Cesme, Bodrum, Symi
May 2, 3, 4
Tuesday, May 2: Cesme, Turkey
Today we are in Cesme, Turkey. If you don’t now where that is (I didn’t), here is the map.
For whatever political reasons, almost all of the islands in the Aegean Sea are Greek, although they may be very close to the “mainland” of Turkey. We are on the mainland today, so we are in Turkey. We are also docked in a small harbor, rather than anchored, so it is a bit easier getting off and on the ship, and we don’t have to worry about the schedules of the tenders.
Easing up to the Cesme dock
We had chosen an excursion, partly because it promised a visit to what is supposed to be a popular and good windsurfing area. We had considered another excursion that offered windsurfing lessons and some time on the water, but we decided against that since we had no idea of the windsurfing conditions here. That turned out to be a good decision.
We left the ship, found our tour bus, and climbed aboard. Our first stop was at a memorial to Caka Bey, a 11th century commander and sailor. He is considered to have formed the first Turkish navy and is the first Turkish Admiral.
Memorial to (Admiral) Caka Bey
Besides being an impressive memorial, it offered a very good view of the surrounding area from the top of the highest hill in the vicinity. From here, we first ran into some road/utility construction work that took us some time to detour around, then we headed to the small town of Ildiri, about 40 minutes northeast of Cesme. This is a town that had some ancient historical beginnings. The bus stopped in the town to let us off for a “rest stop” and a quick look around.
Yes, there were cats here. Friendly cats.
The cat above was very friendly, almost like the “Welcome committee” for the town. At one point, while I was petting the cat, a nearby door opened and a man came out with what turned out to be some food for the cat. I thought that perhaps I was in trouble for playing with the cat, but all was well: turns out that the man was the mayor of the town and had come out to welcome us. It was still fairly soon after the “Covid era” and the town was very glad to see the tourists returning. After the mayor’s welcome, our guide led us on a short walk through the streets, towards some only slightly restored ruins.
Looking down the street toward the Aegean Sea
We walked up the road and entered a very lightly marked area and trail with fields on both sides of the trail. I had seen a market in town offering Artichokes and noticed that one of the fields had what appeared to be wild artichokes growing.
You may have to look close to see the artichokes.
After a brief walk through the fields, we came to the primary remains of the ancient Greek town here, known as Erythrai. Our guide pointed out several barely recognizable structures, but there as little doubt about the amphitheater.
The Amphitheater of Erythrai
The site had been lightly excavated and some renovation completed, but it was still very much in its natural state. The town of Erythrai was founded in about the 7th century BC and the theater was probably built around the third century BC, during a period of multiple wars and conquests by invading groups.
We strolled back toward the downtown and loaded back onto our bus. Our next stop was to be to take a look at the windsurfing area that we had heard about, a short distance from Cesme. When we got there, we were very glad we had not signed up for that excursion: there was essentially no wind and, therefore, no windsurfing. There was not a single sail out on the bay.
Do you see any windsurfing?
From there it was a short ride to a harbor marina and a waterfront restaurant. We had a nice lunch, with some Turkish dishes, in a tent-like structure alongside the marina filled with beautiful boats.
Some of the boats at the marina
The dining area was just to the left in the photo above and it was a bit hectic as they were serving about three bus loads of visitors. We relaxed for a while, enjoying lunch and a glass of wine until it was time to load back into the bus one last time.
Our last stop of the day is referred to as the Cesme Palace, but it definitely looks more like a fortress than a palace to me. Construction of the palace was started in 1508 in response to two attacks by Venetians.
The Encore was easily visible from the palace grounds.
Our guide provided a lot of background about the castle and its participation in Turkish history in the time of the Ottoman Empire. There were a series of paintings that depicted an important naval battle between the Ottomans and Russia in 1770.
One of the paintings of the Battle of Cesme
After several confrontations between the two large naval forces, a number of the Ottoman ships caught fire, which is about the worst thing that could happen to a wood warship. So many Ottoman ships ended up afire that their generally superior navy was routed. Some historians believe that the fires were started intentionally through the Russian’s use of “Fire Ships”, but it could also have been purely accidental. We continued our tour of some of the upper areas of the castle and I found a somewhat disturbing view.
This Cannon was perfectly aimed at the Encore!
At this point our guide said that those of us who wanted to could continue up some steps and inclined walkways to the very top of the castle. Of course, we took that as a challenge and headed up the somewhat challenging steps. The view was very nice from the top level of the fort.
The view from the top of the castle
For an even better overall view of the area, you might want to take a look at this video of Cesme Harbor.
We climbed down and rejoined our guide and the rest of our group at one of the lower levels where the guide explained our options for returning to the ship. We could get back on the bus and it would drop us off at the dock, or, we could walk back along the walkway that encircled much of the bay and marina.
The marina in Cesme harbor where we could walk back to the Encore
He said that we could walk from the palace to the marina waterfront, then around a walkway to the left in the photo above, and finally toward the top of the photo where the Encore was docked just out of the photo to the upper right. Of course we took the longer walk back: we always enjoy walking by or through marinas to look at the beautiful boats of all kinds. Of course, we got back to the ship with no problems and did not even stop to buy anything.
This evening there was a bit of a special meal in the Colonnade restaurant so we dined there instead of the main restaurant. About this time, we decided that we enjoyed the more friendly environment of the Colonnade rather than the rather “stuffy” feel of the main restaurant and ended up eating most dinners there the rest of the cruise.
The entertainment tonight was a concert pianist playing a number of classical and contemporary tunes, backed up by part of the Encore band. The music was fine and enjoyable, but I don’t think the pianist said 20 words during the performance. I’m not sure if perhaps he was not comfortable speaking English, or he just did not like to speak, but a few words of introduction or information about the various songs would have made it more enjoyable.
The pianist
Wednesdy, May 3: Bodrum, Turkey
Bodrum would be our last stop in Turkey.
In many ways, today would be very much like the previous day: we were docked at a town in Turkey, we would take an excursion which included a tour of a fort/castle overlooking the harbor, we would have an interesting lunch with a beautiful view, and we would take a walk around the harbor to get back to the Encore. Now that I’ve told you all about today’s excursion, you could just skip the rest of this day’s report.
If you are still with me, you have probably heard that one of the advantages of taking a so-called “ultra luxury” cruise is that you don’t have to wait in long lines like on most cruise ships. Well, don’t believe it…. I admit, it only happened once, but it demonstrated what can happen, no matter how hard the crew may try. Apparently, the local customs people and the ship’s people handling the “paperwork” did not get together properly, and were delayed getting necessary approvals. It did not help that there was some confusion about just where we were to exit the ship. The excursions tickets said to exit at deck 4 aft, so we went there and there was no activity, but we did find a small sign that said “Disembark on Deck 3”, so we headed down the stairs to deck 3, and there was nothing there. By this time “we” included probably 8 or 10 people and we started checking around as best we could. Someone got the word that we should go to Deck 3 forward, so we headed that way, running into the line you see below, and it was not moving. It started moving after about 10 minutes and we actually got off the ship after another 15 minutes.
Yes, sometimes there are lines, even on “Ultra-Luxury” ships.
When we got to the meeting point for the tours, we were a bit surprised to see our guide from the previous day and another guide whom we had seen throughout yesterday. We effectively swapped guides today, but we saw our yesterday’s guide several times. Cesme and Bodrum are some distance apart (40 miles?) but obviously, the guides cover a lot of territory.
Our excursion today was titled “History of Helicanessus and Bodrum Castle/fortress” and, like most tours, started with a bus ride. We loaded up just outside the dock area for a short ride around the bay to a bus parking area next to a large marina: this was the closest the bus could get to our first target, “Bodrum Castle”. We had to walk along the edge of the marina that was filled with beautiful large sailboats called Gulets. You can see some of these Gulets in the photo below and, if you look closely, you might be able to see part of the castle at the very left side. It was actually a very pleasant walk.
Tour boats in the marina, Bodrum Castle in distant background
As with the “Cesme Palace”, this castle sure looked more like a fortress to me, but it did have some interesting history behind it. The placement of the castle was obvious as it had a perfect place from which to protect the bay and city. Unlike Cesme, the Bodrum castle was never involved in any significant battle. It did suffer some slight damage when a French warship shelled the castle in 1915 during World War I.
Bodrum Castle: entrance on the right side.
Although there had been previous structures on the site, the “modern” castle was started in 1404 and was substantially completed in 1437, although additions and enhancements continued for another 100 years. The thing that makes the Bodrum castle different is who was responsible for building it.
Main entry to castle, showing multi-national and multi-cultural symbols.
The castle was initially built by Knights of St John (Knights Hospitaller) as the Castle of St. Peter and the construction was done by a cooperative effort by four countries: England, Germany, France, and Italy as basically a Christian effort. It was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1523 which promptly converted the chapel to a mosque and added a minaret.
Excavated floor of chapel: skeleton had to be a very important person
We went in the chapel where part of the floor had been excavated, revealing a burial crypt with the skeleton still visible. But this was not the highlight of the castle. And, neither were the free roaming Peacocks the highlight, although they were spectacular and noisy.
There were several Peacocks: this one was showing off.
The big draw of the Bodrum Castle is that it houses the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archology. If you are not familiar with “Underwater Archology” (I was not) then it is the science of finding and researching sunken boats or other structures. It has been assisted by local fishermen and sponge divers in the process of finding the shipwrecks and a US university, the Texas A & M University, has taken a very active part in helping to excavate and study old, very old, shipwrecks.
Large model, showing construction of ship that sank in 626 AD.
The model in the photo above is of a small cargo boat that sank in 626 AD, relatively recently compared to other ships that have been studied, but there were enough records to not only fix the exact year it sank, but also the circumstances and some of its cargo.
Reconstruction of a ship that sank in 14th century BC.
The biggest exhibit in the museum is a partial reconstruction of a ship that is believed to have sunk in the 14th century BC while carrying wine, raw copper, glass ingots, and several other items from the Egyptian area. The wreck was found by a sponge diver in 1982 and it took over 22,000 dives, with the participation of Texas A&M, to recover the remnants of the ship and its cargo.
You could easily spend all day, or longer, exploring the museum, but we moved on, climbing up to a higher observation level. From here we had an excellent view of the “English Tower”. Each of the four countries that had a hand in the construction of the castle was responsible for building a corner of the structure, including the spaces to house both the construction workers, and later, the soldiers who would man the castle. Because of its position in the castle, the English part, the “English Tower” is the most prominent and probably the most toured. From this area we also had a very good view of the harbor area and the approaches to it. Check this video to see how the castle has a very commanding view of the harbor.
“English Tower”, overlooking the bay.
The inside of the English Tower was well restored, although I suspect that there was once an upper level, supported by wood beams resting on the curved stones around the edge of the walls.
Interior view of the English Tower
From these outside platforms, we could look across part of the bay, to a small peninsula where there were some old type wind mills sitting on the ridge, somewhat like we saw on Mykonos.
Looking across the bay at windmills on a ridge
After looking around a little more, we left the Bodrum Castle and walked back along the harbor waterfront, where the Gulet tour and charter boats were lined up.
One of many “Gulet” type boats in the marina
In doing some research for this report, I found that many of these boats were available for charter by the week or month. They could typically accommodate from 6 to 16 people and the sizes ranges from 60 feet to 120 feet or more. The charter rate, including crew, but not food or drink, ran from around $6,000 to over $20,000 per week.
We got back to the bus parking area and loaded onto our bus. It headed to that peninsula for a better look at the wind mills and the Bodrum Bay area.
A closer view of those windmills
The wind mills were not in very good condition: they had not received as much attention as the wind mills in Mykonos. Also, the area was rather poorly maintained: I was surprised and disappointed at the amount of trash, and especially broken glass, all over the area. We did have a good view of the castle and the entire bay area from this vantage point. In the photo below, the marina with the Gulets is on the left edge of the photo, the castle in the middle, the main bay just to the right of the castle, and the Encore was just out of the photo to the right.
Looking back at the castle from just below the wind mills
Once again, we loaded onto the bus and, after a short ride, made a short stop at another interesting archeological site: The Myndos Gate. In the 4th century BC, king Mausollos, constructed a wall, 7 Km long, to protect the city of Halikarnassos. The city, close to the current city of Bodrum, but not in exactly the same place, did eventually fall to Alexander the Great in 334 BC. The Mynos Gate was the primary access way through the wall and today is the only surviving part of that wall.
Remaining part of Myndos gate: part of ancient wall
Leaving the Myndos Gate, the bus didn’t even stop when we drove past the fairly large amphitheater that was alongside the road. Looking at the photo below, can you tell if this theater was constructed by the Greek or Roman cultures? (Remember what I said about theaters when we were back in Athens.)
Every Classical Greek town seemed to have a theater.
Continuing past the theater, we drove up a rather tight winding road to the parking lot of a very nice resort, with a beautiful view of the Bodrum area.
Looking over the resort pool: you can see the Encore and the castle.
Here we were to have a “snack” and it turned out to be a very nice snack. Starting with some hot Turkish tea, we also had some pastry, some Turkish style egg rolls, and several other items which I cannot remember enough about. We also took the time for our guide to take some photos of us with a very scenic backdrop.
Yes, we really were in Bodrum
Leaving the resort, our tour was essentially over, but there was still some adventure ahead. As with the previous day, we had a choice how we got back to the ship: the bus could take us back to the dock, or we could take a somewhat extended walk back to the marina and then around the bay to the ship. Apparently, the driver couldn’t, or didn’t want to, drive us back to the bus parking area at the marina. After getting some directions from our guide, the bus let us (and 6 others) off alongside a main street. We were to continue walking down this street, a little less than a mile, until we got to the marina area. Then we walk toward the castle until we found a walkway the guide had pointed out earlier and take that path into the shopping area. Somewhat amazingly, this all worked out almost perfectly. We found the proper walkway and took it through the fairly busy shopping area, then onto a walkway along the waterfront that was lined with shops and restaurants.
Walking along the Bodrum Beach shore-front
It was a nice walk with the beach on one side of us and the restaurants on the other side and we walked in sort of a big “U” shape around the bay, finally getting back to the dock where the Encore was docked.
Yes, there were cats here: four young, hungry, cats!
We saw, and fed, several cats along this walk. Most of the cats we have encountered were glad to get the food we brought, but did not act or appear especially hungry. The four young (probably 6 – 9 months old) cats above were probably from the same litter and acted very hungry. They did not exactly fight among themselves for the food, but they were rather aggressive in claiming their share.
This was a quiet evening with another dinner in the Colonnade restaurant. This was the night that we finally got a list of the wines that were included at no additional cost. It started with the Assistant Sommelier, Xhemi, offering a bottle of Alberino and asking if we had ever heard of it. She was a bit surprised to learn that I definitely knew of it, and that it is probably my favorite white wine. That got us into a discussion of wine and I mentioned that I would really like to have a proper wine list of the included wines. She said that she could take care of that, left for a minute, and returned with a sheet of paper with the wines listed: exactly what I had been looking for during the past 10 days.
Thursday, May 4: Symi, Greece
Symi is another of the small Greek islands that are practically in Turkey’s back yard, but are part of Greece.
As we approached the Symi harbor (we would be anchored just outside the actual harbor), the skies were a bit threatening and there was a fairly good breeze. It did make for a pretty sight, but we decided to take our rain jackets with us on our excursion today.
Stormy skies as we approach Symi
The excursion today was titled “A stroll in Symi”. What that title does not tell you is that the stroll would be on the path that leads to the top of town, well up the hills that surround the main part of the town. The path is said to consist of 500 steps, and we would be walking them all. Actually, much of the path is a sloped walkway, rather than steps, but it is still a long way up or down the path.
Waterfront of Symi harbor: note the hill going up from the harbor.
We had a chance to look around the very nice harbor before our tour started. There were the usual fishing boats in the harbor and, as it turned out, some sponge diving boats: but, more about that later.
Belltower on waterfront with Encore in distance
OK, time for the truth…. we would not be walking up the 500 steps: we only walked down. Our excursion group, about 12 of us, loaded into a fairly small bus which carried us up to the top of the hill above the town. At least we only had to sit on a bus for about 10 minutes today.
View of the harbor from the top of the hill
The top of the hill provided a very pretty view of the harbor and most of the town and lots of red tile roofs. From this vantage point we could see much of the town, the harbor, and the Encore anchored just outside the entrance to the harbor. Check the video for a nice panoramic view of the area.
The start of the path down 500 steps
We soon started down on the path of 500 steps, and the start of the trail did not look especially inviting. We soon realized that we would need to stay close to our guide as the route was not well marked… it was not marked at all. We went a short ways, probably not even 100 of those steps, and came to the entrance to the Symi Archeological Museum where we stopped for a tour. The museum contained mostly objects of daily use from the past of Symi, including clothing from several periods, cooking utensils, furniture, and decorative furnishings such as paintings. The building used to be the house of a wealthy merchant of Symi and had been converted to a rather low-key museum.
Symi Archeological Museum
While we were visiting the museum, some church bells started ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Soon, another church joined in with the ringing, and then another until we wondered what was going on. Check this video and you will get some idea of the sound. No one knew the reason for the bell ringing: it was not the top of the hour, there was no special occasion our guide or anyone at the museum knew about. We left the museum with the bells still ringing and they continued to ring for a total of probably 20 or 25 minutes: when they finally stopped, it was strangely quiet.
Some structures were not in great condition.
We continued on down the trail with our guide explaining some of the construction techniques and how they had changed over time. Some of the structures could have certainly used some work on them, but most of the town seemed to be well maintained.
Several times, on the sloped walkway parts of the trail, we had to get out of the way of people on relatively small motorcycles who appeared to be delivery people taking goods up the steep path. No cars or trucks would be able to navigate the walkways.
Donkeys are sometimes still used.
At one point, we saw a donkey standing in one of the walkways and out guide explained that, in some parts of the town, the walkways are so narrow and twisting that donkeys are the only means of delivering goods.
About this time, we started to feel some rain drops, so the umbrellas started coming out. Susan and I had our wide brimmed hats and slightly waterproof jackets, so we were OK, but parts of the walkway were “slippery when wet” so everyone had to be careful.
Starting to rain: note rain jackets and umbrella.
For a while, it rained only very lightly, so we kept going, but when it rained harder for a while, we sought shelter under a large awning in front of a shop. It turned out to be a pet shop and there were three cats hanging around. Two of the cats were like most cats we had seen… certainly not underfed, but welcomed the little snacks that Susan had brought with her. The third cat though, appeared to be very well fed and was not the least interested in what we had.
Yes, there were cats here: one of three cats in front of pet store
After about 15 minutes the rain let up and we made it the rest of the way back down to the harbor waterfront.
Time for a little background: early in the tour our guide had mentioned that in the 1920s, the sponges in the area had a major decline and some of the sponge divers left to go to the USA. Specifically, they settled in the town of Tarpon Springs, about 50 miles north of St Petersburg, Florida. Susan and I have been to Tarpon Springs numerous times since we were children and we mentioned to our guide that we were familiar with the sponge divers and some of their history. It was very interesting to us to see just where the sponge divers had come from and how Tarpon Springs got its Greek heritage.
Back at water level with the statue of the “Little Fisherman”
The next part of our tour was to visit a sponge shop where some different types of natural sponges were laid out on a table. Our guide explained some of the history and how sponges are harvested and described the different types of sponges.
Heading to the “Sponge Center”
As we approached the “Sponge Center” it was getting to be around lunch time and I took a long look at the Greek Bakery next door.
Sample display of natural sponges
After the lesson in sponges the tour was over. We looked around the town and harbor a bit longer, then got back on the tender and headed to the Encore where we had some lunch and then relaxed for the afternoon. In the late afternoon there was a champagne and caviar around the pool area but, once again, the weather was threatening and the event was cut a little short. That’s OK, I’ve never been wild about “fish eggs”.
We had another dinner in the Colonnade restaurant, cognac in the Observation Lounge, and then to the evening entertainment, which was the two Cello players. The banter back and forth between the two of them and the general comments made the show much more entertaining than the music by itself would have been. You might get a feel for this behavior in this video of the of them carrying on.
The “Dueling cello players”
End of Chapter 4:
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