Nicole schreibt...

Bodrum 2013

Once in a while I need a simple beach getaway for some lazy days in the Mediterranean sun and opted for a trip to Bodrum, the ancient Halikarnassos of Asia Minor, which is now also known as Turkey's St. Tropez for its marina, yacht clubs and night life. Which all tickled me a lot more than the "German Riviera" between Antalya and Alanya, where endless miles of beach are lined with all-inclusive resorts but the nearest actual town several kilometres away. Not to mention how much I love to get away from my obnoxious countrymen on holiday. This turned into a curious problem though, since package tours to Bodrum are nearly impossible to come by in Germany with the best option a 2am flight from Cologne to Izmir and then three hours' bus transfer. Luckily Bodrum is more popular with our Dutch neighbours, so I booked with a Dutch travel operator, flying from Eindhoven directly to Bodrum.

This turned into quite a jaunt, since the Transavia plane first stopped at Rotterdam Airport and people from other flights piled into our plane at Eindhoven to get to their final destination Rotterdam, sitting wherever they wanted including in our assigned seats, leaving us a pair of very confused Germans. Once in Rotterdam everyone left and those continuing to Bodrum had to hang around a transfer room for half an hour until we could all board again, including new passengers. And now at least people stuck to their assigned seats.

With all of that it had taken a good six hours to finally reach Bodrum after dark in the evening, but at least the transfer to our hotel, the 4-star Azka, was quick. I had mostly picked it for its location in Bardakci, a lovely little bay which held only four hotels in total and was easily in walking distance to Bodrum's city center and the harbour.

Next morning we first spent a few hours on the lovely beach before heading into town - past houses almost covered in gorgeous pink and white flowers - I couldn't get enough of those. The main destination in Bodrum is its famous castle which was built by the Knights Hospitaller in 1402 and dedicated to St.Peter (whose name 'Petronium' developed into modern Bodrum). The Turkish word for castle is 'Kalesi' by the way, so we know where GRRM nicked that word from ;)

Above is the view of the castle from the harbour and the other way round from the castle across the harbour. The "English Tower" has been set up to look like it would have during the knights' time, while the church now holds a replica of a Roman shipwreck. Once the town had fallen to the Ottomans, they planted a minaret on top of the church and converted it to a mosque for a time - it's easy to see how much newer the minaret looks.

The castle prides itself on having the first "Museum of Underwater Archaeology" in the world, though it's really just an exhibition of shipwrecks found in the area, including some really nice finds like the Tektas wreck holding beautiful glass from 5th century BC. Another room is dedicated to the famous Carian princess whose tomb was discovered, including some pretty jewelry (and a mouse skeleton).

'Caria' was the name of the ancient province of Asia Minor of which Halikarnassos was the capital. It was ruled by a 'satrap', a governor answering to the Persian king who reigned over the whole of Asia Minor at the time. The most famous satrap of Halikarnassos was a certain Mausolos whose widow Artemisia had a grandiose tomb built for him - the so-called Mausoleum, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World and has given its name to tombs worldwide until today. Sadly, the Knights Hospitaller decided they could use all those nicely cut stones from the Mausoleum for their new castle and thus not much is left of the Mausoleum today:

Fun facts: His widow Artemisia II. was also his sister and after his death ruled Caria for two years. She was said to put some of his ashes in her daily drink because she had loved him so. She is not to be mixed up with Artemisia I. though, daughter of another satrap from Halikarnassos, who became famous as the first female admiral in history, being one of the commanders of the Persian navy.

Bodrum is just a quick hop away from the nearest Greek island, Kos, so we decided to do a day trip there by ferry (which included being stamped out of Turkey in the morning and stamped back in on the same evening, yay for bureaucracy). However it was well worth the trip for Kos-City was a pretty little town with quite a few things to see like the "plane of Hippocrates" under which the legendary Father of Medicine taught his pupils. Although it's an established fact that the present tree is only 500 years old, people claim that it's a descendant of the real tree. There's also quite a few bits left of the ancient agora of Kos:

Kos also boasted a Knights Hospitaller castle but unlike Bodrum's castle there's not much left of this one now except the outer walls, so we didn't bother with a proper sightseeing tour there.

The main sight of Kos is the Asklepieion, the "medical school" where Hippocrates taught by the temple of Asklepius. However, trying to get there taught me a lot about why Greece is in its present dire straits: At the stop for the "Blue Mini Train" that was said to go there, the timetable said that there were no trains running on Mondays. Which made me presume that the Asklepieion was closed on Mondays as so many museums/historical sights. But the first guy we asked said it was open, it was just the trains not running, we'd have to take a taxi. Trying to find a taxi was harder than you'd think - the taxis were parked in a row by the harbour, but drivers were nowhere to be seen - and I wasn't going to track them down in a kafenion. The second tourist info person we asked then confirmed that the Asklepieion was indeed closed on Monday. We came across another mini train then and thought about just doing a city tour instead - when the operator said that, yes, the train was also going to the Asklepieion and we could go with them. And yes, it was open till 2pm on Mondays. Yay for Greek organization! So here it is:

Not much left now, but still worth going, if only for the gorgeous sight all the way to Kos-City and the sea. And the mini train was as cheesy as it was fun, also doing a tour of the other ancient sites around Kos-City before dropping us off at the harbour, where we fortified ourself with some good old Greek gyros and a stroll through the shopping streets before hopping the boat back to Bodrum.

Originally I had planned to hire a car for the day and go up to Didim to see the Temple of Apollon there, but "ruin fatigue" had set in already and all in all it just seemed too much hassle. So instead we opted for an organized day trip south to Dalyan which is famous for its Iztuzu beach and the Lycian rock tombs far above the Dalyan river.

Our first stop was a "mud bath" which supposedly has healing properties for all sorts of skin ailments but was mostly just a fun way of making a big mess. Afterwards we were loaded into boats that ply the Dalyan river through a protected area of vast reeds and wetlands past the rock tombs to Iztuzu Beach. The area is well-known as a breeding ground for the 'caretta caretta' sea turtle and half of the beach is closed to humans so the turtles are left in peace. Apparently there was a huge to-do over the area some years ago and for once nature won. You can read more about it on Wikipedia which also has a nice aerial photo of the river that beats mine:

Otherwise we didn't really do all that much - enjoyed some drinks in Bodrum, a session at a traditional Turkish hamam, some shopping and generally just being lazy on a wonderful little beach. Just the kind of relaxation holiday that's needed to recharge the battery once in a while, although admittedly a whole week felt a bit long and overall I do prefer the "adventure travelling" of moving independently from place to place. I caught myself looking longingly at the ferries departing Kos for other Greek islands or the long-distance coaches departing Bodrum's terminal for other places in Turkey, but still, for a proper holiday in Turkey I'd definitely recommend Bodrum - a living breathing and very fun city over the German riviera near Antalya!