Day 4 - Assos

Friday, June 1, 2012
We had breakfast at the hotel at 8am and then took a short drive 20km to the Acropolis of Assos.  The site is located in a village which is now named Behram Kale.  This is the site of the Temple of Athena dating back to around 500BC.  You could still see an amphitheater built into the hillside.

Amazing, goofy people amoung the ruins.

Margaret, Belinda, Leslie, Frank, Jean, Tom, Mahmet, Paul, and Carl (peeking, in sunglasses)

Viewing the lower city.

This gives one a sense of the enormity of the structure.

Jean fitting right in.

Leslie with the umbrella.  Smart.

The walk up to the acropolis from the village reminded us of our visits to the Great Wall with all the merchants lined up to sell souvenirs or local items such as textiles, jewelry, nuts, spices, toys, etc.  

Wanna look?

We were so early, the stalls weren't all open yet.  You go, Mehmet!

Carl, waiting for the women.  Good boy.

The ladies spent a fair amount of time in a nice jewelry shop and picked out a number of items. The only shop Mehmet suggested that we might like.  We did! A local man making his own designs of gems and silver.

We then drove to have lunch next to the Aegean.  Aristotle had once lived and taught in Assos.  We ate a sea bass fish from a recipe claimed to exist since the days of Aristotle. A few people tried tradition Turkish coffee and it had a mint aperitif accompaniment.  We walked around the town for a little bit and dipped our toes in the Aegean at a resort beach.  It is getting noticeably warmer as we head south.

YAY, shade and beer!

Net fishing is banned May through September, so fish is expensive.  We shared this dish of Sea Bass. Yummy.

Coffee, a cup to mix in your milk or sugar, mint aperitif, and turkish delight.

A fisherman behind us as we ate untangling his net.

A tractor bringing in a load of sticks for the furnaces.

A toe dip in to check the temperature.  Some rocks were collected. Hopefully not the one that was confiscated at the airport. bummer.

We headed back to the hotel and stopped at a olive oil museum.  Everyone bought some olive oil to take back home with them.

Then we stopped at the hotels beach which had just opened for the season.  We took a look around to decide if we wanted to get our swimming gear and come back for a swim.  Many of us decided that a dip in the Aegean would be nice.  We returned with our suits and had a very nice swim.  I'm not sure what the water temperature was but it was cold initially but then became quite bearable. We stayed for about an hour and headed back to the hotel. Yes, it was easy to float.

We had dinner at 7:30pm with many nice mezes, lots of wine, a slice of spinach quiche then the main course was a very nice chicken dish with rice and vegetables.  The desert was a candied type carrot dish with honey. 

The company was great and we had a very lively conversation on religion and politics.  We retired around 9:30 or so as we need to be up for breakfast at 7:30am packed with our bags and we will be leaving for the Pergamum Acropolis further south along the Aegean.