Etappe 60: From Kemer back to Antalya

On January 29, we went back to Antalya, we had high visitor from home! In the evening, I picked up Laura from the airport. We spent almost a week together in Antalya and the surrounding area, and we booked a small apartment for that, which unfortunately could only be heated in the living room and otherwise had the outside temperature. The host was very nice and helped us, among other things, book a rental car spontaneously from the rental next door. On the 30th, we wanted to explore the city on foot first. We went to the old town and of course to the harbor. From there, we had to take a long walk to the popular Konyaalti beach, where it felt like 50 cafes were waiting to be visited by us.

The next morning, we were able to pick up our rental car, but with a delay of 1.5 hours, probably because an employee had been drinking the night before and overslept. The first stop was Termessos, the Machu Picchu of Turkey. Unfortunately, a visit was not allowed because there was still too much snow and ice in the mountains... Unfortunately, the city's cable car was also not in operation in winter. Instead, we went to the Kursunlu Waterfalls. Not really impressive, but still beautiful and we had the park mostly to ourselves. In the evening, we had the obligatory city tour with a local. We were the only ones, but our guide was still motivated and showed us some nice hidden corners of the old town, which we probably would not have found alone.

The next day, we wanted to visit the Duden Waterfall directly on the coast of Antalya, which was much more impressive. After that, we continued by car to the ancient city of Perge, which was settled in the late Bronze Age. Highlights here were the theater and the large stadium, but we will probably remember a sickly street dog right next to the site for the longest time. He was lying in the roadside ditch and looked so exhausted that we had to drive to the nearest supermarket. Even after a can of wet food, he still looked pathetic, especially parasites and a few wounds were bothering him. In the evening at the accommodation, the idea grew that we wanted to do something more. Fortunately, there are a few organizations for stray animals in Antalya. We were lucky with the fourth one we contacted and arranged a meeting in three days in Perge with Sandra, a particularly dedicated helper from Pfotenhilfe Antalya e.V.

The next day, in the morning, we drove back to Perge with even more food in our luggage, which was very well received. Our protégé also looked a bit better. On the way to Side, heavy rain and then heavy hail set in, so we had to pull over. In Side, we were lucky with the weather at first and were able to visit a large part of the ancient site without rain. But in the theater, we were surprised and were already well soaked before we reached the museum. Back home, we played some billiards in the evening to end the very rainy day.

The weather was unfortunately not better the next day and we had to return our rental car. Therefore, there was just enough time for a walk through the old town with an extended lunch and a visit to the ethnographic museum. In the constant rain, our motivation for further visits was very limited, on the last evening in Antalya we preferred to go out to eat again.