Big Boat!

She tied up at the “Cruise Ship” dock and dwarfed the entire marina.

David and Goliath; Modern and Timeless, chose your own caption.  The perspective makes the sailboat look so much bigger than it really is in relation to Cavour.  Look at the masts behind her at the marina; like toothpicks.

She came and went without making a sound….

About 8 am her horn blasted indicating she’d be leaving the dock.  I was typing an email, but had every intention of watching her leave.  When I next looked up she was gone.

When an American Naval support ship docked in Subic Bay there were hundreds of crew all over the place.  We did see some of the Cavour crew in town: you could just tell who they were though they were dressed in civilian jeans and leather jackets.  They asked if they could pay in Euros!  I guess I’m becoming a “local” if I can tell who’s not.  But it wasn’t the invasion like back in Subic.  Not sure why.

Gwen said it takes very few crew to run this ship because of the automation so maybe that’s why there weren’t hundreds to come ashore.

Visit to the Arts and Crafts Center to see Doḡayla Bariṣ.

Remember when I tried to translate the poster and guessed something about singing and painting.  I was close.  The artist had taken poems and interpreted them in oil paintings.  Her partner had written music to go with the poems.  The group is concerned with protecting the environment and the great sea turtles.  If you go to youtube and type in their name Doḡayla Bariṣ and caretta (sea turtle) you can hear them.  

The poems and corresponding paintings were placed together.

A very interesting personality! 

We ate lunch down the street from the center.  It was wonderful pide…a big flat piece of bread with toppings sort of like pizza but not so heavy. 

They made their own dough and then added toppings that you can see to the man’s left. The dough was rolled through the machine with the roller.   Next time I order one I’ll take pictures before it gets eaten.  I took these photos after lunch.

He looked just like his dad who owns the restaurant and understands my Turkish!

Even during school vacation time there is homework to do.  He was doing maths.

I know most of you have worse weather than we do, some truly terrible weather.  But days and days of rain gets old too.  Most days have periods of no rain so we can get out.  But a full sunny day is rare in February.  Today, Tuesday, we had one and took full advantage to try out my new bike.  Mary, Rick and I biked to Iҫmeler just down the beach about 5 miles or so.  There’s a really nice walking/biking path so you can avoid road traffic.  Afternoons get crowded with walkers even in these off season times so I can’t imagine biking there in the summer unless you get up pretty early.  We had pizza for lunch!

Bike tweaking..

Rick and Mary have fold up bikes and Mary’s really didn’t want to completely unfold which made it tricky to ride so some repair was needed before we left the marina. 

Blue maskingl tape works perfectly to keep your pant leg out of the chain ring. 

Overloaded up and ready to go!

Mary gets lots of points for riding that bike…the seat was pointed to the sky so needed some adjusting and then it needed to go up some..but eventually it was okay. And it has those teeny tires. You can see the wonderful path leading away from Marmaris along the beach.

Flat!

Scenic

When the trail gets to Iҫmeler there’s a separate bike path which, or course, we’re not on.

Iҫmeler really shuts down for the off-season.  We asked some police for suggestions where to eat, tried to follow those directions eventually finding this great little pizza place.  I’m not wearing glasses because I’d taken off my sun glasses and didn’t want to unearth my regular glasses so just went without.  My eyesight is certainly good enough to eat pizza! 

You know you’re in Turkey when not only do you order tea with your pizza but you get to choose between English tea or Turkish tea.  I ordered English because it comes in a mug and Turkish tea comes in a lovely tea glass that is charming but only holds about 3 swallows of tea.  English tea comes in a mug so there’s more. 

After lunch we biked back to Marmaris stopping at the “big” Migros to get cereal since only that shop has the cereal Rick and Mary like.  Then it was back to the bike shop for me as my gears needed adjusting after my first “big” ride.  The fellow at the shop knows his business and all the cruisers go there.  He doesn’t smile much but he messed with my gears and tested the bike and oiled it again and there was no charge.  I love my bike!

Ru

I miss you Randal