After spending a few days in Istanbul, it was time for us to begin traveling around Turkey. To do this, we would need to cross over into the Asia part of Turkey (which comprises 97% of the country). You can do that at Istanbul of course as the city is built on both continents; as we were headed towards the South and inland, we headed down the European side to the Dardenelle Straits.
The body of water you see in the background (here and below) is now called the Sea of Marmara (named, as it turns out, for an island from which marble was extracted). To the Greeks and the Romans it was the Propontis, the sea before the Pontus, which we now call the Black Sea.
As this is the major route to the Black Sea, there seemed to be innumerable ships waiting to make passage.
The land, as you can get from the pictures, seems largely rolling hills or even flat.
A picture from a typical road stop. We made these every sixty to ninety minutes or so.
Road Trip!! Good to see to see more photos TB, thanks.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, I believe we ended up driving something like 1600 km/990 miles for the trip as a whole.
DeleteSeeing those green and open spaces and having been to Greece last year, one can understand why this land would have been attractive to the Greeks.
Looks like road travel is very comfortable. I actually thought to look at a map!
ReplyDeleteLeigh, one of the advantages of these guided tours is the fact that you rid in a coach. It at least helps, although you can have some long days of riding punctuated by stops to see sites.
DeleteI certainly cannot imagine driving in any major European city I have been in.