The first weekend of April our favorite Air Force family here had to travel Southeast to the city of Adana (the fourth largest city in Turkey and the home of Incirlek Air Force Base) and invited us to come along for the 500 km trip/drive. If you know us, it doesn't take much arm twisting for more exploring of this incredible country (always remembering what a tour guide once told me: if it's not 1,000 years old+ in Turkey, it's not old!!). It was a little bit of a tight squeeze in a Dodge Grand Caravan with 4 adults and 4 children but we survived and thank goodness for the built-in DVD players and our tried and true Animal ABC game.
On our drive south to Konya we made a brief stop at a large lake to see what? Some birds of course. What kind of birds were a surprise.
Yes, those are flamingos. Come to find out from our Birder-in-residence, that Turkey has the largest breeding population of greater flamingos in the world. There were thousands of birds and Roy could have easily spent the rest of day there.
Once in Konya we stopped at a large Park to let the kids play and stretch our legs (Konya was known as Ilonium in the New Testament and Paul and other Apostles preached here).
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| cute locals |
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| What is left of a tomb in the Ottoman Empire |
This statute reminds me of an armed Cousin It from the Adams family or a cloaked dwarf from LOTR. Oh wait, that won't work, he has arrows (like an Elf). Anyway, whomever or whatever it is, I thought is was kinda cooling looking.
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| a fancy minaret |
We wandered around the market section part of town and it looked like many other market streets with much of the same merchandise, but this guy selling live leeches was a first. Yes, you read that right, those are LEECHES. Don't ask me what you do with a leech nowadays but it makes me shudder to consider the possibilities.
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| A white stork. |
The next day we continued our drive South and made a stop in the town of Mut to see this interesting looking Castle.
sadly we couldn't go inside the turret.
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| Beautiful downtown park. |
Our fun traveling companions. From the left:
Annabelle, David holding Autumn, Marie, Christian and Jessica.
Through some impressive looking mountains......
Another imposing old Fortress near Silifke, but we couldn't figure out how to get up there.
The Mediterranean Sea and the Maiden's Castle near Kizkalesi
It is 300 meters off the coastline and was thought to be built just after the First Crusade. It may have been a defense against pirates and/or used by pirates over the centuries.
A local legend states
(Wikipedia):
a fortune teller informs the king that his beautiful daughter will be poisoned by a snake. He adds that even the king is unable to change the fate. Shocked by fortune teller's words, the king tries to change the fate by building a castle in an island where no snakes live. He sends his daughter to live in the castle. But a snake hides in a grape basket sent from the main land and poisons the princess. This legend is not unique to Kızkalesi and some other localities in Turkey share the same story.
David thought it would be fun to take paddle boats over to the island - oh sure, why not? We're game for almost anything. Except bungie jumping and sky diving, I draw the line at those. One does not willingly jump out of perfectly good airplanes. Roy on the other hand, said sky diving is on his Bucket List. He's on his own for that one.
Well.... getting into the boats turned out to be a bit of a challenge for clumsy me.
Yep. I am wet. But how many people can say they have fallen into the Mediterranean Sea? Jumped, dove, waded maybe. Thankfully I just sat down in it; gracefully I hope, although I doubt it. LOL! It wasn't exactly warm but not too cold either. On our paddle over, the water was beautifully clear and blue; I now understand why people have vacationed since forever near and around 'the Med'.
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| from the island, the land fortress is behind us. |
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| inside |
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| friendly resident |
Once in Adana, thanks to David, we were able to stay for 2 nights on the large Turkish & American Air Force Base there - very nice; another first and probably last. As with the Embassies, for security reasons we have no pictures. We could have been in any US neighborhood and felt very safe especially considering we were only 75 miles from the Syrian border.
Ok, wait, we got one picture because we were so tickled to be able to eat at the Taco Bell on Base (probably the only one in Turkey). And you know we were absolutely desperate for Mexican food to make that statement.
On Sunday we visited the stunningly beautiful Adana Mosque, which come to find out is the largest in Turkey and rivals most in the Middle East for sheer size.
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| Marie and I modeling our scarves (required for mosque entry). Jessica & Annabelle. |
To enter a mosque, all must remove shoes and women must cover their heads. Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter a mosque during prayer times and I'm not sure but entrance on Friday - Holy Day - may be prohibited to Non-Muslims.
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| beautiful tile display |
After our mosque tour, we attended Church on the airbase. The Branch there is so small it is actually a twig, bless their faithful hearts. So wonderful to again meet with fellow Saints in a remote corner of the world.
On our way home we stopped in Taurus - the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, to see his "well".
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| a local resident we were delighted to see. We have a soft spot for tortoises. |
Again we passed through some imposing mountains as we drove home. Notice the snow. We have a whole new respect for the Apostle Paul's missionary travels. He must have been one tough traveling/hiking/walking guy.
