Back to an Old Friend in Fethiye!

Hello!

Up this morning around 7am and time to get organized, as today is a “move on” kind of day.  The apartment is now officially warm, and a very pleasant place to stay. 

Beautiful mountains leaving Antalya

We went for breakfast about 8:30 am and it was a repeat from yesterday, nicely served in their hotel lobby, in front of a blazing fire, which was nice.  Today looks much nicer than yesterday – blue sky and clear air, rather than the gray; much preferable! 

However, there was an email from our prospective hotel in Kaş, and I will excerpt a bit of it:  “Some thing vent wrong with peninsula road work and our hotel electircity and internet line cut off. All afternoon and evening we did try to sourt out but problem looks like big.”  The moral here is, “Call before you dig.”

[Note: This demonstrates, yet again, the necessity of having internet access while traveling.  On at least five or six occasions, we were informed (while en route) of major changes to our reservations – hotels and even air travel.  With the internet, we not only learned of the changes, we were able to set up alternative arrangements.  How did we ever do this without internet?]

Beautiful scenery all the way along the coast!

They did find an alternative place for us to stay, but in looking at the reviews, we really weren’t that happy with it.  So, being not that far away from Fethiye, where we stayed for three nights in 2012, we were able to find a nice room at the Yacht Classic Hotel.  On the road about 9:30 am – actually, other than having a tight space to turn the car around leaving Antalya, all went very quickly getting us out of the Old Town and back to the “real world” for our 4½ hour drive today. 

As we are determined to avoid mountains and snow – and there are mountains everywhere you look in Turkey – we wanted to follow the coast road.  However, the mountains surrounding Antalya are incredibly beautiful with many of them covered in snow.  Wow! The road along the coast was very good, but for the most part, it was two or three lanes (a center lane for passing) wide and there wasn’t really too much traffic.  It seems like there were virtually no trucks out today – not sure if that’s because it’s Sunday, or if it was the coast road.  (Several years ago, visiting a friend in Italy, we were told that no trucks are allowed on the freeways on Sundays – which meant there would only be half the trucks instead!) 

 

 

This is called the Turquoise Coast!

We did pass several places that we plan on visiting tomorrow, and by the time we got to Fethiye, it was really looking like rain!  Robert went into the hotel and it turns out – I got the Yacht Classic and the Yacht Boutique hotels mixed up, and had booked us in their sister hotel!  Bummer!  However, we were able to cancel the Boutique without any penalty (yeah!) and get into a lovely room – 301 – where we wanted to stay in the first place, the Yacht Classic.  I don’t usually make errors like that but obviously, this morning, I must not have been fully awake! 

Our room is nicely sized but not spacious, but we have a beautiful view over the marina, as well as a Jacuzzi tub with separate shower.  The tub has windows all around it; I love bathtubs with a view!  We also have all sorts of television channels, and a few are even in English!  After listening to nothing but Turkish the past week or so, Robert says that English sounds strange to his ears!  One of the first things we did was to gather together all of the laundry (I know you were wondering when next that would happen!) so that hopefully we will get it back tomorrow. 

It is now almost 4 pm and R is thinking about a nap … possibly me too, before we head downstairs for dinner!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

The last time we had dinner here, we had a table on the pier, right next to the water and a wedding reception was in progress in the main restaurant. 

Robert and room 301!

My jacuzzi tub with a view!

View from our balcony!

This time, we ate inside (nice and warm!) but, as we were dining, they started setting up a table with flowers and,  outside, they put out a red carpet strewn with rose petals and lined with floral displays.  All this was in aid of a proposal celebration – I’m sure it will be a complete surprise, after all, don’t you usually photograph and videotape dinner?  It was supposed to start at 7:30, so we had hopes of witnessing the event but, alas, - as our waiter said – nothing starts on time in Turkey, so we were done and out before anything happened.

As for dinner: We both started with a Turkish vegetable soup that was just perfect for the cloudy, drizzly weather.  I had my preferred comfort food – spaghetti bolognaise.  R had Kofte (ground meat – Beef?  Lamb?  Other?) with grilled vegetables and potatoes.  All this washed down with a fine Shiraz from Turkey.  For desert, we were given a lovely lemon cheese cake with a raspberry sauce topping, served on a very cute plate.

Back to the room, wondering if Turkish TV will be airing the Super Bowl.  It is supposed to be on at 2:30 a.m. here (if at all) and we are debating if it is worth getting up at that ungodly hour to watch Lady Gaga.  (Note from M: as I haven’t seen a Super Bowl half-time in years, and wouldn’t know Lady Gaga if she stepped on me, I’d say game possibly, half-time, never!)

Lots of love,

Wonderful bread and olives!

Excellent Turkish vegetable soup!

Robert's mystery meat meal!

Spaghetti -- comfort food!

The table getting ready for a proposal!

Lovely lemon cheesecake to share!

m

xxx