You are lucky to be invited to your friend's cousin's home. I did not like the meal much at the Sheraton in Ankara, it was ordinary nothing special. I enjoyed all the other meals more. We usually ate around 7.30 pm.
The book is called Ancient Turkey, A traveller's history by Seton Lloyd. He was an archeologist I saw his name on some artifacts at Midas tomb I think it was. I bought it either from Amazon or the Canadian equivalent. It is a bit hard to get through, I was a little confused and it was hard to keep track of the different peoples, I enjoyed and understood more on a second reading.

Marie,

I attached a Terrace House photo to my previous post in this topic and here is another.

phil

P1010323_(Large).JPG (136 Kb, 26 downloads) Terrace House site

Very impressive, Phil. I did not know when I was there that you could visit.

Roni, I mentioned in my tour tale that I visited the harem in Topkapi in Istanbul. Out Td discouraged us from going in there but I rushed through, it was the highlight for me. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the treasury since it was so crowded and difficult to see the items. Also there were several school groups of fairly young children and the noise level was very tiring.

Thanks for the tips. Keep 'em comin'!!
I have a notepad by the computer and I'm writing everything down. Pretty soon I'll be organizing all of the things I've written and bookmarked into a personal guide book to bring with us. I did that for both Italy and France and found it helpful, besides the fact that it was fun to put together and helped pass the time as I was anxiously awaiting the start of the trips!
We have picked up several guide books, and even the information in those is a bit complicated to get through, although as you indicated, it will make better sense after we have seen the sites. Also, Dukemom left the name of a Turkish author whose books she found interesting since Turkey (mostly Istanbul I think) was the setting for his novels. I'm thinking that I'll pick up one of his books for airport/airplane reading to pass the time during the long trip to help establish the mood!

His name is Orhan Pamuk, Ronsik....won lots of literary prizes - a little deep but sooooooooo Turkish! Try My Name Is Red - check out B & N in Freehold! Even your library - Have a wonderful time!!!!!

Will you have time to go to Dolembache (sp?) palace? We really enjoyed it but even more, we sat by the water and had "toast" and tea --- you will soon learn that "toast" is everywhere (grilled cheese)!!!!!!! ALso, in the hotel, we did eat dinner but ONLY the buffet part - no ordered entree. The breakfasts at the Hilton were spectacular!!!!!!

Roni...

Some say that many Turks eat olives at breakfast time.

Tip: If Turkish olives are offered with breakfast, eat some of them, especially the long brown or green ones. Turkish olives are great!

Cat, all olives are delicious. The most delicious ones I have ever tasted/had, were served at the bar in the hotel that I stayed at on my Spain & Portugal Tour, back in 2005.
A few of us met at the bar for a drink before dinner. The green olives that the barman served as nibbles, were the sweetest, best olives I have ever tasted, EVER.
I have eaten Spanish, Italian, Turkish & Australian olives and just thinking about the ones at that hotel bar, still makes my mouth water.

quote:

Originally posted by RoniSK:
I'm curious how the extra volume of people created by two buses traveling together instead of in opposite directions affects the overall tour experience.
Has anyone experienced this? I'd like to hear your comments about it.
Thanks, Roni

Hi Roni

My wife and I have just returned from Treasures of Turkey. There were two coaches (each with about 37 passengers) travelling the same routes each day however this caused no inconvenience whatsoever. Our 2 tour groups had our "Meet 'n' Greet" in two separate rooms on the first day and departures between the 2 coaches were staggered with the second coach leaving around 30 minutes or so after ours. We often saw the second coach people at various locations where we had lengthier visits and in many of the short duration stops they often arrived as we were leaving.

Both coaches stayed in the same hotels and ate in the same restaurants (sometimes in the general restaurant area and sometimes in private rooms).

I would not worry about there being to coaches as it caused no inconvenience whatsoever. It is the crowds from the cruise ships that cause the congestion in some locations.

Have a fantastic trip and I am sure you will come home with many fond memories of your tour through Turkey.

Hi Dragon,

Welcome back. Thanks for your response. We leave in less than two weeks now so last minute preparations are beginning.

We were excited before, but after seeing the pictures that Phil posted from Mrs. Phil's trip, we are over the top now! (Thanks again, Phil for posting the beautiful photos)

Can't wait!!