Alarm set to wake a bit after 7, but I can’t pull myself up…hurtin for certain. After denying reality for a while, I am ready to head to the rooftop for breakfast.
Did I tell you about Turkish breakfast? I think so…
When we’re done, we check out and I take the walk over to the amphitheater, which is very well preserved and lovely.
Packed up, we hit the road again, this time with Mario Andretti at the wheel. We head about 45 minutes up the road to Pantara, about 7 km off of highway 400. The ruins here include two amphitheaters in good condition, an agora (open air market), walkway and various pillars and church remains.
Further down the road is Pantara beach, 3 miles long and beautiful, because has remains undeveloped due to the loggerhead turtles who lay their eggs here. So only one large bar/restaurant, which is covered with palm leaves, and a plethora of umbrellas and chaises for rent. We take advantage of this and enjoy the blazing heat for a while.
After only the appropriate amount of sun, with 28 on, I go for a walk down the sand and civilization quickly disappears. Don’t walk all the way down, but enjoy the waves and cook water on my feet. 15 minutes of baking, it’s time to flip the turkey, so I head back. B and I walk into the cafe and get a couple of fried sea bream with chips and salad (English chips, not potato).
I down almost a whole damn beer and we enjoy our fish. A kitten keeps jumping up on the picnic bench beside us, hoping for something, but it’s no dice.
This is soooo a cat country. They are everywhere, every size and every color. I’m still not into them, though. I did hear a most interesting thing about Istanbul. Every one of the street dogs there are tagged per district. At the same time every day, food is put out in each district for “their” dogs. And the dogs get it… They all return to their district to eat. Pretty cool, huh?
Beach time over, back in the car and a short bit up the road to the ruins at Xanthos. We pull over in a little town along the way to check our gas, and as we are pulling out, Bert smacks someone with our little car! Oy! Luckily our rental came with full insurance and no real damage was done. Bert shares all the information and we are on our way again.
We arrive at Xanthos about ten minutes later. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988, but is really not too impressive. The amphitheater is nice, but most of the pillars and remains are laid out on the ground as if for cataloging. I snap a pic of the amphitheater and hang in the cafe until the ruins-meister is done. Disappointing, but you don’t know until you check it out.
Winding our way toward Fethiye and the poster-worthy beach, but take a sudden detour to Tlos, some ruins Bert heard about from a couple he chatted up at Xanthos. It’s a 7km detour off our drive, but as we head through small towns and wind through the valley, then up a hill, it becomes evident as the peak comes into view that this place is pretty f***ing cool. It looks like a castle, but contains an acropolis, necropolis, agora, forum, and of course, the requisite amphitheater.
We take the long, dusty trail up to check it all out and are way happy we discarded the plan and worrying about sunset and came to investigate. We have now satisfied the ruins component of our “Discover Turkey” trip.
As sundown nears, we have a decision to make. Do we stop at Fethiye for the night to check out more ruins and the most beautiful (and crowded) inlet beach in Turkey, or plow ahead and stay two nights in Dalyan? Well, no need to see ruins and probably not worth it to stay in bigger, touristy city just for the beach. Besides, the idea of staying somewhere for two nights already sounds appealing! So we keep on, and arrive in Dalyan around 6. we creep through town as we figure out where we are on the map in relation to a couple of pansiyons we read about and soon find ourselves on the right street. We wanted a hotel that backs up to the river. After checking the rooms and grounds of 3, we walk onto the beautifully manicured grounds of Hotel Carria, see the tables and chaises set then the river’s banks and I know we have found the winner.
The proprietress is lovely and shows us our room even though she is in the middle of preparing dinner. We unpack, shower (oh man, does that feel good) and walk 10 minutes into town for dinner. Everything is loud, garish, neon-lit and touristy in a not so cute way. We walk back out of much of the noise and across the way to a little cafe I had read about for dinner and some cribbage. The breeze through town and in our garden is heavenly as we head in for a good nights rest.