Well today was certainly a different experience! Our English speaking guide from Canakkle had told us that it would take 6hrs to drive to Kusadasi and with a stop for lunch it would be about 6.5 - 7hrs.
Our non-English speaking driver collected us from the hotel at 9.00am and off we went. We had read that none of the turkish drivers followed road rules and we certainly experienced that - we were regularly 20 - 30kms above the speed limit - even in built up areas - and Michael informs me that at one stage we were doing 150kms per hour!
I don't believe that we would have stopped at all had Michael not asked for a toilet break - and we headed into the very next service station! The road was double lane most of the way - with it expanding to three lanes around Izmir.
We also found the infrastructure very interesting. We saw many neglected and abandoned houses often very close to new developments of new, bright, modern houses - but a lot of these appeared uninhabited. When travelling around Canakkle, our guide had told us that the area was where the rich Turks had summer houses which were deserted in winter.
We arrived at around 2.00pm and fortunately we lived to tell the tale!
It was a very interesting trip as we passed field after filed of agriculture. Initially it was mostly olives and apricots. In one place they were harvesting olives - with the ground under the trees covered in tarpaulins and people picking low fruit as well as a couple up on ladders picking the higher fruit.
As we progressed, we saw more stone fruit trees; melons and then around Izmir quite a lot of market garden vegetables - cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, leeks, capsicum and chillies. We have noticed that the basic salad is a combination of tomatoes, cucumbers chillies and onions.
For most of the journey we travelled along the coast with the sea reflecting the clear blue sky. It was most picturesque.
Having arrived, we settled in and headed out for some lunch. Kusadasi is a tourist town of about 65,000 - rising to half a million in the summer! Luckily we are here in the autumn! There were two boats at the cruise terminal and and the town is busy but not overly so.
We checked out the laundromat - not self service but if we bring in our clothes in by 9, they will be washed, line-dried and ironed if necessary in the one day. We then wandered around the old city - certainly very different to the glitz on the seaside - and after taking a wrong turn found ourselves heading up a fairly steep hill. It afforded great views of the town though, and we eventually found our way back to the commercial area and some dinner!
Our non-English speaking driver collected us from the hotel at 9.00am and off we went. We had read that none of the turkish drivers followed road rules and we certainly experienced that - we were regularly 20 - 30kms above the speed limit - even in built up areas - and Michael informs me that at one stage we were doing 150kms per hour!
I don't believe that we would have stopped at all had Michael not asked for a toilet break - and we headed into the very next service station! The road was double lane most of the way - with it expanding to three lanes around Izmir.
We also found the infrastructure very interesting. We saw many neglected and abandoned houses often very close to new developments of new, bright, modern houses - but a lot of these appeared uninhabited. When travelling around Canakkle, our guide had told us that the area was where the rich Turks had summer houses which were deserted in winter.
We arrived at around 2.00pm and fortunately we lived to tell the tale!
It was a very interesting trip as we passed field after filed of agriculture. Initially it was mostly olives and apricots. In one place they were harvesting olives - with the ground under the trees covered in tarpaulins and people picking low fruit as well as a couple up on ladders picking the higher fruit.
As we progressed, we saw more stone fruit trees; melons and then around Izmir quite a lot of market garden vegetables - cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, leeks, capsicum and chillies. We have noticed that the basic salad is a combination of tomatoes, cucumbers chillies and onions.
For most of the journey we travelled along the coast with the sea reflecting the clear blue sky. It was most picturesque.
Having arrived, we settled in and headed out for some lunch. Kusadasi is a tourist town of about 65,000 - rising to half a million in the summer! Luckily we are here in the autumn! There were two boats at the cruise terminal and and the town is busy but not overly so.
We checked out the laundromat - not self service but if we bring in our clothes in by 9, they will be washed, line-dried and ironed if necessary in the one day. We then wandered around the old city - certainly very different to the glitz on the seaside - and after taking a wrong turn found ourselves heading up a fairly steep hill. It afforded great views of the town though, and we eventually found our way back to the commercial area and some dinner!
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