Leonidas' Last Stand

The road took us near enough to Thermopylae, another sight one has to see. 300 Spartans and all that, said by some to be the most inspiring battle of all history. Free peoples vs. slaves and conscripts; the happy few vs. the multitude; sacrifice and certain death. The Oracle at Delphi had told the Spartans: "O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon! Either your glorious town shall be sacked by the children of Perseus, or, in exchange, must all through the whole Laconian country mourn for the loss of a king, descendant of great Heracles." It's a good story, indeed, but, militarily was without much consequence. Xerxes was delayed a few days, and annoyed, but went on to conquer much of Greece, sack and raze Athens, etc. But it's a good story.

The main monument, from the grassy knoll, Kolonnus Hill

Who is it that always puts huge powerlines in the background? 
This is the great monument to Sparta's King Leonidas



And this, the relatively recent monument to the Thespians 
(Thebans) also killed defending Thermopylae; why is the 
private part so shiny, we wondered...

The grassy knoll to which the last of the Spartans retreated, with the body of 
Leonidas, and on which they died



The famous plaque: "Go tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by, that here, 
obedient to their laws, we lie"



My attempt to re-compose the scene; the lines ascribed to 
Leonidas on the monument are his reply to Xerxes' 
emissaries, who demanded the Spartans lay down their arms:

"Come and get them!"

Olympus

We crossed the border, into Greece and back into the EU, without much delay, and drove on, now coastline, now beautiful plains, occasional mountains, south, past Mt. Olympus, and then spent the night at a rest area north of Larissa.

So it said

It was a hazy cloudy day

But there it is, snow and all; I trust the gods travel south for

the winter

And a 13th century crusader castle to boot: Platamonas

Güle Güle, Turkey

Tonight finds us at an Otopark in Ipsala, on Turkey's border with Greece. The Aegean is a mile or two away, and the winds are buffeting us just as at Sultanahmet. But it is dry and pleasant, short-sleeve temperatures.

This is our 68th and final day in Turkey. We came here with a little apprehension and also high expectation. We have never met anyone who visited Turkey and did not absolutely love it. We can now join that group. Been there, loved that. It is one of the most varied and interesting places we have been, historically, culturally, geographically; exotic, but comfortably exotic; friendly and welcoming too. I am sure I will post some more about Turkey, and Vicki's "practical highlights" on Turkey will appear on our website soon.  We have some more of the world still to see, but we'd love to return to Turkey.

My "Crescent and Star" salad tribute, cucumbers and

tomatoes and yogurt with spearmint; onions and olives

added later; preceded by a final glass of wonderful Efes;
and, of course, followed by some final baklava from
Sultanahmet

Last Days in Istanbul

Thus were our last few days in Istanbul, favorite places, the Spice Market, a dinner at Develi, more shopping, another visit to the archaeological museum, more walking around, just appreciating the great city.

Develi restaurant in Samatya

At the archaeological museum--where we revisited Troy,

Hittites, Lycians, Lydeans, Phrygians, and other old

friends--we finally got to see the remnant of the iron chain

the Byzantines had stretched across the Golden Horn to

keep enemies out (it had been on loan in October)

A last look at the Blue Mosque

And the incredible Hagia Sophia

Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent

One of the loose ends--it was still closed for renovations in October--was to see Istanbul's greatest mosque, that of Suleiman the Magnificent, the 16th century sultan who saw the empire reach its zenith in most every way. It was designed by Sinan the Architect, buried nearby, one of the 131 mosques he designed in his 97 years. Most interestingly, this mosque was the center of a huge social services center, soup kitchen for the poor, housing for travelers, baths, hospital, school, library, etc. I wonder if they had free wifi. Anyhow, I liked this mosque, far more than the blue one: there was a simplicity of design and decor here that added to the sense of height and massiveness.

Hemmed-in as it is, both by its own campus

and courtyard and then city buildings all

around, it is difficult to get a picture with
even most of the mosque in it



Interior

Great dome, 52m up there

Beautiful Islamic glass

More interior

One of the four minarets

Larger exterior view

Sultanahmet Again

After Gallipoli, we turned back east and drove to within 50 miles or so of Istanbul, stopping at a beach-side lay-by. We had decided to spend our last few days in Turkey back in Istanbul, a city we enjoyed so much when we arrived here, to attend to a last few loose ends in sight-seeing, shopping, and eating. We drove into the big city about 9AM and were settled at our old campground on Kennedy Caddesi in Sultanahmet by 10. We spent the rest of the day at the Grand Bazaar, again, and in the neighborhoods surrounding it. We buy very little, but find these Turkish bazaars endlessly interesting.

There were only a few RVs at the "campground," a few Germans, a few French; 
as you can see in the background, the wind and sea were really kicking up at 
this point



Really kicking up

We thought about seeing the latest Harry Poppins movie, but, 
alas, it was dubbed in Turkish

In the bookstalls adjacent to the Grand Bazaar, a cat surveys 
the literary crowd; what do cats think about?

Beyazit Square and the entrance to Istanbul University

In the Square, what we dubbed the "old mens' market"

For example



Next afternoon, one of many BBQs going on along the sea-wall and in the park 
near us; Turks will grill just about anything, anytime



This one got out of hand: the old rail station, across the Golden Horn; it was a 
gift of the Kaiser to the Sultan way back when...

Gallipoli

We spent much of Friday touring the Gallipoli peninsula, the northern side of the Hellespont and thus the traditional water gateway to Instanbul and beyond. In WWI, the British, under their First Sea Lord Winston Churchill, elected to try what no other navy had ever done--force the Dardanelles, proceed to Istanbul, and take the Ottoman Empire out of the war, thus relieving ally Russia. The combined British and French fleet was driven back from the Hellespont by shore batteries and mines. Later, the Allies landed on both Gallipoli and at Canakkale, across the strait. Gruesome WWI trench warfare ensued. A second landing, of Australian and New Zealand Commonwealth troops, took place in April, 1915, but had the very bad luck of arriving at just the place that a divisional commander named Mustafa Kemal--later Ataturk--had expected them. Four months later he led the counter-attack that eventually drove the Allies from the Dardanelles. Churchill resigned as First Sea Lord, and the war went on another three years, in other theatres. There were 500,000 casualties in the Dardanelles campaign.

From our campsite Thursday night, near the narrowest part

of the straits

The great monument at Abide, near the end of the Gallipoli

peninsula

In the Abide memorial courtyard

It is a huge cemetery for Turkish soldiers killed in the

Gallipoli campaign, some 86,000 of them

Gallipoli was largely a matter of trench

warfare and the attendant terror, rot, and

disease; Bernieres' Birds Without Wings

captures it as well as any of us can imagine

With lines and trenches literally within ear-

shot of one another, the "Johnnies and

Mehmets" (Ataturk's expression) had other

relations than enmity alone

ANZAC Cove; in defending this area, Kemal gave his

famous order to the 57th Infantry Regiment: "I am not

ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die. In the time

it takes us to die, other troops and other commanders will

arrive to take our places." They held their ground, were

wiped out to the man, but the Allied assault failed. A

national hero was born, and it might be said, Turkey's

war of independence had begun.

At the Ataturk statue, near the spot where he

was hit in the chest by shrapnel, the blow

stopped by his pocket watch, in the August

counter-attack; there are many, many

memorials and cemeteries, some Turkish,

many British, French, Australian, and New

Zealand; the area is reminiscent of

Gettysburg, with so many memorials; the

monuments themselves are more on the scale

one sees in the great WWI battefields in

France and Belgium

Vicki takes a picture for some Jandarma in the area; this must

be holy ground for them

I am so proud: she has gotten really good at identifying

gun emplacements, tank obstacles, pill-boxes, etc., and often

sees them before I do....

Thanksgiving, 2010: Turkey, Turkey Everywhere...

Thanksgiving Day for us was a pretty big travel day--the Baths at Alexandria Troas, Troy, and then the Hellespont. We are always mindful of how fortunate we are in being able to do all this. We stopped for the night in a parking lot of one of the huge World War I Gallipoli museums outside Eceabat. The Jandarma checked us out about bed-time, but didn't have anything to say.

Thanksgiving, 2010, was another memorable holiday. Away from home, family, and friends, again, but still memorable. In 2009, we were at Mt. St. Michel, feasting on French dindin. In 2008, we were on Koh Samui, in the Gulf of Thailand, and our dinner was at the cooking school there I attended. No dindin, but lots of other great stuff. We had hoped to find turkey in Turkey. It is called hindi. Much of the lunch meat I have eaten here is jambon-flavored hindi. But, despite a concentrated search, we found no turkey in Turkey and had to settle for roast chicken, albeit with the usual fixins, including Vicki's special lime bavarian (aka green slime). We subsequently learned that turkey is the national dish in Turkey on New Year's Day, but that's beyond our scope.

Actually, we did find turkeys in Turkey, and briefly

considered sacrificing one to the gods at the Red Hall in

Pergamon; but concluded that would be too messy in the

camper

Vicki preparing Thanksgiving dinner in our

little galley at Gallipoli

Of course, we had Trojan wine to go with

the roast chicken; it was, um, epic...

A modest but memorable Thanksgiving dinner, 2010, in

turkey-less Turkey

We have much to be thankful for beside our travels. Daughter Rebecca and husband Jeremy, who were married last June, are expecting a baby girl in April. The prospective grand-parents are thrilled. And daughter Rachel became engaged to Will Sehestedt earlier this month, putting us way over the top in parental pride. They are planning an August wedding in Missoula.

Hellespont

We drove on, viewing the Hellespont from a variety of angles, stopping in Canakkale to board our ferry back to Europe; well, European Turkey.

Entrance to the Hellespont, the narrow strait leading to the Sea of Marmure, 
to Istanbul, the Bosphorus, and then the Black Sea; an historic place, as long 
as there has been history

Past Canakkale, where it gets really narrow, some say 1200 meters, some say 
1500 meters; in any case, less than a mile, short enough for the Persians to 
stretch a pontoon bridge across for their hundred thousand troops

Traffic is always brisk

Traffic on the road to Canakkale was interesting, varied...



Our ferry, the Good Ferry Ezine, about to arrive in Canakkale

It's been more than a year since the Grey Wanderer's last boat ride, across the 
English Channel; the weather this day was balmy, calm

Farewell, Canakkale, and Asia, again

Our crack satnav, Tom, ever keeping track of us; we think this might have been 
his first trip to Anatolian Turkey

Hello, Eceabat, the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Dardanelles, and Europe