Our Gundogan Blue Voyage #7

Day Nine
The next day we went off to the village to buy a Saint Nicholas wall hanging we had eyed the day before. We went back to one of the only two carpet shops in the village – Gordes carpet. We found the owner, Kadriye, who told us that the St. Nicholas carpet was her exclusive design and that she was the only female carpet dealer in Turkey. So we bought six of the hangings for gifts and ourselves and swam back to the boat. On our way back to the Gundogan, we saw Dania again running to her boat to sell more scarves to the newly arriving tourists – more smiles and more kisses and she was gone with another piece of my heart. We went off to a quiet cove, had a swim and a nap, went on to a cove and explored for awhile.

We planned a short excursion to Myra, a 20-minute drive, where the Lycian tombs are the only remnants of the once great city of 5th Century BC. Today there is an amphitheater from 400 AD where the Gladiators fought. It is in good condition and you can see the covered passageway and storage rooms where vendors sold their wares.

Close to Myra, whose name originates from the Myre trees, is the church and resting place of St. Nicholas, a lovely church, currently being restored to uncover and repair the frescos and mosaics. St Nicholas’ crypt can be seen with a large opening where thieves from Bari stole his bones and cut off the head of his marble likeness that rested on top of the lid.

Back at the boat we had lunch and pushed off for a quiet cove to swim the afternoon away. Then we sailed off for Finike where we were to spend the night. Music greeted us at the harbor and we knew this was our opportunity to practice our Turkish dancing. A few short lessons by our crew and one of our group and a few glasses of Raki (the Turkish Anise liquor that we mixed with water and ice) put us in the mood to dance the night away. So we had dinner and off we went to an outdoor caf̩ with a live Turkish band. We danced he night away and had a great time Рneedless to say the locals had some good laughs.

Since we had hook ups at the dock we were able to sleep in our rooms with AC and we had a good sleep, but missed our bedroom under the stars.

Day Ten

We took off from Finike and found a beautiful cove with pine trees covering the hills. We went ashore to have a quick nine-hole game of frisbee golf. The shore was made of perfectly round stones of every color imaginable. We returned to the boat and had lunch and took off for Olympus, birthplace of Hercules, and one of the most unusual settings for ruins that we have seen. A long round pebbled beach greets you as you pull in the cove. The water temperature is slightly cooler here because of a fresh water river that flows from Olympus to the sea. We swam to shore and investigated the ruins in the shade of pines, oaks and an unusual tree that had no bark. Small foot paths lead through a dense forest filled with ruins of the Roman amphitheater, basilica, bath house and necropolis, and the medieval castle that can be seen off the left side of the cove from the yacht.

After our expedition we returned to the boat, found a quiet cove to sleep in and danced the night away.

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