BODRUM

Left Turunc on the 9am bus over that precarious road to Marmaris Otogar and were directed straight onto one to Mugla, a neat city lying just an hour inland.

Then virtually immediately on to Bodrum 2 hours later where we alighted at the main OTOGAR situated 10 minutes outside this very commercialised tourist venue

Straight onto a big modern shuttle bus to the local city otogar just 400m from our hotel.

This public transport network is nothing short of amazing and costs less than the petrol cost in a hired car

.Our aim with this vacation was to spend most of it in the sea and to be certain that Cheryl's knee held out whilst basically travelling from east to west across southern Turkey ,with a view to carrying out a "recce" for future holidays......So far so good!

How would i describe Bodrum:

Huge ocean liners ,together with literally hundreds of gulets, day trip boats and luxury yachts running for kms.along the frontage of the city,with a 15th century castle as a focal point, jutting out on a small peninsula into the aegean.

Wall to wall Restaurants with beach frontages....."genuine fake" stores by the thousand.

Not our scene!....we've had a great holiday to date but this will be my last visit to a city which has nothing whatsoever to do with the real turkey!Wed been here briefly many years ago but it's a lot worse now.

So ,.....we're leaving tomorrow morning to Selcuk, a small village just 8km inland from another commercialized city,....Kusadasi.

Selcuk is situated a couple of kms from Ephesus,....one of the most impressive Roman archaeologic dig which has been ongoing for 120 years now.

It's a massive ruin which has been restored over the years and includes some of the most impressive relics of what was the Rome of the east at the time.

My morning runs in Selcuk (to Ephesus)take me past (and into at no cost) an unrestored temple of Artemis which comprises of just a few remaining roman columns.

Situated 2,5km outdide of the village lies the very home where the Apostle John cared for the Virgin Mary in her dotage.

I'll include some pics of a visit we made to the site in 2009.