27 April 2025 Overland to Fethiye • Embark ship • Turquoise Coast

 

27 April 2025             Overland to Fethiye • Embark ship • Turquoise Coast

 Today we transferred to our Turkish gullet, where we spent 4 days cruising to several of the coves along the Mediterranean coast.  We drove by bus along the coast where we saw blue turquoise waters and plunging cliffs.  Just before lunch time we stopped in the small town of Demre to visit the Church of St. Nicholas.  St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra (as Demre was known in ancient times), one of the most important cities of the ancient Lycian region in Anatolia from the 15^th century to 546 BCE.  Revered as a protector of children, St. Nicholas gave them gifts at every opportunity and became the model for Santa Clause or Father Christmas.  The church had some very old, beautiful mosaics.  We then had lunch at a local restaurant in Demre.

 

Mosaic on Ceiling of the Basilica 
of the Church - Jesus with the 12 Apostles

Sarcophagus of St. Nicholas

Basilica of the Church

Church of St. Nicholas

Mosaics from Inside the Church

Statue of St. Nicholas

Around 5 PM we reached our final destination – the harbor of Fethiye where we boarded our gullet, the Tarkan 5.  Our gullet was a 2-masted sailing ship built of teak and oak.  With no air conditioning, many guests have actually sleep on the deck to keep cool during the summer season, but we had nice cool evenings,  Our room is small, but has a double bed and a nice sized bathroom.  In the back of the ship was a large lounge, eating area and the bar.  Up front in the bow was another eating area along with lounges for the sun worshipers.  The ship has internet, but to conserve electricity, power was shut off during the evening hours of 10pm to about 5:30am.

 

You cannot miss this traffic light
in a small town we passed through

Bright Green Light

High Tea on our first Night on the Gullet

Our Bedroom

We spent the night in Fethiye harbor as the ship’s captain was concerned about the prediction of bad weather during the night.  Dinner was served in the eating area in the front of the boat.  It was a delicious meal of fried bream (a fish caught in the local waters here).  I will say they made enough food to feed an army.  At every meal, including breakfast, there was always fresh fruits and vegetables, olives, and bread.  There is usually a salad and two types of vegetables (one being eggplant) and at dinner sometimes three types of meat.  We finally had to ask Ahmet to ask the cook not to prepare so much food – a lot of it went to waste.  Our first night was pleasant, but Bill and I needed to work on getting used to a double bed!