My marathon travel effort began at 6.45am when Suzie, Helen and I took a taxi to the airport - a flat fee of 21 euro with three sharing meant the cost was similar to the bus. Suzie was first to leave - to Bilbao to meet up with Ian - I was next to Madrid followed by Helen to Barcelona. I was very pleased that they were able to check my luggage all the way to Istanbul.
The Iberian flight to Madrid was somewhat uncomfortable as the leg space was non-existent. As the flight was full, I spent the hour on tip-toes so my knees didn't poke into the traveller in front. I had 50 mins to transit and take the BA flight to Heathrow. On exiting the plane, the signs advised me that it took 37 minutes to get to my gate. The airport was busy and the transit required taking a train to the new terminal with hoards of other travellers also hurrying to make connections. I reached the gates as they were calling final boarding!
An uneventful flight to Heathrow was followed by an equally uneventful wait - however I did enjoy the people watching. The flight was delayed, but we eventually boarded and settled down into a half-empty plane. In the most part, couples and families were seated together and single travellers had their row to themselves! The cabin staff were very relaxed with such a small number of customers to look after and most of us stretched out and dozed for the trip.
It was great to see Michael waiting when I emerged from Customs and we headed in to our hotel. Despite the late time - 1.30am - the roads were very congested and on a couple of occasions we passed stationary lines of traffic heading in the opposite direction.
Our Istanbul hotel room was very small, but as we were both so tired, we just headed to bed.
After breakfast on the 6th floor of the hotel with a great view of the Golden Horn and a pet seagull that the staff feed, we met our driver and started the trip to Canakkle. This was not before a helpful staff member had called a taxi and put our luggage into it, thinking we were going to the airport!
The drive down was quite interesting - Istanbul is a city of 16 million people and it stretches for some miles. We passed a range of different dwellings - from single unit places to groups of high-rise reminiscent of the towers in Hong Kong. Many of the buildings appeared deserted and some we couldn't tell whether they were half-completed or in a state of demolition!
On leaving the city we passed agricultural areas with fields of wheat, the remains of a sunflower crop and rice as well as some of the market garden vegetables - cabbage, lettuce, eggplant. Our guide was quite chatty, but also happy to stay silent at times. He pointed out places of interest and let us know that he would give more detail during the tour tomorrow.
We crossed the Dardanelles by ferry to Canakkle and checked in to our hotel. Imagine our amazement to discover a kettle and some tea and coffee in the room! The down side is that there is a big marathon being run in the battlefields tomorrow - but the fiesta is going on all week-end! We're hopeful that the outdoor concert will finish at a reasonable time!
After local meal and some lovely baklava we headed back to the hotel to hopefully a better sleep tonight.
The Iberian flight to Madrid was somewhat uncomfortable as the leg space was non-existent. As the flight was full, I spent the hour on tip-toes so my knees didn't poke into the traveller in front. I had 50 mins to transit and take the BA flight to Heathrow. On exiting the plane, the signs advised me that it took 37 minutes to get to my gate. The airport was busy and the transit required taking a train to the new terminal with hoards of other travellers also hurrying to make connections. I reached the gates as they were calling final boarding!
An uneventful flight to Heathrow was followed by an equally uneventful wait - however I did enjoy the people watching. The flight was delayed, but we eventually boarded and settled down into a half-empty plane. In the most part, couples and families were seated together and single travellers had their row to themselves! The cabin staff were very relaxed with such a small number of customers to look after and most of us stretched out and dozed for the trip.
It was great to see Michael waiting when I emerged from Customs and we headed in to our hotel. Despite the late time - 1.30am - the roads were very congested and on a couple of occasions we passed stationary lines of traffic heading in the opposite direction.
Our Istanbul hotel room was very small, but as we were both so tired, we just headed to bed.
After breakfast on the 6th floor of the hotel with a great view of the Golden Horn and a pet seagull that the staff feed, we met our driver and started the trip to Canakkle. This was not before a helpful staff member had called a taxi and put our luggage into it, thinking we were going to the airport!
The drive down was quite interesting - Istanbul is a city of 16 million people and it stretches for some miles. We passed a range of different dwellings - from single unit places to groups of high-rise reminiscent of the towers in Hong Kong. Many of the buildings appeared deserted and some we couldn't tell whether they were half-completed or in a state of demolition!
On leaving the city we passed agricultural areas with fields of wheat, the remains of a sunflower crop and rice as well as some of the market garden vegetables - cabbage, lettuce, eggplant. Our guide was quite chatty, but also happy to stay silent at times. He pointed out places of interest and let us know that he would give more detail during the tour tomorrow.
We crossed the Dardanelles by ferry to Canakkle and checked in to our hotel. Imagine our amazement to discover a kettle and some tea and coffee in the room! The down side is that there is a big marathon being run in the battlefields tomorrow - but the fiesta is going on all week-end! We're hopeful that the outdoor concert will finish at a reasonable time!
After local meal and some lovely baklava we headed back to the hotel to hopefully a better sleep tonight.
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