April 18 – Perge and Aspendos

We are in the land of ancient empires …Hittite, Lyceum, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottomans and others, and their resulting ruins.  All of Turkey seems to be ruins.  Turns out Turkey has some of the best preserved Roman and Greek ruins anywhere in the Mediterranean.  And I think we are seeing ALLLLLL of them.  

Today we are seeing a couple of big ones.

Perge was founded around 12 BC and all of the area is of Roman origin.  It has an ancient theater (still being used for concerts),

stadium,

baths,

a great main gate,

and long main street,

and lots of remains from the buildings.

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More Perge
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From Perge we had a very short drive to nearby Aspendos, also Roman.  We visited the nearly intact theater here.  It’s one of the best preserved ancient buildings in Turkey.  It was used up through the during Byzantine which helped assure that it remained in reasonable shape.  It is still used today and has a capacity of up to 20,000.

We had lunch at a nearby roadside stand where a family Erdal knew had the “best” (per him) pancakes around.  Turkish pancakes are called Gӧzleme’s…Turkey’s answer to the French crepe.  A piece of dough tolled super thin and about 24” in diameter.  Topped with your choice of toppings (spinach or other grated veggies, potato, cheese, meat, later saw places that had sugar and Nutella), a few seasonings and spices, and a little oil.  Folded into a square and baked on a very large, domed griddle.  And we had fresh squeezed orange juice mixed with pomegranate juice.  It was a great lunch.

Often seen at simple, roadside stands prepared by someone's grandma.  Heaven.  

We specifically asked the guide to find us another stop for Gozleme's and he found us another place on anther day.  Good eats.!!!

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Video of making a Gӧzleme
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When we got to the seaside town of Antalya we headed to the harbor for a short tour.  The harbor was fairly small with lots of boats. 

On the far side we wandered up through some plazas

found some great views, 

and wandered some colorful, quaint streets

to a small park.

The walking eventually took us to Hadrian’s Gate (complete with ruts in the stones from the Roman carriages).

We are staying at the Marmara Hotel.  Our room was on an upper level with great views of the Mediterranean from our room.

And we wandered the hotel grounds.