2013 Euro Vacation: Turkey - Istanbul and west coast

Turkey

After another few days in London, we caught a flight to Istanbul for our first visit to Turkey. With only ten days available we couldn’t cover too much in this large and very interesting place, but we managed to visit Istanbul, and then head west to visit Gallipoli, the ancient ruins of Troy, Pergamon, Ephesus and Hierapolis, and see the magnificent travertine pools of Pamukkale.

Our Istanbul hotel had a view of the Blue Mosque from its rooftop terrace – in fact everyone in the old part of Istanbul seems to have a rooftop terrace. Many have great views of the major buildings and of the Bosphorus. We visited all of the major tourist sites of Istanbul and all were at least as good or better than we expected. The weather was excellent so lots of tourists in evidence everywhere.The food is great, with heaps of restaurants, along with the ubiquitous carpet shops. There were some fabulous looking carpets, but we resisted the temptations.

Next stop was Gallipoli to view the WW1 battlefields – very moving and an excellent tour conducted by TJ’s Tours of Eceabat – TJ himself is a Turk married to an Australian, and gave a great account of the battles from the ANZAC and Turkish perspectives. The main impression we left with, was of the immense and completely futile waste of young lives on both sides. Stayed a couple of nights across the Dardanelles in the great little town of Canakkale (has three "Anzac" hotels so popular with Aussies and Kiwis), then off to see the remains of Troy (plus several replica wooden horses!), followed by Pergamon. We had seen the Pergamon altar which is in a purpose built museum in Berlin – we then saw where it had been lifted from - all done with the Sultan’s permission at the time, but not popular with Turkish archaeologists today.

We stayed a few nights in Kusadasi on the coast, within easy reach of the magnificent ruins of Ephesus, then next day took the trek out to see the travertine pools at Pamukkale, along with the adjacent ruined city of Hierapolis. All absolutely excellent.

Back to Istanbul on Pegasus Air from Izmir, then next day back to London. The trip was just long enough to whet our appetite to see a lot more of Turkey.

The Blue Mosque from the park in front

Blue Mosque roof tiles

Blue Mosque "Elephant Pillar"
one of several holding up the roof

Blue Mosque by night

The eerie underground Cisterns - as seen in the old James Bond movie "From Russia with Love"

Istanbul European side - upmarket houses

Stylish old yacht given to Ataturk by a grateful Turkish nation

Old Sultan's palace - now a 16 room Kempinski Hotel (USD 20K per night!!)

Rooftop terrace diner

Rooftop terrace views - Hagia Sophia in background

Hagia Sophia in background, Sultan's former Harem on right

Sophia interior

Graffiti left by Vikings around 900 AD - Hagia Sophia

Topkapi Palace entry

Topkapi interior courtyard with pools

Gallipoli museum - foreground has examples of bullets which struck in mid-air
and fused together. Apparently the odds of this are 160 Million to 1,
indicating how much metal was flying through the air

Grave of Simpson - "The Man with the Donkey"

Anzac Cove

Anzac Cove Cemetery - rock feature in the background is what the Anzacs called The Sphinx

Memorial to a true story - a Turkish officer called for a temporary ceasefire - went out and picked up
a wounded British soldier, carried him to the British side, then returned to his trench,
whereupon everyone started shooting at each other again!