Sunday 30 January 2022
Our hotel was directly opposite the lower, southern entrance to the Travertines of Pamukkale, but the hotel owner advised us to get a taxi to the eastern gate. Visitors have to remove their shoes and socks to walk in the thermal pools, so if you enter and exit via the southern entrance, you need to remove your shoes and socks twice. At the time, this made perfect sense to us, although we decided to walk to the eastern entrance rather than get a taxi.
Friday 28 January 2022
Afew miles outside of Selçuk is the ancient city of Ephesus. One of the largest Roman archaeological sites in the eastern Mediterranean. Visitors can walk up Harbor street from the old harbour to the Great Theatre and try to imagine a twenty-four thousand capacity crowd sitting on the marble seats entertained by performers on the stage.
Thursday 27 January 2022
After we visited the Basilica Of Saint John, I popped into a Tourist Information office to see if it would be possible to walk to Ephesus from Selçuk. After much discussion with the staff about why we would want to do such a bizarre thing as walk, the nice man in the information office took out a tourist map and drew the best route to walk there on the map.
Wednesday 26 January 2022
We caught the morning train to Selçuk, arriving around 12:30 pm. When we stepped down from the train, the first thing we noticed was the remains of a Byzantine Aqueduct crossing the square in front of the station and an old fortress overlooking the town from a nearby hill.
Tuesday 25 January 2022
I wanted to go to Bergama. I really wanted to go to Bergama to see the ancient city of Pergamon. I spent an hour going back and forth between the bus companies in Çanakkale but only had limited success. Two of the companies would drop us off a the Bergama Bus Station on their way to Izmir, but none of them would pick us up from Bergama a few days later from the same bus station. They all just said it was not possible.
Sunday 23 January 2022
Today was a travel day. We needed to get a Taxi to the Greater Istanbul Bus Station (Esenler Otogarı) and then buy a ticket for Çanakkale. It had snowed again overnight, this time more heavily, and we didn’t think the Taxis would be able to get down the steep, narrow and now icy streets. That meant we had to walk up them to the main road, which we did slowly and carefully.
Tuesday 26 October 2021
There are numerous travel guides and blogs out there that will tell you, in more detail than I care to do here, about the history and traditions of the picturesque “undefeated” City of Porto. It is a beautiful city and well worth a visit if you ever get the chance. This blog post is simply a record of our walk from Porto to the small fishing village of São Pedro da Afurada located on the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the Douro River.
Sunday 13 September 2020
Bianca Bongo had performed wonderfully on our European adventure, so we wanted to give her a little treat. We booked Bianca in for some anti-rust treatment at a place in the Midlands and, wanting to make the most of it; we arranged to meet a friend and do a little walk in the Malvern Hills while we were there.
Friday 12 April 2019
We caught an early morning flight from Gatwick and arrived on the Island of Rhodes at around midday. We only had carry-on luggage, our rucksacks, so we were quick to leave the aircraft and get through passport control but we still managed to miss the bus to Rhodes Town by ten minutes and would have to wait for another fifty minutes for the next one.
Sunday 17 February 2019
It was Susan’s idea, the free walking tour, she had done them in the past and said that they were a great way to become orientated when you arrive in a new city. To be honest, I was a little sceptical. I didn’t like the idea of being herded around like sheep and being given the hard sell at every turn, but Susan convinced me, telling me that the tour would be free and that we would only have to tip the guide what we thought the tour was worth. If we hated it, we could bail and head off on our own.