We're coming to the end of our trip. After arriving in Istanbul yesterday we went on the compulsory trip along the Istiklal, which has to be one of the busiest streets in the world - no private cars, just pedestrians, a tram and official vehicles. It is always abuzz and the atmosphere is usually good humoured, although I've never been there when riots are happening in the Taksim Square area, which is at the top of the road, and it may be a little different in t...

We thought we were going to join the boat at 3pm, but when we rang the organizer we were told to be ready at midday when we would be collected and delivered to the yacht. We were planning a bit of a walk in the early afternoon before joining, so we simply changed the order of things around. So we were sitting on the hotel's verandah watching the world go by (including the coming a going of yachts) when at about 11.50 our guide arrived. I hadn't seen a car pu...

I spent Friday morning returning all the equipment we use for the survey to the local Consulate and in the afternoon I found some time to do a bit of packing. Kathy spent the morning being a lady of leisure and the afternoon exploring Cape Helles. We had a great "last supper" at our accommodation. It's always a somewhat sad occasion. The team gets on really well together, and we don't see much of each other in between times. On Saturday morning all the othe...

I had to leave Turkey to change my visa from a working visa to a tourist visa. We chose to do this by taking a day trip to the island of Kos, which is a stone's throw from Bodrum. The ferry trip took about an hour. We had no specific plan as to what to do - other than wander, and perhaps to read our books if we got bored. Fortunately there was a map on the wharf where we landed and it gave us a few ideas on what to do, so off we trotted and let our instincts ...

We finish here tomorrow (Friday). We went to Troy on Sunday. The weather was superb. On the way down we visited a memorial to the French Battleship Bouvet that was sunk on 18 March 1915. Over 600 of her crew perished that day and the Turks put up a memorial to them. We also visited Fort Dardanos, where one of the batteries that repelled the combined British and French Fleet was situated. I reckon the only way to visit a site such as Troy is with your own ...