Day 2, Aspendos & Perge
Day 2 of our land adventure started with a lovely walk along the cliffs just to the east of Antalya, to the Lower Duden Falls, said to be a spectacular cascade that occurs as the Duden River spills off the Antalya City cliffs into the sea, and they didn’t disappoint!
We then drove eastward again to a place called Aspendos to the grandest and best preserved Roman theatre which was built around AD 162 and is still being used today to host Operas and Ballets. I gave up counting the tiers as I climbed to the top seat in the blistering heat to take in the atmosphere and of course get the much needed photos, David very sensibly staying in the shade!
After also stopping to the see the aqueduct built around AD 100, a much needed lunch stop was taken by the river.
Refreshed, we then went onto Perge, which was once a very wealthy city, until it was abandoned in the 7th Century, although I have no idea why. Rather ruined out, David left me to wander around while he sensibly and patiently sat in the shade, although peace was to evade him as a bunch of tourist had the same idea, but spent the next 20 minutes discussing very loudly what to do next… I bet he wished he had come with me instead!
I found it to be far more impressive than I expected, so many of the Turkish “Must see” lists are a pile of old stones, sorry to be so uncultured, however here you could actually envisage from what was left from years ago, the entrance gates and what the city itself would have been like. Not quite Ephesus but not that far short.
Exhausted, primarily from the still 44 + degree heat, we then headed back to Seaclusion for a rest, although it took quite a bit of time before we could venture down below, allowing for the air con to kick in, the ceiling in the boat was so hot we could hardly touch it, not sure how it didn’t start melting!
Finally we got some benefit, and spent a couple of hours hiding form the sun and heat, followed by dinner and vino on board and more giggles as more shenanigans occurred with sailors returning home and relying on the marinellos to moor their boats for them from their ribs!
21st July 2019
