Cappadocia – Outdoor Paradise

Hanging out in Cappadocia

Ever since I read about Cappadocia in a mountain bike magazine I’ve wanted to go. A seemingly endless trail network, stunning vistas, a history stretching millennia and some of the most hospitable people you’ll ever meet are all reasons to come and enjoy Goreme and the Cappadocia region. If you haven’t heard of the Cappadocia region don’t worry as it’s not too well publicized, at least in America or Australia. The Cappadocia region of Eastern, Turkey is famous for its rock formations called fairy chimneys and the houses and other buildings carved into these rock formations and walls. People have been living in the Cappadocia region for thousands and thousands of years with the area first being mentioned in written history during the 6^th century BC.  Although it’s believed this area was inhabited well through the Bronze Age (a long time ago) and possibly much farther back. The mostly dry region sits at about 1000 meters above sea level and is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

Trying to stay warm in the sun.

We visited Goreme, the tourist center of Cappadocia and home to some of the best examples of fairy chimneys and rock carved houses anywhere. We visited mid November but the weather was still very cold, barely making it above freezing during the day and dropping to close to -10 at night. We were really surprised, as were the locals, just how cold it was during that time of the year. Thankfully we had just the right amount of layers to keep us warm during the day. The cold didn’t really stop us from doing anything, we did a big walk each of the three days we were in Cappadocia. The scenery, trail network and interesting history are all just too good to pass up, despite the weather.

Pamela scampering up a hillside.

Our hotel, located in a little town called Cavusin was about 4 kilometers from the center of Goreme and within eyesight of all the marvelous sights this place has to offer. Early mornings were spent watching the many-many hot air balloons take flight and float over our hotel and into nearby canyon areas. Although very cold in the morning it was definitely worth getting up and checking out all the balloons. Some floated just a few meters from our hotel. We didn’t take a balloon flight in Cappadocia as we wanted to save our balloon flight for Egypt. 

Watching the balloons dip in and out of the valleys from our hotel.

The sky is full of hot air balloons.

We spent our days hiking through the various valleys around the Goreme area. In one case we hiked from Goreme up to the Open Air Museum, through a slot canyon, and back to Cavusin through the Rose and Red Valleys. This took at least 4 hours but was well worth the walk as we got to explore so many ancient rock structures including houses and churches. This area of Cappadocia was very famous for it’s monasteries from the 7^th to the 12^th centuries and it’s easy to see why. The monasteries are built into the side of the rock formations, some with no apparent way to the entrance passage, others with entrances easy enough for us to explore. If going on a walk we highly recommend bringing a torch or two for exploring the ruined rock structures.

Hiking through Love Valley.

The next big hike we did was from Cavusin to Love Valley and on to Uchisar then back to Goreme and Cavusin. This five hour loop walk led us through the famous fairy chimneys of Love Valley, it’s easy to see how Love Valley got its name from the shape of the rock formations. Once through the chimneys the valley continues for many kilometers before coming out near the rock castle at Uchisar where you can pick up the main road back to Goreme or continue to another valley. Depending on your available time we’d recommend hiking the valley between Uchisar and Goreme, there are plenty of rock formations and houses to view and explore on the walk.

Lots of crawling up and down big rocks.

While in Goreme we did get a really nice treat for dinner at the Anatolian Café. The Testi Kebab is meat and vegetables cooked in a clay pot, the waiter brings over the clay pot and you break it open with a small sword, from there you can eat the mouth-watering meat (chicken,lamb,beef) right out of the clay pot. We loved the meal, definitely our best while in Goreme.

Pamela cracking open the clay pot of the testi kebab. A must try when in Goreme

Getting to Goreme is pretty easy and cheap from anywhere in Turkey. You can catch a flight to Kayseri which is about a 45 minute drive from Goreme, from Kayseri you can catch a bus or hire a car. We took overnight buses both to and from Goreme, stopping in Nevesihir which is the closest large town to Goreme at about 20 minutes away. The overnight bus back to Istanbul left Goreme at about 8pm and got into Istanbul at about 7am.

While in Cappadocia we stayed at the Anitta Cave Hotel in the small town of Cavusin. The small family run hotel offers incredible views of the surrounding area including Goreme, Love Valley and the nearby church built into a rock wall. Along with the views you get great hospitality and a laugh or two from the hotel staff. We’d definitely recommend staying there, just remember you’re about 4 kilometers away from the town center but the hotel manager was more than happy to drive us to the center of town if/when we needed to go.

Fun with photos

After three days we felt like we just touched the tip of the iceberg in Cappadocia, we could have easily spent another week exploring trails, renting mountain bikes or ATVs or just eating the testi kebabs. We wouldn’t hesitate to come back to this part of Turkey in the future and recommend it to anyone who loves the outdoors, great food and great hospitality.

All our pics from Cappadocia can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/CappadociaGoremeAndCavusln?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Selcuk – Small Town, Big Charm

The Library of Celcus at Ephesus

The small town of Selcuk was the 3^rd stop on our Turkey tour. Made famous for the ancient ruins of Ephesus the town is also home to the Temple of Artemis, St. John’s Basilica, Seven Sleepers and some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We spent two nights at a hillside pension/hotel/hostel called ANZ House. Harry, the Turkish owner, spent quite a bit of time in Australia (18 years) hence the hotel name and also owns a carpet shop down the road. The town of Selcuk used to be a lot busier but since the arrival of cruise ships to a nearby port, most of the tourists now come by boat and only stay for the day. Walking around the streets at night you get the sense that it used to be quite a lively place but now just a few people are around. The benefit for us was there were no problems finding a dinner table and every shopkeeper was more than willing to chat with us for a while.

Ephesus
Pamela and I caught a taxi to the top gate of Ephesus at a cost of 10 Turkish Lira ($6 USD), we could have walked the four kilometers but weren’t 100% sure where we were going. At the top gate we made our way through the gauntlet of touts and shopkeepers, bought our 20 Turkish Lira ($12 USD) ticket each and got into the site with about a million other people, mostly tourists from the cruise ships. The sites at Ephesus are pretty well signposted in English but you can purchase an audio guide for an additional 10 Turkish Lira ($6 USD). A word of warning, make sure you go to the toilet prior to entering the park as there aren’t any inside the two kilometer long park. We both didn’t and had to wait until the end, three hours later.

Ancient amphitheatre once capable of seating 25,000

The ruins of Ephesus are said to be one of the best preserved examples of an ancient Mediterranean city.  In the 1^st century BC Ephesus ( during the Roman Era) was home to over 250,000 people making it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world. Ephesus was the slave trade center of the Mediterranean for almost 200 years. This allowed the city and many of its inhabitants to grow very wealthy. As you walk through the ruins be prepared for monstrous tour groups stopping and starting all over the place. If you manage to dodge the groups then you’ll get some great photos and read some interesting stories about the site. My personal favorites were the Library of Celcus, large amphitheater with seating for 25,000 and the Temple of Hadrian. While we were visiting the theatre a trio of American singers/tourists broke out into a chorus line center stage, not a real treat.

St. John’s Basilica
St. John’s was built by Emperor Justinian I in the 6^th century AD on the believed spot of John the Apostles Tomb. If still standing, St. John’s Basilica would be the 7^th largest Cathedral in the world.  We visited these ruins about an hour before sunset and stayed to watch the sunset, we definitely recommend you do the same. The ruins which sit at the top of a hill in Selcuk will cost you 5 Turkish Lira ($3 USD) each to get in. Outside you might run into touts trying to sell you real/fake ancient coins. Dodge them and walk through the old gates and into the ruins. Once inside the ruins check out the various older rooms, check out St. John’s supposed tomb, I say supposed because nobody really knows if he was really buried there, and last but not least stick around for the sunset. We did and it was well worth the price of admission. As the sun goes down you’ll be able to get some great pics of St. John’s, the city of Selcuk and the hill of Ephesus.

St. John's Tomb

Enjoying the sunset at St. John's Basilica. The Selcuk Citadel in the background.

Some of the remnants of the Basilica

The Temple of Artemis
We had a short visit to the temple dedicated to the Greek goddess of fertility. This place was an Ancient Wonder of the World when the temple was standing, think 500 BC. Unfortunately all that’s left of the 127 original columns is one single column which has been rebuilt by historians. The temple was destroyed in approximately 400 AD. You really have to use your imagination when considering the grandeur this site once held as now it’s just a single column and some old foundation. Admission is free and we’d only recommend stopping here if you’re passing by, which most people do on the way to and from Ephesus.

The lone column at The Temple of Artemis

Other Things to do in Selcuk
Unfortunately we only had a couple days in Selcuk so we couldn’t do all that much. We can say that a trip to the Seven Sleeper tombs is worth the extra little drive from Ephesus, while there you can order a fresh gozleme (Turkish pancake)  and watch the ladies make it right in front of you. Additionally a trip to Selcuk would not be complete without a stop at the Ejder Restaurant. Quite possibly the best restaurant in Turkey, the family run restaurant will cook your kebab on the small fire right in front of you. The pide is awesome and the service and hospitality are typical Turkey great.

The best kebab anywhere. That's the cook behind me.

Watching gozleme being made near the Tomb of the Seven Sleepers

All our photos from Selcuk can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/SelcukEphesusStJohnSBasilica?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Kaymakli Underground City – Taking a Trip Four Floors Down and Many Years in the Past

Crawling through one of the unmarked tunnels.

About twenty minutes from the Cappadocia central town of Neveshir, Turkey lies a mammoth underground city called Kaymakli. Stables, kitchens, storage, churches, a winery, cemeteries and houses are just some of the things we found in the few hours we spent underground at Kaymakli. The former inhabits of these caves used them for everything but most importantly they were used to hide from would be invaders. The Cappadocia region of Turkey is literally filled with these underground cities, I read one article that stated there’s an underground city for every above ground city. Only four of these cities have been made available for tourists to visit. We heard that many locals still use underground cities, or what’s left of them, for current storage. 

Small doorways

Fifteen Turkish Lira ($8.50 USD) will get you into the underground city, if you’d like you can pick-up a guide onsite for approximately 40 Turkish Lira but we recommend reading up ahead of time and going in on your own. Going in alone and not part of an organized tour will give you the most amount of time to explore the city and it’s features. We would recommend bringing at least one torch, preferably a head torch for your visit. Long pants and a long-sleeve shirt are also a good idea as you could be crawling on the ground for a bit. 

Just happy to be in a room we can stand-up in.

It took many hundreds of years for the Kaymakli caves to be carved out and it’s hard to say how many people actually inhabited the underground city during it’s heyday but it’s believed the inhabitants were not too impoverished as there is quite a substantial area for storage of food and other goods.  While we were visiting it was a cold-cold day with snow on the ground so I can only imagine the city inhabitants were thankful for these caves in the wintertime to escape the cold and the summertime to escape the heat.

A very deep ventilation shaft. We couldn't see the bottom of it.

Once in the caves you can take a suggested path by following red arrow signs to go in and down and blue arrow signs to go up and out. All the areas marked with arrow signs are well lit with easy to follow passageways. Claustrophobics should beware though as some of the lit passages get pretty narrow and short.  We did our best to follow the red and blue arrows but also took any chance we could to explore other passageways that were not lit. Most of these passages involved turning on our torches and crawling through very small tunnels to rooms that looked like old storage areas. In one case we couldn’t go any farther down a tunnel as it got too small to turn around and we didn’t feel like crawling backwards. At one point we shut off our lights and sat quiet in the pitch black, it’s an eerie feeling to be in a place so dark and quiet. We could hear each other breathing but couldn’t see our hands in front of our own face. Definitely not for the people who are scared of the dark or of confined spaces.

One of the larger rooms on the path through the city.

Getting to Kaymakli
There are many tours that take you into this underground city but we’d recommend doing it on your own if you have some free time and don’t mind exploring a bit. From Goreme you can take a minibus to the minibus stop in Nevesihir at a cost of two Turkish Lira ($1.15 USD).  At the minibus stop catch a van to Kaymakli, the above ground city is also called Kaymakli, at a cost of three Turkish Lira ($1.75 USD). Tell the driver to Kaymakli that you want to get off at the underground city. The van will drop you at the exact right place. When finished just walk back to the main road and wait for the van that reads Kaymakli/Nevesihir and just reverse the process. You shouldn’t have to wait longer than 30 minutes at any given place. On the drive back from Kaymakli we kept wondering how many other underground cities were located just near us. We definitely would like to go back and explore more.

All our pics from Kaymakli can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/KaymakliUndergroundCityCappadocia?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Gallipoli and Troy

Replica Trojan Horse Outside of Troy

We had a very eye-opening and interesting visit to the Gallipoli Peninsula and the ancient city of Troy. Both sites are visible to each other on a clear day and both sites were home to historical battles fought basically over the same land and waterways, yet thousands of years apart.
 

Looking out over the beach and peninsula

Gallipoli
A five hour bus ride from Istanbul brought us to the small seaside town of Eceabat for the start of our Gallipoli tour. Going into this visit I (DW) really didn’t know much about the Gallipoli peninsula and the famous battle that occurred here from March of 1915 to January of 1916. I don’t recall learning about this part of World War I in history class but I definitely could have been asleep or not in class, with the latter probably true. It wasn’t until I moved to Australia that I was introduced to this part of history and the key role the Australia New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) played in the battle and the war. For those like me who are not aware, the ANZAC’s, as part of a larger force, invaded the Turkish peninsula in an attempt to gain control of this part of Turkey and in turn the Dardanelles Straight waterway which is the gateway to the Black Sea. During the fierce trench warfare style battle the ANZAC’s along with all Allied Forces and Turkish soldiers experienced heavy casualties.

Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli

The new ANZAC Memorial

Our first stop on the tour was a large map indicating where each of the Allied Forces  landed on the peninsula, now a National Park, and strategies involved in the attack. Next we went to the new ANZAC Memorial, built in 2000 by the Turkish Government, where many Australian and New Zealanders come every 25^th of April to celebrate ANZAC Day in remembrance. According to our guide the Turkish Government and Tourism Dept. is planning on 100,000 visitors for the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC landing in 2015. Following the memorial stop we toured ANZAC cove, the spot where they landed on the beach, and many cemeteries and memorials for both the ANZAC and Turkish side of the war.  It was great to see how the Turkish government has helped memorialize both their soldiers and those of the Allied Forces.  The Lone Pine monument was probably the most moving for me; up on that hill you get the sense of how hard these heroes (from both sides) had to fight and the hardships they had to endure over the 10 months of fighting.

Pamela practising her trench warfare techniques

The Turkish Memorial at Gallipoli.

Troy
I really did try and read The Iliad before arriving in Troy….really, I did. Unfortunately I only got about a third of the way through it before switching to something a little more modern. It’s not that easy of a read, at least for me it wasn’t. For those of you not familiar, The Iliad is an epic poem written by Homer a long time ago (think 700 BC) that discusses the 10 year battle the Greeks waged against the Trojans over Princess Helen, control over their land and more importantly the Dardanelles Straight. We’ve probably all seen the movie Troy so I don’t think I need to go into that any more.

Checking out the ancient ruins of Troy

Troy, or Troia as the signs read on the way to the place, has a replica wooden horse you can climb-up just after the entrance gates. From there you can take a walk around the place and see examples of the nine different versions of the city of Troy, the first version, Troy I, dating back many thousands of years. The famous story of the battle for Troy supposedly happened during the sixth version of the city, still a long-long time ago. It’s kind of cool to stand on the walkway and look out at where Achilles and Hector supposedly had their battle and where the Greeks would have left their famous wooden horse. The place in my mind was legendary and I just thought it was so cool to actually stand in the place where it supposedly all happened.

Looking out at the supposed battle site of Hector and Achilles

While walking around the ancient ruined city, or any ancient city for that matter, I try to picture myself back in those days and try and visualize how the people worked and lived from day-to-day. I can’t imagine it would be that different than how we live now, just a different set of tools to do it.

That was our two days at Gallipoli and Troy. To think these two famous battles, one lasting 10 months and the other 10 years, were fought so close together geographically (you can see them with the naked eye), yet so far apart in time, and basically for the same thing…control of the land and the Dardanelles Straight.

All our pics from Gallipoli and Troy can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/GallipoliAndTroy?authuser=0&feat=directlink


Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave

Pamukkale

A three and half hour bus ride from Selcuk, known for Ephesus, took us to the small but bustling city of Pamukkale. Famous for the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis and the unusual white rock formations called travertines. 

Travertine: a mineral consisting of a massive usually layered calcium carbonate (as aragonite or calcite) formed by deposition from spring waters or especially from hot springs – From Websters

The travertines look really cold, they’re not. The water is actually quite warm, it starts at 36˚ Celsius at the top and trickles down getting a little cooler as it goes.  The travertines look really slippery, they’re not. The stone is quite porous, park regulations only permit you to walk on the white portion with your bare feet and even the steeper parts can be walked right up (bare feet only) without falling. We spent a really cool three hours exploring the travertines at Pamukkale.

Open 24 hours a day,20Turkish Lira ($12 USD) gets you into the park which also includes the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. Romans believed the thermal area had special healing powers and used the pools for a long time to improve their health. You can even take a dip in the ancient thermal pools at an additional cost of 25 Turkish Lira ($14 USD) a person. We didn’t have much time at the park so we skipped out on the  healing pool and focused our attention on exploring/photographing the travertine pools. Check out some of our photos below with the remainder here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/PamukkaleTurkey?authuser=0&feat=directlink

If travelling through Turkey we’d highly recommend making a pit stop for a day or two in Pamukkale. If there for two days then consider the paragliding, it looked amazing. We only wish we had more time to paraglide.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Three Months Down – Lessons Learned and Highlights from the Previous Month

The 5^th of November marked three consecutive months of our round the world honeymoon. Just a month ago we were in Nepal, since we’ve traveled to India, Maldives, Greece, France and Turkey.  Over the last month we’ve stayed in 15 different hotels,  spent one night in the airport and one night on a train. The 15 different hotels range from the best of the best to the worst of the worst. We went from an outdoor rain shower to an indoor bucket shower and back again. This month has definitely been the busiest for us, we’ve seen so much in such a short amount of time that it’s hard even finding time to write about the stuff.

Lessons Learned from Month #3
Make sure you have enough sunblock when traveling to the Maldives. If 
not, expect to pay a very high price for sunblock at whichever resort 
you stay at. We ran out and had to spend quite a bit on a less than 
good bottle.

Be very careful when handing over money while traveling. Within 20 
minutes of arriving into India the Tourist Police of all people took 
us for 900 rupees (20 usd) using the old switcheroo technique.

Where double-seemed pants when walking through the jungle. Leeches can 
and will get through the seems of your single seemed pants to get to 
your tasty blood.

If you wear contact lenses then make sure you have a good pair of 
backup glasses. I (DW) have needed to wear my glasses off and on and 
my backup glasses (which I never wore for any length of time) gave me 
a lot of problems. Holiday pics don't look so good with a band-aid 
over your nose.

Be sure to pack your own towell if staying in budget accommadation. 
Even if a towell is provided it often isn't clean and could have the 
texture of sandpaper. Our large pack towell dries fast and doesn't 
have the texture of gravel.

Highlights from Month #3 and Why
Pamela -  Definitely the week in the Maldives. I loved it so much, it was a dream honeymoon.
Dave  - Maldives. Pamela and I got to spend some good relaxing time together. So much of our trip has been go-go-go that we haven’t had much time to stop-stop-stop

Lowlights from Month #3 and Why
Pamela – Indian Railways. I didn’t have a good time on the trains in India. From gag-inducing smells and sights at the stations, to trash lining the floors of the cars, it just wasn’t a pleasant experience. If doing it again I’d definitely spring for 1^st class tickets…but next time I’ll try my hardest to fly.
Dave – Catching a cold and eye infection and not in that order. I didn’t like being sick while traveling through India and I’m definitely sick of wearing my glasses. I should have listened to Pamela earlier and gone to the Doctors sooner vs later. Just don’t tell her I said that.

Where are We Now
We’re currently traveling through Turkey by bus and having a great time doing it. We love Turkey….the food, the people, the sights, everything has been great.  Yesterday we visited St. John’s Basilica in Selcuk and today we visited the travertines of Pamukkale.

New Website Info
I can’t believe we’ve had almost 9000 hits on our website in just over three months. That’s more than I thought we’d get on our whole trip. Thanks again to everyone for checking out the site. Recently we added a little gadget that posts our last Twitter updates from our account @FrqtFlyr and we also have a little gadget that lists where we are and how far we’ve travelled.

That’s it for Month #3 update. Month four will be here before you know it….especially since I’m a little late with this one J

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Two Nights in Paris

Our honeymoon wouldn't be complete without a visit to Paris. A trip to the Eiffel Tower, the works of the Louvre and the magnificent shops on Champs-Elysees were calling our name.  The first stop in Paris was a walk from our hotel in the Vendome area up to the Arc de Triomphe and the shops of Champs-Elysees. Along the way we passed the Louis Vuitton flagship store, all many stories of it, Pamela said the store reminded her of Christmas and I had a good laugh. On the way to the Arc we swung by the Prime Minister’s residence and the Grand and Petite Palais. It was a good looong walk there and back.

Checkin out the Arc dr Triomphe

The next morning we woke up nice and early and headed for the Louvre. An exhibit of Alexander the Great  (mostly in French), the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Ramses II, and many-many more works of art filled our morning and early afternoon.  It surprised me a bit that the descriptions of all the art was only in French, I guess we’ve been spoiled everywhere else in the world with descriptions in the local language and English. We saw so much in such a short time,  by 2:00pm we’d had enough of the crowds and translating French so we sold our tickets to another couple and headed back to the hotel to regroup.

Morning walk to the Louvre

Outside the Louvre - We'd had enough.

Regroup done, we were off to the Eiffel Tower. A walk through the Army Museum and Napoleons Tomb had us at the tower just about sunset. We had an amazingly good crepe with nutella and banana before heading up. We bought tickets on the stairs to the 2^nd floor at a cost of 9.40 Euro ($13 USD) and started our walk up to the 2^nd floor. You can take an elevator all the way to the top, with a change of elevators on floor 2, but we elected to walk up to the 2^nd floor and go down. I’m (DW) not a big fan of heights so the 2^nd level was as high as I needed to go, not to mention the queue for the top was very long. Going up the Eiffel Tower was a great experience and you can’t come to Paris without doing it, despite however long the lines might be.


We followed up our Eiffel experience with a nice pizza dinner at a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees and then a brisk walk back to our hotel in the Vendome section. We did quite a bit of walking over the course of our two nights in Paris. By the time we hit our bed we were both out like lights.

A glittering Eiffel Tower

Next morning we awoke to rain. I went downstairs and ordered a couple coffees from the bar area of our hotel. Twenty-two euros ($35 USD) later, a smug look from the girl who delivered the take-away coffee to me, and I was drinking the most expensive cup of coffee I’ve ever drank. Seriously, my $17 USD cup of coffee was gone in about 5 minutes.  In any case, this about summed up our experience with our hotel, the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome. I used points to book two nights at the place which normally goes for about $900 USD a night (cheapest room). We were so looking forward to the hotel as we normally are really impressed with Hyatt’s all over the world and we really thought the Paris Vendome property would be something special. Unfortunately we were not very impressed with this property at all. The room was very small, our view was of the hotel interior courtyard, which could have been anywhere, and there wasn’t even a coffee maker in the room. For $900 USD a night you’d think there be a coffee maker in the room. Of all the Hyatt’s I’ve ever stayed at I think this was the most unimpressive of the lot.  We informed the front desk staff it was our honeymoon but were not treated to any amenities, not even a card. In most of our other hotels we’ve been given at least a card, some, like the Hyatt in Kathmandu even delivered a cake. We will never stay at this hotel again and we wouldn’t recommend any of our friends to stay at this hotel either. It’s definitely not worth the price tag, even if using points to stay. You would be better off at a property that’s a quarter of the price but has a coffee maker in the room. Okay, enough of my whining about this hotel….sorry for that but sometimes you just need to vent.

Heading up the Eiffel Tower

In any case our last day in Paris was nice. We walked around, had a good French lunch and took the bus to the airport for our flight to Istanbul. We had a really nice time in Paris, despite being disappointed in the quality of our hotel and look forward to going back someday.

Walking to the Eiffel Tower

All our pics from Paris can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/ParisFrance?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

Athens – A Blast from the Past

The Acropolis from Filopappos Hill

The next stop on our Honeymoon was a short three night stay in Athens, Greece. We were excited to get to Europe and enjoy some Western comforts like espresso coffee in outdoor cafes, chocolate chip muffins and drinkable tap water.  Just 10 days prior to arriving in Athens we were seriously considering cancelling our trip there due to strikes and rioting going on in the city. Fortunately for us the civil unrest ended well before we arrived, this also seemed to thin out the tourists a bit for we didn’t find the sites all that crowded.  We loved Athens and saw so many sites over two full days that both of us were konked out each night early.

Looking up at the Acropolis from the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Acropolis Museum
The new  Acropolis Museum, completed in 2009, was our first stop on Sunday morning. Just a three minute walk from our hotel and 5 Euros ($$7 USD) a piece later we were in.  The museum itself sits over an 1000+ year old Christian settlement that is still being excavated. Much of the floor of the museum and entryway is transparent which allows you to see down into the old settlement. The museum itself contains many of the original sculpted pieces of the Parthenon which have been moved to protect them from the elements.

Atop the Acropolis. The Parthenon

We recommend starting your visit to the Acropolis with the museum. It provided us a good background on the area and the 2400 year old remains of the Parthenon structure. A couple tips before your visit: Unfortunately the museum does not allow cameras or large bags but there is a cloakroom on the ground floor where you can leave your bags, also the 3^rd floor restaurant is a good place to sit outside and enjoy a great view of the Acropolis during the day or night.

In front of the Acropolis Museum

Acropolis
Definitely the highlight of our visit to Athens, the Acropolis or “Sacred Rock” is the highest and largest monument of the city and has been continuously used since Neolithic times. Meaning it’s really-really big and really-really old. We paid 12 Euro ($16 USD) each for a ticket to the Acropolis. Thankfully your ticket to the Acropolis also includes a ticket to 5 other archaeological sites in the area including the Agora, Roman Forum, Temple of Olympian Zeus and Theater of Dionysus. We bought our Acropolis ticket first then went to some of the smaller sites.

The Parthenon

Unfortunately while we were at the Acropolis the Parthenon was under major renovation, although from the look of the equipment it might always be under renovation, so don’t be upset if there are cranes in your pictures. While up on the rock we were treated to some amazing views of the city all the way out to the sea. We didn’t use a tour guide but found a certified guide willing to lead us for 10 Euros each.

Agora
The Agora, Athens Ancient Marketplace, was our second favorite site in Athens. The Temple of Hephaestus looks like a smaller, but more intact, version of the Parthenon and the Agora Museum, included in the ticket price, contained a really good exhibit with artifacts dating back to 3500 BC. I (DW) especially liked the bronze Spartan shield which was used by a Spartan back in 425 BC. The shield itself is gigantic and I can’t even imagine how strong the person who wielded it must have been. Also of note is the Stele of Democracy which is an inscribed marble statue detailing the first democratic form of government. This was the time when democracy was born, kinda cool. Pamela had a good time checking out the jewellery and other ornaments dating back 3000 years.

A bronze shield used by the Spartans in battle.

The Temple of Hephaestus at the Agora

Statue of Nike at the Agora Museum

Other Sites
We only had two days in Athens so we were really limited in the amount we could see. If you’re also short on time then I would plan on 90 minutes each for the Acropolis and the Agora and two hours for the Acropolis Museum, I’m sure we took longer but we also like to take a lot of pictures.

We can recommend the following, all nearby the Acropolis:

- Watch the sunset from the top of Filopappos Hill – great view of the Acropolis and the city of Athens to the sea.

Sunset from Filopappos Hill

- Climb atop the Areopagos Rock – This is the site, mentioned in the Bible (Acts 17 22-34), where Paul converted the first Greeks to Christianity.

Pamela reading Acts:17 (22-34) on the rock where Paul delivered this very speech nearly 2000 years ago.

- Visit the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrians Arch 

At the Temple of Olympian Zeus

-  Have dinner at a local Taverna in the Plaka – A nice 19^th century neighborhood just below the Acropolis.

We enjoyed walking around the streets near the Acropolis.

Getting There
We flew into Athens airport and took the Metro line to Syntagma station then changed to the red line for Akropoli. The trip took about 50 minutes and cost 14 Euro ($20 USD) for two tickets. The Metro line, built for the 2004 Olympics, looks/feels new and has frequent trains around the city with airport trains every 30 minutes. From the Akropoli station we walked about two minutes to the Airotel Parthenon hotel where we stayed for three nights ($115 USD a night). The hotel was pretty nice with its best features being its location, 5 minutes to the Acropolis, and a really good buffet breakfast.

While in Athens we really enjoyed viewing the archaeological sites and enjoyed learning more about the very interesting and colorful Greek history. The people seemed friendly and we felt really safe walking around at night. This was a nice change of pace after spending so much time in Asia. We would definitely come back to Athens, hopefully next time we’ll do a trip out to the islands and see more of Greece.

All of our pics from Athens can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/AthensGreece?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave