Istanbul, Turkey Friday 29th June The first half of our day was spent with Cengiz Alatli who guided us for four hours through Topkapi Palace, Aya Sophia and The Archeological Museum. Topkapi Palace was built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453 and was home to all of the subsequent Sultans. The place has a colourful… More

Istanbul, Turkey Tuesday 26th June You see some funny things in Turkey. For example, pink is a nice colour in all its variations; pink, puce, purple, violet and so on. That is, until you paint it on a 3 storey building which is quite common practice here. Also, they love washing bus windows with an… More

Canakkale, Turkey Sunday 24th June Bodrum Backpackers – Ataturk Cad. 37, Bodrum, Turkey Today was dedicated to travel for the 6 hour drive north from Selcuk up to Canakkale. We travelled by mini-bus with 3 other Aussie couples. This journey was punctuated midway with a stop at the ancient site of Pergamum, now Bergama, a… More

Selcuk, Turkey Friday 22nd June Jimmy’s Place – Ataturk Mah., 1016 Sok., No. 19, Selcuk, Turkey We left Bodrum for Selcuk on the 11am bus after having a leisurely morning including a walk through the Old Town and harbour area and a swim. Our trip was not without incident though. We were the only people… More

Bodrum, Turkey Thursday 21st June It is 8.30pm, we are in Bodrum, Turkey and it is stinking hot! Mark, Tom and I have just returned from dinner whereas Annabelle stayed in the apartment as she wasn’t feeling well. We left Rodos early this morning, another hot and sunny one. The ferry left at 8am and… More

Rhodes, Greece Tuesday 19th June This note is being scribed from the balcony of our hotel in Rhodes whilst I sit here on a magnificent (Mark’s favourite word) afternoon and look out over the sprawling beach with turquoise blue water below. The coastline of Turkey looms just a short distance out on the horizon and… More

Santorini, Greece Sunday 17th June I am writing this note from the balcony of our villa in Oia, the northern most point of Santorini, perched high on the edge of the caldera overlooking the beautiful Aegean Sea. It is 8.30pm and we have just watched a spectacular sunset, something Oia is famed for, yet it… More

Athens, Greece Friday 15th June We took a really good walking tour of Ancient Greece with Maria from ‘Athens Walking Tours”. She put about 3 ~6,000 years of Greek history, religion, culture, myths and legends into a clear, succinct and intelligible perspective for us and the other family who joined us. We spent most of… More

Athens, Greece Wed 13th and Thurs 14th June It is 5.30 on Thursday afternoon and I am writing this from the deck of the roof-top pool whilst Tom is having a swim and spa. I have a clear view across to my right of the magnificent Parthenon sitting majestically on top of Acropolis rock. At… More

Sorrento, Italy Monday 11th June: Isle of Capri We woke to another hot, clear and beautiful day and made our way down to the wharf to catch the 9.30 ferry to the Isle of Capri. Capri is a spectacular limestone island rising out of the ocean with sheer cliffs bordering most of its coastline and… More