Tag Archives: ruins

Day 313 – Le tired

impressive flag collections these nice Aussies had there

We had long days lately with half a day of riding and then visiting sites afterwards. Today was planned as exactly such a day: Ride to Pergamon, visit the ruins, camp. The plan, as always, is only correct until it has the first encounter with reality. We slept in a little as both of us are really tired. Flo was out and about last evening and I read until he was back… rather late for our terms. After breakfast, we started packing up. When I came back from brushing my teeth, Flo was talking to our neighbours in the big yellow truck.

Cheryl and Guy turned out to be lovely people. We kept them from cycling to the ruins of Ephesus for a while but it was great to talk to overlanders again. One of the cute and curious things we have in common is that our vehicles are yellow… and rather big for their types. Thus, bumblebee is a logical thing to call such a vehicle. 🙂

it is huge!

Starting after 11am, we made it to Izmir just in time for lunch. From riding through parts of it, Izmir might be a city for us. There are cafés and eateries at every corner and it has a relaxed vibe. Kumpir, baked potatoes stuffed with fillings, were recommended by the Lonely Planet. Ordering one of them for each of us, we faced the challenge of finishing the huge portions. We would have loved to explore Izmir further, but running out of money and of time, now is not the time for it. Might be a good city to visit for a short holiday in the future.

From here, we reached Pergamon in one go. The camp ground looked amazing: Grassy area with trees for shade, a pavilion, power plugs all around and a pool. Again, however, we were the only ones staying here. So we put up our tent in the most awesome place, next to the pavilion which we claimed. This would be the time to get ready for visiting ruins. We just couldn’t. Maybe the camp ground was too awesome or we are just too tired… we decided to have the afternoon off and visit the ruins tomorrow.

It felt like a short holiday from traveling. Sitting in the shade, watching some football, having ice cream. I had a nap during the second half, Flo had a nap right after the game. The rest of the day went by with me blogging and then great dinner with fresh bread and mezze. Tomorrow, Pergamon, I promise.

: impressive flag collections these nice Aussies had there

: powered beach camping, how cool is that?

: are they not too cute?

: it is huge!

: One would have been plenty, I guess …

: leaving Izmir … too early

: All 6s was back in Oman!

: Chilling – Switzerland won 🙂

Day 312 – Marks of Empires

The boring part…riding the motorway

There was not much left to do for us in Pamukkale other than pack up and move on. From here on, there were four more points of interest for us: Ephesus, Izmir, Pergamon and Troy. Ephesus was only some 250 km away and had three campgrounds for us to pick from nearby.

The ride was pleasant and smooth, with the exception of the motorway of all places. The automated system is kind of a nice idea, but it does not work at all in practice, at least for motorcycles. Out of the four times we passed toll gates so far, it has worked only a single time. We went to the post office twice to check and pay before we would get a fine, but they could find nothing in the system. So either we slip the cracks, or more likely we will get an unpleasant surprise at some point.

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

We had a really nice lunch in a town along the way. We just pulled into a random börek shop on the main road and scored. Outside any tourist region it was dead cheap, tasty and filling. Plus, the staff was real nice, too.

We reached Ephesus around 2 pm. According to our guide book, the crowds should soon loosen up. We were “adopted” right away by an enterprising fellow on the parking lot. He was nice enough that his sales pitches were never too annoying. Plus, he was genuinely helpful. The site is set up in such a way that the ‘right’ way to explore it is to start from the uphill entrance and then walk down the main road towards the southern entrance, where we currently were. There are shuttles going up. One that goes straight up for 15 lira and one that drops guest off for a “tour” at a local leather factory, but is free.

Maybe something to look at in the future

We opted for the free variant, of course, even though we were a bit anxious about what to expect. Well, it turned out that our “guide” just so happened to be one of the drivers. He dropped us off and we soon found out. It was not too b

ad – a straight beeline into a super high class showroom full of lambskin leather clothes in the $500 and up region. It dawned on us that we might even be interested in this stuff, would we not currently have been broke and on this trip. I might check this out once back in decent employment, I guess.

Close-up of the arch

It was over after 10 minutes and we could start the tour. Ephesus turned out to be the most expensive place yet. It was made all the worse by the fact that just about now, we would have been better off buying the 185 lira all-of-Turkey museum pass – with at least 100 lira still to come in Istanbul. Still better than a piece of wire in the eye, I guess.

The place itself was fantastic, though. Heaps of solid info on boards throughout the ruins and loads of uncovered and reconstructed marble architecture. All quite impressive. The ruins stemmed from a huge time period from the 3rd century BC into the middle ages under Byzantium, but most remaining (and impressive) architecture is from Roman times between 133 BC till the Roman schism.

Great place to build a theater on the first place

All in all, we spend about two hours exploring the place. Happy but exhausted, we got back to the bike. Our enterprising friend had one more up his sleeve: Authentic silver coins of varying ages. Of course, for a real good price. We passed on that golden opportunity to get in trouble with customs and were content with a look through. I mean, how often do you get the chance to hold 2000 year old silver coins?

We checked the camp grounds in Kusadasi. One was full, the other one was packed in what seemed to be party central of the town. We considered for a second and then decided to go back to Pamucak and check out the last place in the area. That one was a score. A super laid back area right at the beach, with almost no one around. It sure had seen busier days, but right now there were maybe 10 of the 100 spots taken. We could place ourselves right next to a power outlet to get all the goodies charged again.

perfect sunset over the water here we come

After our sunset walk along the beach, there was one more vehicle on the ground and it sparked my interest. A closer look revealed a Queensland licence plate on a bright yellow overlander truck. The travellers in question turned out to be a real nice couple, Cheryl and Guy, with many a country flag already decorating the truck. I got invited in for a brief chat and ended up staying up way too long …

: Great selection of all vegetarian börek

: The boring part…riding the motorway

: The high end leather showroom we were driven to

: We thought our kiwi friend Tina would enjoy a pink sheep leather jacket

: Maybe something to look at in the future

: I am a fan of honest advertisement

: The first run when you enter from the ‘correct’ side

: Lots of pieces seem to just be lying around

: The space is about as wide as Flo’s reach

: Assembled bits and pieces in the Upper Agora

: A cross chiseled over a door

: Trying to imagine the old times

: The acoustic is still very good

: Capitals…something for the art history (and archaeology) students

: Close-up of a frieze

: Pomegranate tree

: A tablet with Greek letters

: A cubist artwork from the 1920s, using found bits and pieces

: Relief panel

: Pieces on the ground

: Another capital

: “To be pr not to be…” Well, that was later

: Fragment of a capital

: Very intricate

: Assembled pieces of the Trajan Fountain. It originally had two stories

: Mosaic on the ground

: Close-up of the arch

: Close-up of a capital and the architrave

: Part of the architrave and the pediment

: The whole street had been cobbled with marble

: The library is built on his tomb

: A different view from the outside

: Lower Agora

: Inscripted piece

: The huge ‘Great theater’

: Must have been so impressive in the old days. It still is today

: Great place to build a theater on the first place

: Met these two super friendly kiwi guys waiting on their overlander truck

: perfect sunset over the water here we come

: it was a bit windy …

: the light was lovely, though

: smooching endermen

: i liked the silhouettes of the guys fishing

Day 310 – I sink your … city?!

Looking back towards the harbour

All chores were done, the application sent – it was time to get back to that old travelling business. Nina was still supremely keen on visiting the sunken city of Simena. We could book a tour from here, but the guide book said that it is easier and cheaper to negotiate directly with the boat captains at the pier in Üçağız. We packed our stuff right after breakfast and were there before 10 am.

Negotiations went smooth and we quickly found a boat at a price that we were happy with. This year, due to lack of tourists, the locals had only licenced the larger boats, ignoring all the little ones. That meant the smallest boat we could hire was still huge, good for 8-10 people, but we had it all to ourselves. We did not bring swimming gear, and we did not really want to do much but see the ruins anyway, so we booked the “classic” tour: Sunken City, Kaleköy and back before lunch.

The first foundations visible under water

Now what’s the deal with the sunken city? Well, this was the site of the Lycian city of Simena, which got destroyed and submerged in the 2nd century AD. The ground sank about 6m, so a lot of the coastal buildings are now just below the surface along the new shoreline. Add to that the brilliantly clear water in the area and it makes for a pretty cool experience.

The other stop was in the hamlet of Kaleköy, where we had an hour to explore. The modern name is a remark on the Crusader fortress crowning the little island. Adding to the charm is the fact that it was build in the middle of the ancient Lycian necropolis of Simena, which was also partly submerged. Thus, we got a beautifully illuminated coastal village, with ancient sites and a fortress all in once. To celebrate, we went to one of the restaurants lining the shore and got ourselves a nice home-made ice cream.

Mediterranean-style lunch in our tent

I enjoyed the ride back along quiet country lanes. We picked up supplies for a beautiful little lunch and spread out in front of our tent to enjoy. With our to-dos sorted, the rest of the day was pleasantly filled with a mix of swimming, blogging and just generally enjoying life. To top it of, we went out that night to have another round of excellent pide in another Lonely Planet recommended restaurant.

: Riding the bike to Üçağız

: Having a cup of tea on board

: Looking back towards the harbour

: The picture perfect Mediterranean

: Simena’s ancient harbour on Kekova

: The first foundations visible under water

: Such a lovely day for a cruise

: The old harbour, now underwater

: Staring into the water

: The ground sunk about 6 meters

: Looking along the coast of the sunken city

: Must have been quite the quake to drown everything

: Flo looking out for ruins

: An arch, still standing

: This one’s almost still a house

: Stairs, now leading into the water

: The village of Kaleköy

: Time for a nice strong black coffee…mhhhh O.o

: The fort of Kaleköy

: On the way up to the fort

: What a lovely view!

: Kaleköy is frequented by a lot of boats

: Every flower is in bloom

: Home-made banana, hazelnut and peach ice cream

: Partly submerged Lycian tomb, just off Kaleköy

: A whole boat for the two of us…a bit of an overkill

: Jazz hands! Great mood on board!

: More Lycian tombs at the Simena necropolis

: Mediterranean-style lunch in our tent

: Great wood-fire baked pide

Day 306 – Southsun groove

The roadworks picked up at some point in the morning. So although the light morning haze kept the sun from burning us out of our tent, we got up eventually. The morning ritual was performed efficiently if a bit lacklustre in the energy department.

The whole island is taken up by another fort, just off-shore from the castle

Soon after though, the rhythm of the road started coming back to us. The wall of high-rise vacation bunkers loosened up and soon we finally felt like riding along the Mediterranean. There was a cool double fortress / castle very early on that got us a bit excited. One castle stood on shore, the other maybe 500m into the sea, fully occupying a small island there. All nicely illuminated by the morning sun shining down a now clear blue sky.

The first planned stop were the caves of Heaven and Hell. The Gorge of Hell is a massive sinkhole that ancient Greek colonists believed Zeus imprisoned the 100 headed monster Typhon. The view down the almost vertical shaft from a little viewing platform perched over one edge was a good warming up exercise. The real star was the massive cave at the bottom of the chasm called Heaven.

The sparsely lit cave was indeed beautiful

After a brief climb down to the “bottom” of the open chasm, an enormous cave opened up at one end of it, leading way deeper into the earth. The footing going down was treacherous, but we managed to reach the lowest part without a tell-tale “mud butt”. The cave was huge, going down almost 200m and was in places maybe 70m high. The ancients believed that the river at the very end to be an access to the underground river Styx – not for us though, since the river was currently dry 🙂 It was really cool, nonetheless. On our way out, we had a short breather and rest at the Chapel of the Virgin Mary, build in the 5^th century by the Byzantines to let a raucous bunch of teenage school kids pass.

Great lunch right at the sea

On our way to the next destination, we had lunch at a beautiful and quiet restaurant right on the water’s edge. The eccentric proprietor served us a beautiful vegetarian bean dish and we enjoyed the sounds of the calm sea for a while.

Said next destination were the ruins of Anemurium. This city founded by the Phoenicians was ruled by Romans of one kind or another (Byzantines) until destroyed in 580 AD. The ruins are a magical place and exploring them in the beautiful afternoon light was just the thing we needed to get us back on track. Some of the public buildings still have bits of ancient mosaics decorating them. All can be explored freely and there was almost nobody there. Just an amazing spot.

An overview over Anemurium

With our spirits soaring, we were ready to tackle the road once more to reach the next campground along the coast. Unfortunately, this one was another 150 km away. Until now, we travelled pretty quickly on the brand new 2 lane coastal highway, with its many new tunnels. The next bit would go through the national park and while supremely beautiful, the more careful routing of the new road meant that it was not done yet. Any other day, this would be perfect for us. A quiet one lane highway, hugging the coastline as close at it can with hundreds of turns along the way.

From Anemurium, it was another 100km to the next camp ground

We made the best of it, grooved along towards the setting sun and enjoyed ourselves. We had one more heart-warming encounter with two Kurdish guys at our last fuel stop and made it to the outskirts of Alanya sometime after 6 pm. The “campground” turned out to be a rather odd thing. Mainly a restaurant, they directed us to a tiny patch of grass within 5m of the diners sitting at the edge of the beach. We did not care much, though, got our cooker out and keeled right over after dinner was had. Earplugs helped a lot to drown out the sound of jolly diners and surprisingly loud peacocks.