Saying goodbye to Turkey Saturday 12th April

An early start and farewell to a very nice hotel.  Will rate it on Tripadvisor.
 The traffic at 5.15 am is almost non existent,  so we made the airport by 5.40.  Thought we would have plenty of time. How wrong we were. It seems everyone leaves Turkey on early flights, and as we were on economy class no fast lanes for us.  Lucky though this time we had some coins to get a trolley.

Firstly you have to line up with all your luggage to be screened, and that took forever.  Then to find where to check in.  More lines, as we snaked along the que.   We got to the check in counter and while I had packed a rollon bag for the cabin, John wanted to put all the bags into the hold.  You guessed it we were 7kg over.  The girl was excellent and helped us, we had 4 bags put through, but our coat bag couldn't go through until I paid the cashier. I nearly did a double take when it came to €49.  John though about €10, expensive lesson, but we didn't know what was yet in store.

Immigration.  Two areas only, and lines as long as in New York, hot, stuffy, I felt faint several times. Thank God I didn't wear warmer clothes.  Our plane boarded at 7.35.  We were in the immigration past that time.  Then through the scanner again. This time my coat and boarding pass fell to the floor,  I only realized when I decided to have a quick look in the duty free shop, and found the boarding pass not in my passport. Lucky I guess, I don't know why they took out my coat but the pass must have got caught up with the coat.

Quick stop for some ice tea, toilet then into the lounge.  I struck up conversation with a Germany UN soldier and did a deal for a euro coin for the luggage trolley at Berlin airport.

He had been stationed near the Sudan, unarmed, and he was a peacekeeper. We also met a very large Nigerian Londoner who worked at British Airways as an engineer.  His comments about the search for the missing flight echoed those of others. Was Malaysia capable of handling such an event?

Our flight was delayed, finally we left the gate  to begin the very long drive to the runway.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, juice and fruit or cheese and pickles.

Our of Turkey had ended.

To sum up, we would thoroughly recommend Trafalgar tours. For us 7 days was enough.   I guess for those who studied Ancient history a longer tour would be to their liking.

  I would never recommend going there in summer, the place would be so crowded. Walking around the ruins in the heat would be very uncomfortable indeed, especially with the reflection off the stones.

  April was a good time, we had some 24 degree days and then some 10 degrees. We had sun and rain.  The Tulips in Istanbul were magnificent,  all 21 million of them.

A fair level of fitness was required with our trip, and the days were really long, with early starts and late finishes.  But I survived except for the day my feet ballooned. Next day I wore the compression stocking which controlled the swelling, but meant I could not dig my toes into the silk carpets.

The distances traveled are very long, and my criticism of the tour would be that the itinerary was not fully detailed.

Take Turkish lire or US dollars or Euro with you. US dollars are accepted most places with change in lire.  We took limited lire with us as we didn't realise until the first night that we needed around 100 lire per day.  We didn't think we would be buying much, as we didn't know we would be visiting a specialised carpet shop that had pieces of art and craftsmanship of that quality.

Did we enjoy the tour,  yes.  We had a very knowledgeable guide Alan who has been doing the tours for 37 years, we had a coach Butler,  who always made sure I was helped down the stairs, and who had a smile at all times, even though he did not speak a word of English.

Our travel companions were in the most very nice people.  Unfortunately the Asian Indonesian family who now live in Singapore did not mix at all, and spoke throughout the commentary.  All decked out in diamonds and high end fashion, and with wallets filled with US dollars.  Makes you think about that!

Week one over, now for Germany.