Oh what a day!

Hello!

Oh, my … Today has been really lovely, and it’s only 4 pm.  We saw some wonderful sites but needed to get back for my Welcome Special at the Hamam downstairs at the hotel. 

View this morning from our balcony!

Heading to the sea!

Stunning beaches!

Wow.  Okay, the Welcome Special included “sauna, traditional full body peeling form bath, face mask & 30 minutes full body oil massage” – for 175 TL– the equivalent of $47.30 .  Truly, truly unreal and a wonderful experience!  I’m going to talk about that first, and then go back to breakfast this morning, and what we did the rest of the day!

So … changed into my towel and slippers and went first into the sauna.  I’m not a really big sauna person but fortunately I wasn’t left in there more than 15 minutes or so, and they brought me a lovely cold bottle of water to help!  From there, I moved into the hamam – which is the Turkish word for a Turkish bath.  Lovely big room, all tile and marble, with faucets coming out of the walls and large concrete bowls to collect the water.  Also, in the center of the room is a raised marble platform – it is used for the washing part of the process.  I was instructed to lie first on my back, and then on my tummy, as I was covered with warm water all over, and then I was scrubbed from stem to stern with what really feels like a tuffy pad!  Certainly not gentle!  After that comes the soap suds – still don’t know how it is done, with a big towel and some twisting motion – out of the end comes these wonderful bubbles … now, that part I love!  From there, once I was clean and thoroughly rinsed off, we went to the massage room – ah…heaven! 

More beautiful coastline!

This is the plastic I talked about!

A Lycian Sarcophagus

Xanthos site

(And really, she found my shoulders are a problem how quickly??)  First on my stomach, and then when I had turned over, I got my green face mask applied, and then the rest of my massage.  Funny feeling, as I haven’t had a mask in years – obviously, I must have needed it!  After the massage, I was allowed to wash off the mask – which came off brown, rather than green, which was a bit disconcerting.  (I’m sure all of you facial people will know what I’m talking about!)  And that was it!  I would like to say that I would do it all again tomorrow, but actually, I’m thinking in a few days; just to give my skin a rest from the scrubbing and peeling!  For those of you who are NOT into massages and scrubs, (including Robert!) I can only say – you have NO idea what you are missing!!

Now, to start with today.  Up this morning about 7 am, as breakfast started at 8 and I wanted to get to Xanthos and Letoon early so I could get back for my Welcome Special!  However, first – let me say, don’t anybody tell Corinne – who is my hairdresser.  I normally get my hair cut once a month, as it tends to grow really quickly.  Several years ago, I asked my Dear Friend Joan, who also has short hair, how she handled the extended trips she and her astronomer husband Jeremy would take.  Her response surprised me!  She basically said that when she is ready for a haircut, she looks around whatever town or city they are in.  She will find a place that looks to be clean and pleasant and in she will go!  Wow!  I always felt that was SO brave of her!  So, when we took our first really extended trip – 3 months in Europe, I did exactly that, several times, with very okay results.  Nothing really staggeringly good but then nothing really awful either, if you get what I mean!  Last year, when we were gone for 6 weeks, I actually asked Robert if he would mind cutting a little off the back and around my ears.  You’d think that someone whose hair I have cut for the last 36+ years would not have a problem handling scissors – but he almost cut off my ear!  So … this morning, I decided I would see what I could do … (one former hairdresser once told me:  Never try to cut your own hair!  Would you take out your own appendix??) as the top was getting way too long. 

Bi-lingual Stelle

Bi-lingual stella

Fragment of a lovely mosaic!

Another Lycian Sarcophagus

Hmm…Robert was able to cut the back a bit, and I think I did OK on the rest … as I say, just don’t tell Corinne.  I think I will have to lay the blame on Turkish hairdressers if it’s really a problem when I get back.  But having never cut my own hair before since I was 5 years old (don’t ask…the results were awful!) I think it will be OK until my next appointment!  So!

Xanthos amphitheatre

Xanthos amphitheatre

Loved the arch window!

Double entry into the amphitheatre

Down for breakfast about 8:15 and it was fine – and, there are other people staying at the hotel, which is also good news!  Lots of cheeses and breads as well as something that looked like a crepe and was filled and rolled with spinach.  That was excellent!  Good orange juice (it didn’t taste like Tang!) and hot chocolate; nice display. 

Letoon sanctuary amphitheatre

 

 

Temple of Apollo

Loved the lion in the center!

Out about 9 am and into the car.  There is a museum here in Fethiye, but of course, being Monday, it’s closed today.  We will hit it tomorrow morning, before we check out of the hotel.  We first took a really stunningly beautiful drive over the hills and above the Mediterranean. There are some really lovely smaller towns around here, that rely on tourists either from Turkey or other countries, to use all their facilities, water slides, restaurants, etc. They are pretty dead this time of year but as we have seen more and more tourists the farther west we come, I have hopes that they will all come through the winter in good shape.  From our drive, we decided to head to Xanthos and Letoon, which are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, for a visit.  Xanthos came first, but first, a word about the Lycians.

Both Lycians and Lydians used to inhabit parts of Anatolia in the dim dark past, and I don’t want you to be confused.  We are in Lycia now.

So, first the Lydians:  As per Wikipedia,  Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu; Greek: Λυδία, Turkish: Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom (7th and 6th centuries BC) of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian.  At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia.

Now, for the Lycians:  Lycia (Lycian: Trm̃mis; Greek: Λυκία, Turkish: Likya) was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey, and Burdur Province inland. ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group.  Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language (a later form of Luwian) after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were decimated, and Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers.  Lycia was originally known as Lucca (15^th – 14^th Centuries BC) and later, as Lycia (1250 to 546 BC).  They also fought with the Hittites at Kadesh against Ramses II. 

Temple at Letoon

Loved the turtles in the nymphaeum

Known to history since the records of

Everybody clear?  We are visiting Lycian sites today! (As opposed to Sardis, Troy and a few others, that we will visit later this week!)  First, Xanthos, which was once the capital of Lycia, and sits on a rock outcrop overlooking the Essen River.  Their sarcophagi are very distinctive – look like huge boxes on high platforms and beautifully carved.  Xanthos, though, has quite a tragic history, as at least twice, when besieged by clearly superior enemy forces, the city’s population burned their city and committed mass suicide rather than being captured by first the Persians (c. 540 BC) and the second time, around 475 BC by the Greeks.  (In answer to the question, who was there to rebuild, apparently 80 families were away from the city during the first destruction, and came back to rebuild.)  At any rate, Xanthos was first Lycian, then eventually Greek and finally Roman.  Many of the remains date from the Roman period. 

Our favorite thing was the Xanthian obelisk, from the 5^th century BC which is a bi-lingual text in Greek and Lycian that helped scholars translate some of the Lycian language, although the entire language has yet to be totally deciphered.  Lovely amphitheatre as well!

Mushrooms stuffed with cheese and spinach!

R's beef with potatoes and veggies

My chicken and mushrooms

A lovely dessert!

It’s about 5 km to Letoon, which was a religious sanctuary dedicated to Leto.  There are three temples standing side by side, one of which is partially reconstructed.  There are literally row upon row of polished stone that went into all the columns; rather like a super huge (and heavy) jigsaw puzzle! There is also a flooded nymphaeum (ornamental fountain with statues) currently being used as a turtle preserve, as there were Turkish turtles all over the place!  Very cute!  They are working on a new parking lot and visitor’s center for Letoon, which hopefully will be completed for tourists this summer. 

It’s really difficult getting an understanding of the Lycians.  It seems there has been a “Lycia” from the third millennium, through Persian, Greek and Roman times, all the way to the Byzantine Empire – a span of several thousand years.  What we don’t know, though, is whether the Lycians, as a people, continued through that time or if different peoples moving through that occupied the region called “Lycia”.  This, we suppose, is one of the fascinations of studying history.

One interesting aspect, though, is the land in cultivation around these particular sites.  Everywhere you look, the fields  have been fitted out with frames that are then covered with plastic sheeting to form a kind of in green house, and truly, the sight is horrendous.  We saw a similar situation in Spain a few years ago, where the plastic was allowed to deteriorate and it looks terrible.  I hope the farmers here will take better care of their resources, as it would really be a shame to have these wonderful sites spoiled by a blight of plastic.

Well, that’s about all the news from here for now!  Dinner later, and then we’ll post!

m

xxx

Now that we’ve finished with the history lesson (for today!) we have dinner!  Down about 6 pm and there were actually some folks eating and drinking outside!  Still a bit too brisk for us!  I had noticed some of the flags on the boats in the marina – there were four or five French flags, as well as a U.S. flag or two, so R was intrigued and wanted to walk down to see.  Really interesting!  There is a boat claiming Delaware as home, as well as one from Newport, RI.  Also boats from Cannes, Jersey and Guernsey.  Now R is trying to figure out how they actually got here!

For dinner tonight, R started with a bowl of soup, the same as last night, and an order of stuffed mushrooms.  As I remembered the mushrooms from last time – HUGE order, I decided we could split them.  Six really large mushrooms stuffed with cheese and spinach – YUM!  They were excellent.  Then for mains, R ordered the medallion of beef, and I ordered the chicken and mushrooms (sorry, Rosie!)  Absolutely excellent meals, both!  Then, we split a lemon cheesecake which, instead of coming out with a topping of raspberry like last night, had a topping of lemon.  Excellent!  Back up to the room by 7:45 pm and now getting to post and bed!

m

xxx