Konya - Antalya - Sunday, 9 October 2011

Weather – showers giving way to pouring rain in the afternoon.

Temperature – mid-twenties.

We left Konya to drive most of the day to Antayla - a journey over the Taurus Mountains to the Mediterranean.  As we crossed the mountains which took some considerable time the temperature dropped to 10 degrees and when we had our morning tea it was quite a bit cooler.

The terrain was rocky with fir and cedar trees below the snow line.  The top most point we passed was 1825 metres.

Photo:  Very rugged but beautiful countryside.

As we finally made it to lower levels fruit orchards were evident and pomegranate and lemon trees were in abundance.  By this time it was quite overcast and after our quick visit to see the Roman aqueducts near the ancient theatre of Aspendos our guide chose a roadside café to enjoy some gozleme (pancakes) with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.  We had a choice of spinach, cheese, potatoes and mince. 

Photo:  Quite rudimentary however exceptionally functional!

We then had a very interesting afternoon visiting the ancient theatre of Aspendos which was built in 160 – 150 AD.  Ataturk had ordered the site to be restored and it is absolutely magnificent.  We had had a similar experience visiting the theatre in Greece and we were not disappointed here.  Two of our travellers had good voices so they did us proud and sang beautifully with the fantastic acoustics.

Photo:  The massive theatre of Aspendos.

Photo:  That's me....showing the arches which frames the seat area in a huge semi-circle.

It was only sprinkling during this visit but as the bus motored along the heavens opened up and we were travelling through flash floods which were causing traffic jams. 

On arrival at our hotel we had a half an hour turn around and we set off with our wet weather gear to explore the Antalya.  We couldn’t complain as we have had magnificent weather all the way.

After being in some reasonably remote areas of Turkey we knew we had landed back in civilization when we saw McDonalds and Starbucks!  As well, the women were not so conservatively dressed and the shops were very western in dress.

The city was founded in 220 BC by Attolos II of Pergmaum and we passed a statue in his honour. 

We walked past old well known architectural features including the Temple of Diana (also a church and mosque at some stage) with the truncated minaret which was burnt in 1851, Hadrian’s gate (that was a second on this trip as we saw the other one in Athens), the Seljuk Turk fluted minaret built in 13th century and the old port. 

Photo:  Ancient building with many pasts including a temple, mosque and church.  The Truncated Minaret is in the background.

We finally made our way to an old castle for dinner which overlooked the port.  What a life!  The heavens once again opened up so we made it just in time to order a wine….another clue we were in a tourist area…..and sit back and enjoy the view.  Fish was the order of the day (although a couple of carnivores in the group finally had their wish granted for steak!) and it was decided to made up some seafood platters for all of us.  The rain continued to pour so after our first drink we make our way inside much to the relief of the waiters who were holding down the awning.   A great feast was delivered in platters and we shared these with a salad.

Although the day felt long it was a real treat….and Aspendos Theatre was an absolute highlight.

(Photos to be added later as the internet connection is too weak!)