Turkey - week by the pool

After a hectic week of travelling and in order to acclimatize back to the "normal life" we decided to spend a week by a pool. We ended up in Bitez (near Bodrum), which is very popular with the Dutch speakers. This was a much nicer little resort than the nearby Gumbet, which is a British enclave. Gumbet reminded Lee of how his fellow country citizens:
a) Like to drink so much
b) Like to fit into small clothes, especially the larger women

Turkey (or at least Tourist Turkey) was much more advanced and modern than we were expecting - but this was also reflected in prices that are more expensive than Europe for some important things, such as Red Wine. (Yes, Lee is writing this Blog). We had been spoilt by a year of Chinese prices...

One does not travel to Turkey for the international cuisine, but the food was always fresh with very tasty tomatoes and olives.

We made a stop in Istanbul - hard to believe that 13 million live here since it feels very much like a small town. The great mosque was a definite high light of our stop, and the photographs cannot give sense of scale that you experience there. It is also nice to be in a house of religion without lots of pictures or statues all over the place. (Catholic Church, take note!:))

Apart from sleeping, eating, resting we made a little excursion to Efes and the Cotton Castles. Efes is fascinating in that it was an important city before Greek, during Greek and also during Roman empires. It has given Lee a renewed interest in ancient history! The Cotton Castles are a great illustration of how earth is god's chemistry set!

Time went very quickly with us being busy doing very little, but Bitez can be recommended if a lazy and quiet vacation is needed.