On the road at 0845 heading for Ankara the capital and second largest city of Turkey with a population of about 4½ million. There was not much left of the castle but it does afford a great view of Ankara. Along all the walkways in the castle were women selling crafts with many of them also crocheting to add to their list of wares. Anne succumbed and spent some money, very wisely however. Over the years houses have been built amongst the ruins of the castle but the government has been trying to get them out of these, now, rundown houses and into apartments. While it looks like quite a number have taken up the offer many of the owners that can afford to renovate are now doing so.

The next stop was the Anatolian Civilisations Museum. This was some museum. Exhibits start at the Paleolithic era, and continue chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. If you have not heard about all of these periods then you are not alone. There was also an extensive collection of artifacts from excavations throughout Turkey to demonstrate developments throughout these periods. Some of these dated back to 8,000 BC. The museum was elected as the first “European Museum of the Year” in 1997. Unfortunately photography was not allowed.

The next visit we made was not part of our itinerary. Our guide Asil contacted one of his friends who was also a guide and she asked if he would like to take us to “The Pink House”. The Pink House was the house of Ismet İnönü, the second president of Turkey (after Ataturk) and part of it had been turned into a museum with the remainder of the house still occupied by Inonu's 83 year old daughter Ozden. The museum is only open 3 times per year so not only was it very fortunate that we were able to visit the museum but we were also escorted by Ozden, a gracious, elegant woman with flawless english. Obviously she had many stories to tell us of her father and mother.

The final stop was the Mausoleum of Ataturk. An impressive structure not dissimilar to the Lincoln Memorial in some ways. Unlike some Mausoleums we have visited the body was not lying in state but was a marble sarcophagus on a raised platform. Beneath the mausoleum was a museum of the history of modern Turkey with an emphasis on WWI and the Turkish War of Independence immediately following the war. This was most informative to us especially learning how the Ottoman Empire had been carved up amongst the allies after the war. Ataturk and his generals resented this and went to war to regain their land and independence. They were obviously successful and we need to read and understand more about this.