All in all, we liked our time in the mountains more than down by the coast. But there were bright spots too.
Ru
DoraMac
We left Seydisehir before 8 am since it would be at least a 6 hour ride to Antalya on the coast. I always start out wearing my jacket but Randal doesn’t usually feel the need. We had only gone a short way when Randal decided he also needed to put on his jacket since the early morning air was chilly and we were still in the mountains. In no time we wished for warmer jackets and long pants and gloves! We were high in the mountains and riding mostly in the shade. I was freezing and I had Randal as a shield. It was the first time Randal said he was cold, especially his legs since he was wearing only shorts. I was too cold to enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery. It just was no fun and we just wanted it to be over. We had no long sleeved shirts or long pants because everyone back at the marina had told us we’d be warmer away from the coast so only needed hot weather clothing. It was actually just the opposite! As the sun rose over the mountains we began to warm up. Eventually we stopped for fuel, tea and coffee. We should have skipped the tea and coffee, or picked a different place to get it. We had just about run out of fuel so needed to stop at the first station we saw. (We do carry some in a container but prefer to save that for real emergencies.) Next door was a “tourist restaurant” where buses stop with the unsuspecting who don’t know 4 TL is an outrageous fee for tea and coffee. Though we should have known better we went in and got tea and coffee. Afterwards I bought a bottle of water at the gas station and a Korean woman from one of the buses was in there also. I was totally surprised when she paid with American dollars and they took it though they gave her change in Turkish Lira. We got back on the bike and soon were on the coast and soon were way too hot. Off came the jackets. On came the increased traffic and the heat generated from too many cars along with the sun beating down. It didn’t take me long to start longing for the mountains and that whole other world away from the busy, coastal highway. Thankfully, though the traffic got heavy, it didn’t make me feel unsafe. According to the Antalya.org website, 6 to 7 million tourists visit Antalya and I think most of them were there that day. We biked past car dealerships, shops selling furs and jewels; lots of high end consumer goods. Apparently Antalya is a shopping destination. When we finally entered the city limits we were made to follow a detour with not much signage that helped us. We hadn’t really anticipated the size of or traffic in Antalya and without a “biker guide” we took a wrong turn and then took a complete pass on Antalya. I’d love to see it sometime but not in July; too hot and too crowded. October through March is the low season so maybe when we’re here again that’s when we’ll see Antalya. I think at this point we’d also developed an “on the way home” mindset so weren’t looking for reasons to spend several days exploring our overnight destinations. So, after being detoured past where we needed to be, we stopped for a late lunch and decided we go on to small Kemer rather than back into Antalya and the crowds of cars and traffic.
Seydisehir was a good place to spend a night and relax. Kemer wasn’t. Our pension was clean and had a great balcony for hanging hand laundry and for sitting enjoying tea. It had AC which you definitely needed. But there was no wifi and there was no breakfast. Kemer struck us as an upscale smaller, newer version of Marmaris. It was too hot and not terribly appealing. We did find a friendly bar/restaurant with wifi and after a quick walk down to the harbour (past all of the same souvenir/clothing shops you see in Marmaris) we settled in at the bar for a cold drink and wifi time. We went back for dinner later that night though earlier than everyone else. It was a quiet night and with no pension breakfast and no cafes open early that I could find, we ate some yogurt and simit from a small shop and cookies, tea and coffee we had. Then we quickly packed up and left for Kas, our next stop. We could have made it all way back to Marmaris if we had wanted to bike all day but there were ruins I wanted to see and we weren’t absolutely ready to be end our travels.
The entrance to our pension on a quiet side street away from the beachside resorts. Randal had to call the number on the sign to get someone’s attention. Here he is sitting on our balcony the next morning. We paid 60 TL for our night there. These are my only photos of Kemer so you can see it wasn’t our favorite place. Kemer also has an upscale marina we won’t be visiting with Doramac.
Between Kemer and Kas, our next stop, is Demre home to the Myra ruins and the original burial place of St. Nicholas. We stopped to see both. We saw some interesting road art along the way.
Roadside art. Turkey is the land of vegetables. They should have monuments to bread too.
We stopped for fuel just outside Demre in Beymelek.
I’ve added this photo because I want to say again how wonderful all of the petrol station guys are. I think you have to pass some kind of “nice guy” test before you’re hired. Everywhere we went all over Turkey, the petrol station guys were friendly and helpful and always pleased to meet Americans. I think I mentioned similar sentiments in our Konya story comparing the Tourism staff to petrol station workers and wishing the tourist workers were as friendly and helpful. The tourism office exceptions were the offices in Fineke with its helpful English speaking staff woman and in Egirdir where they had great brochures and though the man working there spoke no English, he seemed sorry and was always happy to see us. Perhaps Isparta had a great tourism office too, but we didn’t go there since Bulent had already arranged our tour of Guneykent. The Marmaris tourism office has a pretty good map of Marmaris but that’s it and the staff, not helpful.
Next to the Opet Petrol station was a small restaurant with wifi so we stopped in for an early lunch. Café Mola Restaurant www.facebook.com/molarestaurant had a friendly helpful staff, wifi and good food. Randal and I split a chicken pita and some salad which we were told was on the house. There were families with kids. One kid had a crying fit and another was just “not in the mood.” We had some yellow rubber balls with black happy faces on them and gave one to each kid. The crying boy, who had stopped crying and was actually quite happy played with his yellow ball. The little “not in the mood” girl didn’t seem to care for hers.
Turkish tea: heater, boiling water and hot tea on top.
You pour some of the very strong tea from the top pot into your glass and then add some boiling water from the lower pot into your glass to dilute it. I had seen one of the diners do that so I knew what to do when I wanted more tea. While we stayed in the Dost Hotel back in April I’d helped myself to tea not realizing I was to add hot water from the lower pot. I’d thought it was like a double boiler and the hot water was just for heating what was above it, not for adding to the tea. Now I know.
After lunch we went on to see the Myra ruins. There were lots of tourists there and the fee was 10 TL per person. It was worth the Lira.
“If you only have time to see one striking honeycomb of rock-hewn Lycian tombs, then choose the memorable ruins of Myra. ….they are among Turkey’s finest and also feature a well-preserved Greco-Roman theater, which includes several carved theatrical masks lying in the nearby area. St. Nicholas was one of Myra’s early bishops and after his death became a popular place of pilgrimage.” Lonely Planet
According to a brochure we picked up in Egirdir about Antalya, Myra was first inhabited in 500 BC. The rock tombs date from the 4th century BC. St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra in the 4th century AD and died there in 345 AD.
The carved theatrical masks greet you.
It was quite impressive and we weren’t sorry to have made the effort to see Myra.
“Rock-Cut Tombs – The famous rock-tombs of Myra are in two main groups, one above the theater and the other in a place called the river necropolis on the east side. Although most of the tombs are plain today, Charles Fellows tells that upon his discovery of the city in 1840 he found the tombs colourfully painted red, yellow and blue. The entire cliff face must have once been a bright riot of colour.
If you obeyed the signs you couldn’t get much closer though some folks climbed over railings past the signs but not us.” http://www.lycianturkey.com/lycian_sites/myra.htm
You could walk up behind the amphitheater.
Lots of reconstruction was being done here.
Looking back at the amphitheater
Looking down from the amphitheater
Like walking through the concession area to get into the actual ballpark.
Standing at the top at the back of the amphitheater in the “nosebleed” section
Nice photo of Randal
Today’s Myra (Demre) is mostly about vegetables with greenhouses filling the countryside right up to the Myra ruins.
http://www.lycianturkey.com/lycian_sites/myra.htm Is a really good website telling about the history of Myra (short but concise.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgu4f4_visit-myra-ruins-in-turkey_travel is a short video clip showing the tombs.
Statue of St Nicholas. Baba is father in Turkish
The Church of St. Nicholas is in Demre, but we didn’t stop there: not enough energy left. St. Nicholas had been buried there originally, but according to Lonely Planet In 1087 Italian merchants smashed open the sarcophagus and took his bones back to Bari,Italy. We just quickly took photos of the statue and then headed off for Kas where we would spend our last night.