Magnificent Turkey Tour

The tour was provided by Titan tours. It started with an early morning VIP pickup from my home straight through to Heathrow! Worth its weight in gold, as no driving, car parking and no stress!!

Our first 3 nights were spent in Istanbul. A city that really surprised me, I’ve no idea why but I hadn’t thought I’d like it as much as I did. It such a vast, clean & modern city!

We visited the blue mosque, which was my first mosque I’d ever visited. We also visited the Suleymaniye Mosque & Hagia Sophia, it was really interesting to learn that most mosques in Istanbul actually started out as churches. The architecture and detailing in the mosques were something else. I learnt about ablutions, and respect and care was taken by covering our shoulders, head, and removing shoes.

A visit to Topkapi palace & museum was fascinating, home to the sultans! Again, such breathing taking buildings and amazing detail.

We took a visit to the grand bazaar shopping mall, i have no idea but I expected a covered market & being really crowded, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was an amazing mall, it has over 61 streets & 4000 shops!!!  Whilst there we experienced Turkish coffee and tea!

Our amazing guide said we’d be going to the Istanbul basilica cisterns… an underground water plant! I remember a trip to Severn Trent as a kid, I couldn’t imagine why he’d want to take us there! How wrong was I? I was blown away, the underground water system served water to places such as topkapi palace, and didn’t disappoint it was beautiful  and it featured in a James bonds “from Russia with love” film in the 60’s!

We finished Istanbul with a Istanbul Bosphorus cruise, taking in the amazing homes of the rich & wealthy!

We took our journey to Canakkale area where we went to the sites of Gallipoli. The battlefields, memorials, trenches and landing sites of the Anzacs during WW1! The area was solemn & peaceful and really brought a tear to the eye.

Next up, was the ancient city of Troy. A city that kept being rebuilt on top of one an another to a level of 9, and that’s still being excavated so perhaps more! Here stands the war horse that was gifted to the Turkish people.

Lunch was then served in a local families home, a lovely selection of true traditional Turkish dishes, it was great to meet local people & be welcomed to their homes.

Our next stop was kusadasi, from kusadasi we could visit Ephesus, a trip I’d wanted to do for ages. Please, if you’re in the resort of kusadasi, visit this ancient city, it will not disappoint, but make sure you have a tour guide to appreciate the ruins you’re seeing.

Lunch was provided again in the tour, and was an excellent selection of amazing Meze & Turkish dishes. We even had a cookery lesson and made our own Pides (Turkish pizza)! On site we got to take a look at how Turkish carpets & rugs were made! Wow, I now have a new appreciation for this skill and when a rug costs £1700 it’s a bargain for the workmanship and skill that goes into it! Luckily, I didn’t have £1700 and so won’t be receiving a new rug in 6 months.

We drove down to Pamakkule, OMG!!! I’ve wanted to go to Pamakkule for years. Natural thermal pools, with natural deposits of calcium have given the rocks the white look, it’s only site of its kind in the world!! A similar site in New Zealand was sadly destroyed by an earthquake. One thing il say though, it’s extremely uncomfortable underfoot, as you need to go barefoot to preserve the site!

We finished the tour by heading to Antalya, where we had an evening free to explore the old town. Such a pretty town and lots of bargains to be had.

Our trip was amazing, it was quite heavy going on the walking, accumulating in over 41 miles walked in the week! But, was worth every single step!!

Jodie xx