Road Trip Part 3 - Last few days, Finike, Antalya

Road Trip Part 3 - Last few days, Finike, Antalya

Friday 2nd December - Day 13 - 16

Linda - Onwards once more, leaving Kas I was excited to be heading back to Finike and the handsome Thesee, plus the chance to show Alan and Yasi where we are wintering and what it's like. Of course, as always, I had planned a stop en-route. This time it was at Demre. A place we haven't visited before but with some historical interest. The coast road since we left Kalkan has been spectacular, quite twisty at times but a good safe road with amazing sea views. Today, before we descended from the mountains into Demre we got the chance to stop at a viewpoint overlooking Kekova. We spent quite a while in Kekova on Thésée during the summer. It's a place you can only really get to easily by boat, not by road. Well it seems to be a track more than a road, so we didn't want to risk it in the hire car.

Day 13 - Viewpoint looking across to Kekova

And from the same viewpoint we can see the 

quay and anchorage at Demre

There were two choices for the coffee stop in Demre. St Nicholas (Santa Claus) Church and Museum, or the Myra Ancient City Rock Tombs. I chose St Nicholas being the most topical. He was the original historical inspiration for Santa Claus, or so it is claimed. He would put money down the chimneys of poor families who needed a dowry to marry off their daughters. The Church was built above his burial place. 

Unfortunately when we arrived at the site it was undergoing massive renovations. It was still open though but they still wanted full price to enter and we thought it was not worth it for the amount that we would be able to see. We obviously didn't feel as charitable as good old Santa! Still, it was interesting enough to look around the gift shops, read about his story, and view the Church from afar. 

St Nicholas poster outside the museum

In the gift shop

St Nicholas statue

St Nicholas Church

Another poster

Here's good old Santa again

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas_Church,_Demre

Walking back to the car we were very surprised to come across a Greek cafe! What! In Turkey??  We went inside to find it decorated with all sorts of antique objects, radios, vases, bits and bobs. A real find in such an unusual place. 

The Greek cafe

Antiques

Old sewing machine, table, and chair

Leaning against the fireplace, an old wooden sled,

 very appropriate.

Lantern lights

From Santa Land we drove through Demre, which has a very nice sea front and beach. Next stop Finike, fortunately we planned it to arrive in time for a game of Rummikub before going to the Friday night Happy Hour. The following morning we all walked to the big Saturday market in town. Yasi was in her element, reminiscing about the shopping in the old days. We had enough time to stop at our favourite and very cheap cafe for a spot of lunch before collecting our bags and heading off on a two hour drive to Antalya for the weekend. 

Day 14 - In Finike town by the canal

Doing the traditional whirling dance

Cay (Tea) and Turkish Delight in the market

And so we headed to Antalya to spend our last couple of days together before Alan and Yasi flew back to Istanbul. Once more Alan was front passenger doing the navigation job, whilst Yasi and I sat in the back trying to book a hotel for two nights. We had only just got around to doing it at the last minute, having been so busy recently. Last time we travelled to Antalya it was at night and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. But the daytime trip today was so different, being able to see the views was spectacular.

A short stop en-route to Antlaya for Dean to have a leg stretch.

He's done a lot of driving just lately.

Big pigeons as we drove through Antalya town

When we finally managed to find our way into the hotel car park and checked in, Dean and I felt our room was disappointing. It was a bit of a let down after we had done such a good job of finding good hotels (bar one) over the last two weeks. However, we brushed the disappointment aside. Fortunately Alan and Yasi's room was better than ours and they seemed happy. On the evening we managed to find our way into town (following a road with about a thousand dazzling wedding dress shops).Saturday night! Big town! Oh dear. Noise and young people! Not to be discouraged we found a place to eat which turned out to be OK and Yasi ordered a Margarita.

Sunday was our last full day together. Our breakfast at the hotel was on the 6th floor, and WOW what a view across the bay to the mountains. I have to say it was a tremendous view, and made up for the disappointment of our room the day before. 

View looking north towards the top of the bay

Straight across the bay now towards

where we travelled from yesterday

By pure chance, we had discovered that our friends David and Caroline were in Antalya too so we arranged to meet up with them for coffee and cake.... of course. We had realised that last night we hadn't actually walked far enough to get into the old town, so today we did actually manage to find the right place. And it was definately worth the wait. We all met up near the old Roman harbour and after a drink went onto a very small boutique tea shop in the back streets. It was an excellent idea, the tea shop being part of a very old hotel called 'Adalya Port Hotel', which we also had use of the toilets and for the ladies a quick tour of course. 

Trying to find the old town proper

Pubs and bars

No chance of running out of Efes at this bar

Aha, now this looks more like it

Yes, castles etc, now your'e talking

Sorry Alan, more steps

Snow over on the mountain tops

Cats living in the rocks

Gullets on the quayside

Unique way of serving fresh orange juice

David, Caroline, and Dean at the boutique tea shop

What a way to be served your tea and coffee, beautiful

Chit chatting

Tea shop sign

Inside the hotel. This the sign for the ladies loos.

View from the ladies loos, lol

Hallways

A grand view

In the lobby

What a lovely place to find

Back outside and after we had browsed the maze of streets and shops in the bazaar, we took the lift to the upper heights. A great view of the Roman harbour from up there. 

Overlooking the Roman harbour

...and more afternoon views west

Last chance for photos together

One of me now

More statues as we try and find somewhere for dinner

Now at Hadrian's gate. Yes, it's him again.

See the worn cobblestones

We very much enjoyed our last day of the roadtrip, finishing off by chance at a lovely restaurant in the Old Town before finding our way back to the hotel for celebratory Rum & Cokes.

Day 15 - Monday - we had an hour or two to spare before saying goodbye to Alan and Yasi at the airport, so we all decided to go to Decathlon and Ikea whilst we had the opportunity being in a major town. Don't usually get chance to do things like this anywhere else. Then it was a drive back to Finike, once again enjoying looking at the scenery en-route. Now time for a rest and a lot of catching up jobs including writing up this blog which has taken me all weekend!