Today we deviate from the tour schedule that the others will be staying on.

When we registered for the tour we made it clear we wanted to spend some time at Gallipoli. The others on the tour did not have a similar interest so we were dropped off at our hotel in Canakkale after our visit to Troy while the others continued on to Istanbul.

This will come as no surprise but the entrance to the City of Troy is marked by a wooden Trojan Horse. Excavations of the city have identified 9 stratas each representing a separate period. The earliest settlement (Troy I) was in the 29th century BC with the last one (Troy IX) ending about 500AD. Each of the 9 settlements of Troy were larger than the previous. There were not any buildings standing, just foundations which led to archeologists being able to determine what the villages probably looked like.

When we were dropped off in Canakkale there was a large wooden horse across the road. This was the one from the movie Troy which was gifted to the city by the movie's maker.

At the entrance to the strait at Canakkale are two castles, one on each side. These castles are called the Dardanelles (formerly the Hellespont – the name of the cape) hence the present day name of the Dardanelle Strait. Tomorrow we would be taking our 10 minute intercontinental ferry ride across the strait back to Europe.

We farewelled our new friends, driver (Huso) and guide (Asil) today. Huso was an very good driver, driving cautiously well within his skills and taking care of our comfort. Asil was an excellent guide. With a masters of Turkish history he also does small private tours as well as small groups for tour companies (in this case Adelphia Travel a Turkish company). He also specialises in Biblical tours in Turkey. With his excellent english he is intelligent, witty and funny and made our trip comfortable and enjoyable. We recommend him to anyone wishing to tour and he can be contacted on [email protected].

And of course our new friends that we met on the trip. It was really good being on a small tour and learning about one another. We could not have asked for a better group. They were intelligent, adventurous, witty, hillarious and just good people. We will remain in touch with them.