (only Linda and I on he dolmus) got into Side.

The antiquities

Side like most of this coast line is covered in antiquities, ruins, temples, towns and cities this area had been Greek, Roman, and then Byzantine prior to it becoming part of the Ottoman Empire. The bus dropped us of at the main bus station, you are straight away into the antiquities, a very large fountain, this is being renovated, there are two schools of thought, to leave them   as ruins or to try and renovate them into a state that they could have been when functioning. I find that by doing this you are very likely to destroy other epochs and in the case of Side it can be seen that much of the Greek and Roman building material has been incorporated into the later Byzantine city walls.

Passing through the now almost totally destroyed main city gate. Though some of the walls are in surprisingly good condition.

We walked down what had been the columned main street

(there was another that went to the East), the main street had once been lined with shops and houses

 with merchants mansions behind overlooking the commercial centre , with its central temple that has been in part renovated.

This is adjacent to the Pamphylia  a semi-circular theatre built in the style of the Roman Amphitheatres. The Pamphylia has also been renovated somewhat, but the Scenia has collapsed onto what would have been the stage and is just a pile of loose rubble, in its heyday it would have seated up to 20,000.

To the left of the Pamphylia the road turns through the Vespacian gate

 and its adjacent temple to Dionysius, with its inscription,

 this is not in its original place but must have been moved and set into the City walls some time in antiquity, there is also a lavatory under repair (good job I didn't want to go).

 and the museum is situated on the site of the public baths.

On passing through the small gate between the Pamphylia walls and the Dionysius temple you arrive at a nice area with a fountain and park benches and from there into the modern City of Side with its mired of shops, bazars , bars, cafes and restaurants.

This is a pedestrian area and leads down to the harbour, the two temple areas one too Apollo, the other to Diana, these where raised during the Byzantine period to make way to a large Basilica, this in turn made way for a much smaller church.

The shops and harbour area

Passing down to the waterfront you arrive at the area with its cafes and restaurants, take the time to stop off and have a freshly pressed Pomegranate (the Side means pomegranate in the ancient Anatolian language)

We walked along the commercial harbour wall before turning up along some restaurants that had taken the opportunity to use some ruins as a shaded sitting area. One had a couple of tortoises and a baby one, used to lure unsuspecting tourists into the restaurant.

We then walked to the fishing harbour, passing the fishing co-op selling the catch of the day, we saw quite a few people with their fishing rods and a couple of harpoon fishers just coming out of the water.

We stopped for a nice cold glass of water (it was my fast day) and Linda a couple of coffees, we chatted to a nice couple from Reading (yes there are very nice couples in Reading) it was the wife’s Birthday (I didn’t ask which one that would have been cheeky and that isn’t my style LoL) she was originally from Edinburgh. We spent a good hour before heading back along the promenade and up to the bus station to get our Dolmus (it means crush) back to our hotel in Gündogdu in time for dinner. This evening we had selected to go to the buffet with our friends, up changed and into the restaurant, there is something for everyone  I had a smashing salad and fish with Turkish vegetables  and a nice cheese platter with a nice red wine. We then adjourned to the bar and had a couple of beers and a few Raki’s, before heading off to bed, it had been a long hot day.