Marmaris, Turkey: Family Time!

We flew from Rome to Dalaman via Istanbul with Pegasus Airlines, and we missed the bus from Dalaman to Marmaris as we had to transfer to international arrivals to get our luggage. The next bus was 1.5 hours later, but as Dorte was ill, we took a taxi the 90 km. Marmaris is located in South Western Turkey. There are 300,000 people in the summer (mainly tourists), and 40,000 in the winter.

The Turkish people are very proud of Ataturk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The Turkish flag and pictures of Ataturk are prominently displayed everywhere we went, and when asked, people speak of him with pride and genuine affection.

Dorte's daughter, Stephanie and her Turkish boyfriend, Thomas, lived in Marmaris for 3 years, so it is their 'home turf'. 

They met us at Han Palace Hotel, and it was great seeing them again. Stephanie's Dad was in Marmaris as well. Dorte spent the following 48 hours in bed fighting a virus, while Andy, Stephanie and Thomas walked around Marmaris, went swimming and had dinner together.

We walked the 4 km along the ocean to Icmeler, where we had lunch at the restaurant where Thomas' uncle works. Then we visited the local market, and just as Thomas' s flip flop broke, we ran into the uncle, who gave us lift back to Marmaris. What luck!!

This is called encouragement!

We had dinner at a nice Turkish restaurant close to our hotel, and Thomas made sure we tasted some typical Turkish food. The menu mainly consists of grilled chicken, lamb, beef, tomatoes, green peppers, onion, salad humus and garlic yogurt, and of course, kebab - yummy.

Stephanie speaks fluent Turkish, and she negotiated a good deal for a full day boat trip for all of us. 

The first stop was not far from Marmaris, where we went swimming off the boat close to shore.

Andy and Thomas were solving the world situations, and Stephanie and I were chatting, so very relaxing.

After having sailed for another hour we had lunch on board, and due to lack of space, we were offered to eat at the captain's table on the bridge.

At Turtle Beach we transferred to smaller boats, and then went for a swim in the very clear and clean ocean - no stones, not seaweed, only sand. No wonder the turtles still breed here.

Then we went through the reeds and saw to the Rock Tombs, which belongs to the Kings of ancient Lycis, and date back to the 4th century B.C. Very facinating.

And then the real fun started, as we went to a mud bath. After having 

covered ourselves in mud, 

and standing in the sun for 10 minutes for the mud to dry - it created some fascinating avatar-like patterns on our bodies.

When we showered off the mud, the skin was soft as a baby's.

It is exhausting being a tourist, so it was time for a nap on the boat on the way back to Marmaris.

The followimg day, Thomas' uncle was so nice to lend us his car for a day. Guess who is driving?

We shopped for a BBQ in the local supermarket, and set off to a remote beach on the other side of the peninsula.

Thomas and Andy got the charcoal going, and we BBQed sausages, chicken, ribs and vegetables. It was really tasty.

Stephanie left Marmaris on Friday Sept 6th to go back to work in Denmark, and Thomas went away to visit some friends, so all of a sudden we were alone again.

We took a one day trip to the Greek island Rhodes, which is one hour from Marmaris by catamaran. The old part of town is full of souvenir shops and restaurants, which is such a shame as it has lost all it's authenticity. The walls around the old town is still there, and so are the cannonballs.

We walked to the Acropolis of Rhodes, which dates back to the 3rd-2nd century BC. From there Andy got a good look at all the white houses against the blue sea, which he has seen many pictures of.

We had an authentic Greek salad for lunch, and it was delicious. The difference between this one and the ones you get almost everywhere else, is that this one had bread at the bottom and no lettuce.

Andy got hit by the flu, so Dorte spend the last two days relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean, while Andy recovered.

We had a second dinner at Chira Turkisk restaurant, and the meal was wonderful again. Nice finish to our time in Marmaris.