During our time in Turkey we've always been amazed at what's still remaining from ancient civilisations and there are so many ancient sites to visit that we'd never considered visiting an actual museum. That was about to change.
Many of our friends had lauded the contents of the museum at Antalya and while we were enjoying our couple of nights stay at the Route hotel in Antalya Old Town it was the perfect time to once again flex our museum cards.
Before we went to the museum we had a little side mission, a short walk to see the house that Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, stayed at when he first visited Antalya in 1930. Entry is free and it only takes about 10 minutes to walk around and look at the Atatürk memorabilia.
Antalya museum
Taxis are never too far away in Turkey and pretty soon we were in a taxi and heading to the museum. The cost of entry is 55 Turkish Lira (AU$5.60) or free if you have a museum card.
The unguided tour starts off pretty simply, there is large a stylised map on the wall which shows the location of many of the ancient sites and I was pleased to see that we'd been to most of them. There are well crafted scale models of the ancient sites too.
Next there were display cases with all sorts of artefacts ranging from ladies' necklaces to glassware, basically everything that a functioning society would use in day to day life.
The next room contained many life size and bigger statues. The attention to detail in the carving of the stone statues was unreal and the fact that the sculptor only had basic tools to create these works of art is a testament to their skills.
There's a section where they have recreated mosaic floors. It always amazes me how the people who laid the mosaics managed to create perfect pictures. One of the mosaics featured the head and shoulders of what I can assume were family members. There is also a room dedicated to ancient coins and tokens of trade. But the part of the museum that really blew my mind was the room containing the sarcophagi.
We've seen plenty of basic sarcophagi all along the coast. But the ones in the museum are stunning works of art. The skills of the craftsmen who carved them beggars belief. Any words I could use to try and explain would not come close to the beauty of these pieces. As you'll see in this week's video.
Another taxi ride and we were back at the Old Town in time for a shower before heading downstairs to the hotel restaurant. The burger and crispy chips we'd had the night before again ended up being the temptation from the menu and we washed it down with a bottle of red wine.
Side mission for shoes
The following day it was check out time which was at a very civilised midday. Once again the manager helped us with our cases and bags. We thanked him for his wonderful hospitality and with his directions we were quickly and easily out of the Old Town without having to do any tactical driving. The deck shoes we wear on board A B Sea are sold by the Decathlon sportswear outlet and as Aannsha was in the market for a new pair and as there is a Decathlon in Antalya, that was our next mission.
The nice lady who lives inside our sat nav is beginning to show her age. Her maps were last updated in 2017 and some of the roads in Turkey have changed. Eventually though we pulled into a parking space at Decathlon.
Aannsha bought two pairs of deck shoes and persuaded me that I needed a new pair of trainers. The cost was 320 Turkish Lira (AU$33). You'd be lucky to get the shoelaces for that price in Australia.
The rain was still falling as we exited the store but we were only 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Aspendos which is the most intact amphitheatre in the region. We decided to go there and see if the rain might stop.
As we pulled into the car park in front of the amphitheatre as if mocking us the rain came down even harder. The jackets we had with us are not the most waterproof and the camera would get wet if we tried to film anything. Aspendos would have to wait for another day.
We now had 154 kilometres (96 mile) drive ahead of us to get back to Finike marina. It rained all the way there and finally stopped as we entered the marina. There was also 30 knots of wind blowing out of the south pushing big waves onto Finike beach. Luckily the water in the marina was flat so we managed to get everything back on board without it getting wet or one of us falling off the passerelle.
The forecast was for rain for the following two weeks so our next car hire will have to wait a while.
Until next week stay safe and healthy.
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Follow the link to watch the video that accompanies this blog click here.