What a gorgeous day! Breakfast was on the back deck of the boat. The sun was so hot that we went back to the cabin to put on cooler clothes. Once we got off the ship, it was just a perfect temperature! A very nice surprise!
We walked down a long dock to go into the town of Alanya...a senic beach resort. Cloud covered mountains on top and skycrapers and homes dotting the hillside.
The harbored hummed with activity...pavement leading to cafes and tourist boats. The Med was such a beautiful turquoise color with gentle waves lapping the beaches and sea walls. We planned to walk to the top of the hillside castle. We could see terrific views of the old castle walls going up the side of the hill. Some parts of the wall had been replaced and some were very deteriorated.
We passed the Red Tower at the bottom near the end of the dock. Following the path up the hill we passed home after home along the winding stone path. It was amazing. I said, "Can you imagine carrying your groceries up these paths?"
We enjoyed seeing the views from the hillside as we worked our way up. Lemon, fig, and orange trees were dispersed among the homes. It was very quaint.
Such an awesome way to spend a day. We ate a picnic lunch near the top and took pictures along the way. The views were just stupendous!
Looking back down on top of the homes were satellites, cisterns, and solar power panels. At 1:00 we enjoyed the Muslem music/chants coming from the local Mosque....what an exotic sound! We counted five mosque towers in the area. The music could be heard all over the mountain due to the speakers that were mounted on the side of the towers.
Larry enjoyed seeing the Jawa motorcycles...quite old but still being used.
I enjoyed the children who were out and about. One little boy about three or four led us up the mountain for quite a ways and then pointed for us to continue. He also held out his hand for a tip. How could you turn that down? We returned down different paths coming back and continued on through the resort by going up the walkway by the pier seeing the various tourist boats along the way. Most were well taken care of with pirate type themes. They had unbelievable tall masts.
Would you want to go up to the eagle's nest in one of them? Not me! Some of the boats were used for diving and fishing tours.
All the native women here wore long skirts and scarves on their heads. Many did not allow a picture to be taken of them.
On we walked to the beach..,,grey sand with gentle waves. Only a couple of people were in the water,
We enjoyed a stroll through the marketing district with lots of shops for tourist to enjoy. Larry bargined for some sun screen. The store owners want to haggle. We had a chocolate gelanto and talked with Kristy on the phone when the skype/internet would cooperate.
What a magnificent day! The weather was perfect, the walk was exilerating, and the sights and sounds were exotic! We loved our first visit to Turkey!
Back on the ship by 5:30. We strolled the upper deck to watch the ship pull out of the harbor from Alanya. We went to dinner. We watched the sun set on the back deck and were fortunate to get a gorgeous picture of it going down.
Then we went to a Beatles Show. The four guys not only looked like the beatles , they sounded like them too. They played many memoriable tunes and came back for enchors! They were excellent! Larry said,"Let's come back for the 9:30 show to see them again." We'll see who is still full of energy when 9:30 rolls around...I already have my pj's on.....After all we've got to get up bright and early tomorrow to see Cyprus!
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