Dropping Friends at the Syrian Border
A beautiful followsummer memory! Sunday, May 23rd, 2004: Sanliurfa to Istanbul, Turkey N 40 ° E 029 ° We leave Sanliurfa about 9 a.m. – this will be a long day on buses for Greg and me. The first part, which takes 4 ½ hours...
Following the Coast of the Aegean, Southward.
We follow the coast of the Aegean southward, towards Selçuk, Turkey the sea as beautifully blue as every photo of it shows.
Touring the Grand Mosques of Istanbul
Today is Mosque day, and we set out to see a number of them. I am still battling my cold which has left me sneezing and coughing through the last week of our Turkey tour, and now I bring it to Istanbul. It is very hard when you...
An Early Morning Visit to Ephesus
Our tour group is quickly figuring out each other’s quirks and quarks: who is an early riser, who likes to stay up for that extra Efes beer at night. Who eats breakfast and who doesn’t. The loners and the outgoing...
Traveling The Silk Road
from the followsummer archives Follow my blog with Bloglovin This morning seems a little warmer and Haluk has promised temperatures of up to 31° when we arrive at Mt. Nemrut. We are heading farther east today and have an 8-9 hour...
A Travel Day: Pamukkale to Dalyan, Turkey
A travel day – 3 different buses, 8 hours in all, with a 90-minute break for lunch in Fethiye, on the Mediterranean. Haluk takes us (by another bus) into the town centre of Fethiye, famed for its ice cream. We have reached the...
Idyllic Views Toward Greece in Kas, Turkey
3 more buses, another 5 hours, and we arrive in Kas, a beautiful town on the Mediterranean. We stroll the streets, lounging in the waterfront cafés, and we think this could be the Italian Riviera. It is really quite romantic....
Exploring the Ancient City of Hierapolis in Pamukkale, Turkey
What makes it stunning and different is that the springs have, in flowing down the mountainside over millennia, have formed travertines – calcified formations that cover the side of the mountain – from the road yesterday we...
Feeling Like Sultans at The Topkapi Palace
Topkapi is organized into 4 courtyards that go from most public to most private, which was the suite of the Sultan himself. Only the 1st and 2nd courtyards were accessible to the public, and the Sultan used to receive visiting...
At the Throne of the Gods, Atop Mt. Nemrut
Over 2,000 years after Antiochus died and almost as long after his tiny kingdom was conquered by and absorbed into the Roman Empire, Mt. Nemrut stands as a beautiful and powerful reminder of a brilliant, if somewhat egotistical,...