Western Turkey 101 Tour Group Journal
October 14, 2013 - October 26, 2013

Please click here for
Day 07 Pamukkale
Itinerary of the tour
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Saturday, Day 06  October 19, 2013 Cappadocia , Antalya, Perge, Aspendos
Submitted by  Carol and Patty

Pre-departure, most of us wandered about a bit. Antalya feels like a wonderful city.

8:30 AM – Departed from the Atelya Art Hotel – which is a fabulous hotel full of kilims and other artwork on the wall. Each room is decorated differently full of character. Lovely.

9:00 AM – We arrived at the Antalya Museum, where we experienced a historical collection of artifacts, starting with the Neolithic era. It has a large collection of Roman statues from Perge in amazing condition, and many Greek gods & goddesses as well. There is a generous sarcophagus collection there as well. We enjoyed seeing the lifestyle of the nomads with the black tents, and a woman making carpets for the tent home. Then we got some wedding dresses, scarves for bringing gifts to the bride to be, and so forth. The scarves had elaborate patterns of embroidered metal.

A meaningful comment from Meli: As different cultures were subsumed in an empire, the empire’s deities were superimposed on the known gods, but they might get new roles and change over time, based on what was needed at the time.

1:00 PM – We arrived at a delightful Anatolian restaurant in Anadolu Park, where we were served a lovely lunch. It was a most excellent lunch starting with tuna, salad, spinach, humus, red pepper humus, yogurt with spinach and pita. The main dishes were roasted veggies and kabob with chicken and lamb followed by Turkish coffee. Yum.

3:30 PM– We visited the aqueducts for some fabulous photo ops including Antolian turtles, and went on to view the Roman era theater in Aspendos. The visit was highlighted by a performance of “row row row your boat” by Patty, Micky, Marilyn, Ann, and Meli. Ann elevated the intellectual level of the visit by reciting the first line of the Aeniad by Virgil in Latin.
4:45 PM – Perge! A sizable Hellenistic, later Roman, settlement. Of note was a wide boulevard with columns  on the sides and a channel up the center for water to cool one off in the summer. It was all topped off by a shepherd passing through with his herd of sheep and goats wearing bells. Delightful!On the way back, we stopped by a pharmacy where 3 of us with colds and 4 of us scared of getting colds got out and bought the full contents of the store. Then Meli stayed back to get a flu shot. Bingo!

 Carol wanted to see kilims. Meli suggested that we could see Hakan's, the owner of the hotel, old/antique kilim collection.

The pile of kilims soaked in moth balls were opened one by one. a few of them were museum quality kilims, Meli's son, Ahmet helped Hakan to open the big, heavy wool beauties.

When the show was over we all retired to our rooms to get a good night's sleep to prepare for the busy day tomorrow.

Please click here for
Day 07 Pamukkale
Itinerary of the tour
Melitour Home page