Flamingo Toronto Ayvalik

After another multi-vehicle trip involving a minibus, ferry, minibus, ferry, bus and finally another minibus we arrived in Ayvalik - a lovely harbour town backed by old Greek stone houses built into the steep hills. <br><br>This time the climb to find a room was worth it as we tracked down a lovely guesthouse right at the top of a narrow alley with fabulous views down to the mosque and waterfront. Many an hour was spent on the roof terrace over the ...

... boat connection from Istanbul. The quarries here are pretty extensive and you can see sheer cliffs of marble spread across the hillside. The hotel has marble floors everywhere and even uses marble doorstops. The fast food place next door has put up a menu; I suspect this is for my benefit and very welcome it is too. Its strange that most restaurants don't have them and basically serve the same as everyone else. The corner shops ...

... of marble four metres long, two metres wide and two metres high. This is not a retail operation. I saw a ship heel two feet when loading one of these blocks. It has a side effect too; this place has polished marble for the breakwaters and promenade where other towns have concrete. The town is in a very pretty position inside a bay so its an interesting place. There is also a beach in an adjacent bay which is rather good; sadly I have roast bif chest despite t he suncream. So I ...

Basically just knackered but not sleepy. Maybe my system isn't used to the different food yet. So puzzled over the ferry services but got a departure time out of tourist information and a boat name. Then I did a a bit more research on the net and considered going to the next Island to Marmara as there's more accommodation and its more holiday orientated. However actual information is rather scarce;maybe I wasn't using the right words but its ...

... through the sunbakers, we all dove off the side of the boat. When in mid air it felt like I was falling for a lot longer than I would expect. It was a real rush. We had to quickly swim back as our boat was about to leave without us. When we got back to Ayvalik, we had dinner in a local kebab joint and then had a fairly early night as we would have an early start the next morning.

Another delightful morning in Ayvalik...apparently this town of 30,000 swells to 150,000 in season and I can see why. Makes me glad it's a little cooler and all those other folks stayed home. I thought I'd include a few more picturesque shots of the area before moving on...hard to leave.... Right now its about 800 PM...today is a rainy day in the paradise of Ayvalik so we get on a bus to Konya....that's about an 11 hour trip...but we get the best seats ...

Part Two The next day we headed to Pergamum, a town famous for its ancient roman ruins. We only had time to see one area, as it's such a huge historic site you could easily spend tow or three days there. We went to the amphitheatre, which had been built into the hill side and boasted amazing views over the valley and town below. Our tour guide really came into his own and proved to be very knowledgeable about the area, answering all sorts ...

... being bailed up by a crazy Turk who insisted that by the end of the cruise, I cure his manic depression that has resulted in numerous marriage break ups and a string of children to different partners. Julie conveniently faked sleeping during this time so as not to get caught up in the complicated counseling session that ensued. After getting out of the conversation by saying I was actually a physio (was very difficult to stoop so low but ...

... but, as predicted, they produce noticeably smoother skin once removed. Beautification having been attended to, we take in the views. In front of us, we marvel at the nearby cascades of clear blue water plunging down the white face of the travertine into our basin from above; to our backs, the neat green rows of plantings in the valley provide a striking contrast to our watery white park. We soak long enough to produce prune-like results, at which point we rinse off and head for ...

... end of town. The was the 'healthcare' part of ancient Pergamum - a place where people could go for medication, treatment, spas and the like. Walking towards it I ended up taking the wrong way, around an Army base. Not many tourists must take this route as I am viewed very suspiciously by the armed guards. I keep on looking into the distance at the Asclepsion with that acting look of 'I am heading there, I wonder if it is the right way, scratch my head...' so they don ...