Easy to know which way the wind blows

Not sure if you can tell, but our new passerelle lets us walk off the boat fairly easily.  Our old one was at quite an angle making it really hard for me to get off.  Now I just hold onto the dingy straps for some balance and it’s so much easier.  Yay!!!!!

Netsel Marina bridge

There are three bridges cross the canals that flow into town from the bay.  This one is the closest to the waterfront.  I started here and then decided to walk up the hill-side towards the castle.

Part way up the hill-side I came upon this empty space that would be so tempting for just about anything; home, studio, shop, café…. Wood floors, lots of windows and light and a great setting.

Homes climb up the hill-side all with wonderful views of town or the bay and, unfortunately, the neighbors’ satellite dishes.

A lovely small courtyard.

Always lots of cats!

It went down; I kept going up.

Orange cat, blue window, purple flower and the lovely winding stairs.

This path dead-ended at the gates of a restaurant so I turned around to follow a different route.

Mediterranean Blue

I’ll never tire of this combination; seaside colors.

Narrow walkways have always attracted me much more than huge boulevards with massive architecture.  They hold more surprises.

Just a quick visit into the Marmaris Castle so I could take photos from the castle walls.  I will visit again to see the displays.  This is the first time we’ve been here that the castle has been open.  Our first year it was being rennovated.  Then we missed the season.  Now it seems to be opened all year round except for Mondays. 

Photos from the castle walls.  If I zoomed in (way in) you could see DoraMac.

Looking back towards Marmaris town

Walking down from the castle I passed by this cute wine bar.

Outdoor dining! 

The first woman had no cane or I would have thought I had met her earlier.  I really do like the mix and match patterns and colors.  I sneak the photos because I think, unlike the ladies on the http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com. blog, these ladies would be shy about their ‘fashions.’  Because if I’d really taken the time with each one, I’d have definitely noticed the different head scarfs and sweathers and sock patterns!

Interesting window displays. 

The vests were burlap and the skirts dried herbs.  I definitely must return to both shops when they’re open.

The ‘coffee club’ was still meeting so I stopped for a chat.    Buttons in his new Christmas sweater.

Big boat!

Standing on B dock looking back across to the castle.  We do have a lovely view of town!

Christmas morning delivery!  Connie surprised us with home-made cashew cracker jacks and we surprised her by being away when she came by. 

Off to Christmas dinner at Joya Del Mar

I planned to walk the 3+ miles to dinner and talked some folks into going along.

Connie, Jane, Jill, Lisa, and Hannah-Ruth

Greg , Quinn and Roberto were a bit further behind.

The sun fought with the coming rain to make lovely colors.

Stopping to take some photos; we arrived just before the rain came.  But it was a brief shower that passed quickly.

The “man in charge” and his staff did a great job!  These were the shrimp/avocado cocktail-salad.

Connie and Jane with a glass of pre-meal punch.

Connie and Irene in the dress she’d knitted and Connie in her Black Dog shirt.

Connie and Gwen

(Here’s a Connie, there’s a Connie, Everywhere’s a Connie Connie)

It was beautiful inside and out…….

The wine coolers changed colors. Cool!

Soup, shrimp cocktail, huge egg roll, main meal and then dessert required lots and lots of silverware!  Randal and I chose turkey, the other option being lamb so tender it fell from the bones.  The bones went home for the marina dogs.

Back deck with a pool for the summer time diners.

The beach

Looking toward Yacht Marine in the distance

Men in Hats, Randal (sans glasses) and Paul with his fedora!

Both lovely men in lovely hats but they couldn’t compete with the woman below!

She wasn’t with our group but would have fit right in.  It wasn’t her hat but I’d seen her try it on so asked for a photo and she kindly ( and bravely) obliged. 

Cheers!!!!!

Christmas cracker crowns!  Connie Jane and Tom.

Ours was the slightly rowdy table !

“Mayor Colin” and the lovely Jane from Hydeaway.  Colin handles the morning net fairly ofter, shows the Monday movies, has office hours at the coffee shop every morning;  hence the term “Mayor.”

Nadida, the agent who helps us all with the Turkish rules and regulations, Bill and Joan!

They were great and sang lots of crowd favorites.

A very Edward Hopper – ish image of the staff taking a well-deserved quite time.

The former fish market now the Arts and Culture Center.

The galleries are on each side of the building.

Watercolor studies which really look better than my photos convey.

Various portrait studies.  Ken, the cello player painting made me think of you!

I instantly thought of the musical Cabaret

I like food paintings

I drove myself crazy for a while trying to draw/paint pomegranates but never thought to just draw the seeds.  I think these were colored pencil or pastels.  Not sure.

This one really caught my eye.

Very vibrant.

The photos were wall sized in height.  Here are a few.

IT’S THE FRESSNESS THAT COUNTS is spelled out in Scrabble letters.

Netsel Mall all decorated for Christmas

All of the Turkish Santas have been on the Mediterranean Diet so are on the thin side.

Ibrahim and Tom having a pre-dinner chat

Lots of good food and pecan pie.

Jane explaining pecan pie as it’s not something Turks know; Karo syrup and pecans aren’t sold in here.  Our ingredients were all bought along our way here and we brought the Karo syrup from home.

Quinn and Colin experienced pecan pie eaters!

Hannah-Ruth picking the first gift; as she’s the first she also gets to go last!

A bottle of wine; but no worries about her age, she lost the bottle a few rounds later.

Joan watches  as Bill opened his gift which also went to someone else fairly quickly!

We celebrated Joan’s 89^th birthday in 2013 before we left for England!

Some gifts sort of remained a mystery;  a bib-apron?

Tom had a good time though I don’t know what is final gift was but none of his three tickets was the raffel winner.

Jill needed her chocolate treats to be explained; dried fruits covered in chocolate or something like that.

Jane’s pick was a calendar from the Marmaris SPCA

Joan had picked a similar calendar with dog pictures.  The money really goes for a good cause and who doesn’t need a third calendar?

Colin had this bottle for about 1 round and then it was gone too.

Mogens picked these funny boxers, but alas, he didn’t get to keep them either!

Randal lost his bottle of stuff right away too.  Those bottles moved around all evening!  He did go home with a great gift assortment from the Netsel Mall Coffee Shop,  Kahve Dunyasi ; chocolate spoons, chocolate covered coffee beans…..

Notice Randal without glasses.  Since his cataract surgery he has great distance vision.  But he’ll need to get new glasses here as we left Roanoke before his eyes had fully adjusted.

Gwen picked a soup mug with some soup mix and instantly traded it for Colins’s bottle of wine!

For fun, Randal had substituted one of his Cellars of Roanoke Wreck Repair  vintage 1948 labels on this bottle of local wine, but it got lost in translation as Gwen tried to explain in Turkish what the deal was. 

Here’s the story about my gift pick. 

I had bought something in Roanoke for the gift exchange.  But when we got here I thought we should have made donations to the animal shelter for the gift swap.  Someone really did think of it.  You make a donation and  receive a dog calendar and cat calendar in exchange for the donations.  Jane picked the cat calendar.  Joan picked the dog calendar but wasn’ t so enthused about it.  So I decided that no matter what I chose from the table, I would then swap it to Joan for the dog calendar.  My mystery gift was a packet of holiday cards, not so really hard to part with.  I  took the very simple calendar from Joan and gave her the cards.   I felt good about “my donation to the dogs!”  Not sure what Joan thought!

Rose Toilet Water was Quinn’s surprise gift.

Quin hadn’t let his mom take the battery operated light from Bill earlier on but he wasn’t so thrilled with the rose toilet water he chose so swapped it for the lamp himself.

Paul instantly swapped his gift!

Connie, from Cape Cod, chose something useful for boats so was quite happy and not mean at all.

Then it was time to sing!

Mogens and Hannah-Ruth played for the carols

Everyone sang

Some with great enthusiasm!  

Not sure if Connie is drummers drumming or maids a milking!

Sibel wins the grand prize!

Guven Marine* donated this huge gift basket for a cruiser raffle to help support the events we have at Sailor’s Point during the year.

Sibel was the grand prize winner!  As she’s the most famous sailor among us, it seems fitting.  

“Osman Atasoy and Sibel Karasu have gone down in history as the first Turkish navigators to reach Antarctica, covering 8,500 miles in their 14-meter craft, Uzaklar II”

http://www.mydoramac.com/first-turkish-sailors-in-antarctica/  tells the story as we were here for their big return!

*Guven has been organizing the work on Doramac and keeping an eye on her while we were in the US.