Cricket at The Oval

Brody at the cricket! After almost 2 years in the UK, Brody finally made it out to see a cricket match. It was a day/night match, England vs. South Africa. The match lasted 8 hours and England won. While cricket will not win awards for the most exciting sport, it was a beautiful day in the sun watching sport while indulging in a beer or two or three. The match was at the Oval, one of England's top cricket venues and known as the rowdy location when compared to the other main cricket venue, Lords. 

Turkey/Greece - Part III

Rhodes, Greece

The 2 ½ hour hydrofoil boat ride was rough. It was hot, rough water and longer than expected. So when we reached Rhoads, we were all very excited. We stayed in the old town, which is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe and a World Heritage site.  On our first night all 4 of us shared red snapper, his name was Georgio, and enjoyed the wonderful food which was a nice change from Oludeniz.

The next day we did a self-guided walking tour and meandered around the city streets. On our walk we saw the following sites:

• Street of the Knights
• Grand Masters Palace (but didn’t pay for entry)
• Acropolis of Rhodes

Dinner at Nireas. Yummy red snapper and saganaki.

Street of the Knights

Brad and Audra, our companions on the trip.

This is the lady that made our rug... not really but we'd like to think so.  It takes an average of 3 months to make these rugs by hand.  

Harbor at night.

Day trip to Lindos.

We decided to rent a car for the day. Lucky for us we found the last car not yet rented on the island. Unfortunately with baby seat in the back of this two door convertible Audi, it was a tight fit. We used the car to drive to Lindos. We also took time to swim in the ocean and eat lunch before heading out on a drive across the Island to wine country. Our route required us to drive on a “secondary” road (later determined to be a ‘rough road”) which made for a scary and entertaining drive across the island. Once there, we ate a quick dinner and found a place to purchase special honey where bees feed off of oregano.

*Random splurge of the trip was buying a large silk rug we found on our last day as we were walking around killing time before our flight. 

Cramed in the back of the only rental car available.  I love that Henry is just hanging out having a bottle. 

Town of Lindos with the Acropolis at the top.

Lindos taxi. Used for transportation up and down the hill to the Acropolis of Lindos.

Henry hitching a ride on the Lindos taxi.

Acropolis of Lindos

Sand in my toes.

Turkey/Greece - Part II

Oludeniz, Turkey

Oludeniz is a beach town, which became popular by the British in the 1970s.  Most of the posters advertizing travel in Turkey show the popular beach and blue lagoon. 

We were disappointed overall with Oludeniz for several reasons.

•  We found out the day before we flew in that the hotel we reserved and paid for did not accept babies.  We quickly had to book another hotel and negotiate a refund from the original hotel, which was not easy.
• The town lacked any character. We were looking for a little Turkish beach town and what we got felt like a party town in Mexico with bars/restaurants serving frozen margaritas, nachos and pizza.  Not what we expected at all. 

Our hotel was about 1 km up the hill from the town but had two fantastic pools and great views of the ocean. The hotel rooms were pretty dated but the amazing hotel grounds and the family that ran the hotel made our stay pleasant. They loved Henry and referred to him as ‘best Henry’ and ‘my best Henry’ which we have been calling him lately.

We spent out 2 days here swimming in the pool and at the beach/blue lagoon. The most popular activity is paragliding but we weren’t feeling like risk takers. 

We are excited to leave for Greece… back to the EU and safe drinking water.  It’s not easy to wash baby bottles with bottled water… or bath Henry with bottled water. 

** Henry’s first time in the ocean was here, in the Aegean Sea.  I still can’t believe his first experience was in Turkey!

View of Oludeniz from our hotel.

This has to be the oldest highchair I have ever seen.  We just had to laugh about it. Which is how we dealt with most things on this trip.

Love this picture.  I wish I knew what he was thinking. Probably something like...why did you bring me here.

Swimming and splashing.

Wrinkly toes.

Hank's first time in the ocean.  

Here's my traditional Turkish margarita. haha 

Turkey/Greece - Part I

Here is was our itinerary:

- Istanbul, Turkey - August 10-12 (flight)

- Oludeniz, Turkey - August 12-14 (ferry)

- Rhodes, Greece - August 14-17 (flight)

- Crete, Greece - August 17-21 (ferry)

- Santorini, Greece - August 21-26

Istanbul, Turkey 

We were a little surprised to find that both of us really enjoyed Istanbul.  Much more than we thought we would.  It has been the most foreign place we have visited while on tour.  There were a lot less western tourists, English was not as widely spoken and the significant dedication to the Muslim religion provided a very foreign feel to the city.  For example, throughout the day you could hear the call to prayer throughout the city.

We started our first day by visiting the Haghia Sophia “church of holy wisdom” and the Blue Mosque (called Sultanahmet Camii in Turkish). We stopped first at the Blue Mosque, which was built between 1609 and 1616. This Mosque is still active and to enter we were both required to remove our shoes.  Women must wear clothing that covers their legs, arms and head.  The Haghia Sophia was once a church, later a mosque and is now a museum.  It had amazing mosaic ceilings and walls and in one it shows Mary holding Jesus and another with Christ on the throne with an emperor kneeling beside him.  These were all covered up when the church was converted in to a mosque and has since been rediscovered.  The mosaics date back to 800-900’s ….. that’s old!  

We also made a quick stop at the Byzantine Basilica Cistern, which is supposed to be the most unusual tourist attraction in the city.  The cistern was built in 532 for the growing demands of the Great Palace, the roof is held up by 336 columns, each over 26ft.  The site was also used in a James Bond movie.

We ended the day eating chicken shish (kabobs) and paper kabob (a veg and lamb stew thats wrapped and baked in oiled paper).

On our second day in Istanbul, we first visited the Grand Bazaar, which is a labyrinth of streets with thousands of booth-like shops. It is good for buying jewelry, rugs, leather goods and pretty much anything you can think of.   We were so surprised by the number of vendors selling knock off purses, sunglasses and watches.  The fake purses were amazing quality and nothing like the things I’ve seen in NY and other large cities.  They are also far more expensive and made of real leather but still a fraction of the cost of an original.  

Gold is also a good deal because the price you pay is based on the posted daily price of gold so little is paid for the craftsmanship.  The items are weighed in front of you and the price is calculated.  Wishing I had found something I wanted!!

I was completely overwhelmed with the market… so much so that I found it hard to make decisions on what to purchase.  I could have spent a couple of days in the market.

After the Bazaar we took the tram down to the Palace. From here we headed to the Spice Market, where we found a spice grinder and a hand made backgammon board (which from my travel books is a popular board game in Turkey).  After lots of walking we decided to then get on a 2 hour boat ride for views of the city. The boat ride was a nice break from all of the walking and people.

Blue Mosque

Haghia Sophia

Byzantine Basilica Cistern

Grand Bazaar

Check out that bling!  These are too flashy for me but thats a lot of gold. 

Spice Market

At the market we purchased a spice grinder, turkish platter and a backgammon board.

Boat Ride

Other random pics 

* It was Ramadan while we were there which is a month of fasting, which begins at dawn and ends at sunset.  Once the sun went down the parks filled with families eating dinner and listening to music.

** Everyone loved Henry.  When our friends came to our hotel to meet us in the morning the hotel staff would refer them to ‘Henry’s room.” I also had to quickly get comfortable with everyone wanting to touch him.  We didn’t see many women when we were out sightseeing but all of the men were so interested in making noises and gestures to get his attention. Everyone wanted to hold him.