Facebook has some big problems

I wouldn't normally talk about something like this, but other than our 5km (3 mile) power walk we didn't do much due to the weather yesterday. And I think this is important.

We've been using Facebook for more than 10 years. We keep in touch with our kids and friends through their messaging system. We join various discussion groups that we might be interested in. We operate an RV'ing in Mexico group that has over 5,000 members. We operate a Travel with Kevin and Ruth page that directs people to this blog. And lastly, we make money from an Amazon group that has over 24,000 members.

Life in Turkey... we can understand the attraction!

We've only been in the country for two and a half weeks, but we wanted to go over with you some of the interesting things we have learned during that time.

Admittedly, we did not know very much about the country prior to our arrival. And really, we didn't even know we were coming here until three days before we arrived. So we didn't have much time to educate ourselves about our destination.

Beautiful views overlooking Marmaris, and onward accommodation booked

For quite a few days, the weather forecast had been calling for a 100% chance of rain on Wednesday afternoon in Marmaris, Turkey. They kept on changing the projected start time of the rain, varying it between 3:00pm and 5:00pm. But either way, they were 100% sure it was coming.

And they were right. But it started a bit early at about 2:30pm. Fortunately we had already completed our 10 km (6.2 mile) hike in the hills behind Marmaris, and were just finishing doing a quick grocery shop when it started coming down.

Exploring some more Turkish waterfront scenery

Thanks for all of the suggestions and comments regarding yesterday's blog post. We have decided that we will not go to Cappadocia on this trip. It's too much driving and we would feel too rushed. We are confident that we will return someday with a motorhome when we will be able to explore more of what Turkey has to offer (including the northern area closer to the Black Sea), at a better time of year related to the weather, and at our own pace.

On Tuesday, we took a drive down a coastal road to a viewpoint overlooking the town of Oren. We left at about 10:30am did some exploring and made a couple of stops along the way and didn't make it back to the cottage until almost3:30pm!

We need to come up with a plan

On Monday, we took a touring day off. So we relaxed for the morning and did some research about onward travels. We have to be out of our current location on Wednesday November 4th and we don't yet know where we're going. More about that further down!

After lunch, we went out for a walk. There are still quite a few back roads around here that are worth exploring... gravel roads that we can walk to right from our location here in the village.

Daytrip visit to the ancient city of Knidos, Turkey

We tried to get an early start, and managed to get on the road by 8:40am. It was supposed to be a non stop drive of just over two hours to get to the tip of the Datça Peninsula where the ancient city of Knidos is located.

Some cities in Turkey are among the oldest in the world. They say the capital city of Ankara has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years. But some very vibrant cities did not last despite being inhabited for very long periods themselves. Knidos is a perfect example.

Around our village of Gökçe, Turkey. Everyone is really friendly!

The village where we are staying is called Gökçe. I would try and tell you how to pronounce it, but we would only be guessing ourselves! Gökçe is actually bigger than a village... I would say it's probably about 1,200 people. A small town.

We went out for a walk Saturday just to explore the area. We ended up on a dirt road and we had no idea where it went, so we just went and did some exploring. The dirt road led us to a really neat spot!

Nice views and more rock tombs

On Friday we drove inland, up into the mountains. I had scouted out three possible things to see along a route of about 100 kms (62 miles).

From our village, we can see the first ridge of mountains rising 3000' above the Mediterranean Sea. We had seen a major roadway leading up into that area, and I used the maps.me app and google satellite view to find things to do in the area that we might not otherwise know about.

Day trip to Marmaris, Turkey and a nice lunch out

Friends Heather and Volkan had invited us to join them for lunch in the seaside resort town of Marmaris, Turkey. I say "town", but really it's a small city and quite a bustling place. 

It's located only a 20 minute drive from our cottage. One of the reasons we chose this location is that there are a lot of places to go and things to see within a 100 km (62 mile) radius, so we have lots of day trips to do over the next couple of weeks.

We have wheels!

Wednesday was a travel day but in order to travel, we first had to pick up our rental car. 

We have rented cars in various countries and the procedure isn't always as standard as what you would expect. When we were in Romania, we rented a car and the guy came to meet us in a grocery store parking lot where I gave him some cash and he gave me the keys!

Yes, we could have paid the big bucks and done a standard tourist rental with Avis or one of the other brand names. But that wouldn't be like us.

Ghost town of Kayaköy, and hike to the Af Kule Monastery

Another busy day for us yesterday. We finally made the effort to get a reasonably early start, and we left the apartment just before 9:00am. It was only a five minute walk to the dolmuş stop. Dolmuş is the turkish name for a local minibus. The ones we were in seat perhaps 16 people. Because of Covid, they do not take cash payments right now, nor do they take standing passengers. Apparently in normal times they can get quite crowded.

There is a regular route between Fethiye and Ölüdeniz so we didn't have to wait any longer than five minutes. For payment, most people buy a prepaid "tap" card and then top it up with credit as necessary. But I had read that you can also tap your credit card, and sure enough it accepted my Visa card and I instantly got an email notification from my bank that my my account was charged. What a great system!

Do not pet a stray dog!

You might notice at the bottom of each daily post we are now listing the total distance we have walked while in Turkey. I'm not quite sure why, but we are keeping track of it. We always think that the best way to see an area is to walk it... and we are doing a lot of walking so it will be interesting to see how many kms (miles) we actually do!

On Tuesday, we decided to walk down to the other side of the Fethiye harbor area. Ruth had read of an old Roman amphitheater that we wanted to see.

Walk to Çalış Beach, and we spotted some Turkish motorhomes

We had a nice relaxing morning on Sunday, then after lunch we decided to walk along the waterfront up to Çalış Beach. This beach is another area that is popular with British tourists. So much so that you see signs that advertise "Full British Breakfast" with all the writing in English.

We knew it was going to be a fairly long walk because the beginning of Çalış Beach is 8 kms (5 miles) one way from our apartment. But other than the one steep stretch leading back up to our apartment, it was mostly flat.

Baba Tekin's Boat Tour near Ölüdeniz, Turkey

Blog readers Judi and Charles had sent us a message asking if we wanted to join them for a full day boat trip around the coastline of this area. We don't normally do these types of touristy things, but the price was right and it seemed like a relaxing way to spend the day and see some of the local scenery.

We contacted the Baba Tekin's Boat Tour Company through their facebook page and they were quick to respond. It turned out that the cruise for Saturday October 17th was their last one for the season, and it was a one way trip around the shoreline between Ölüdeniz and Fethiye, with lunch included. Special price for this trip was 100 lira ($16.65 CAD, $12.60 USD) per person. Normal price during the season was 150 lira per person.

Grocery prices in Turkey, and our first hike here

Friday morning, we left the apartment at about 10:30am. We were actually aiming for earlier than that, but it just never happened. We wanted to hike up the dirt path I found that leads into the hills behind our apartment building, and of course the morning is the coolest time to do it.

And it was definitely starting to warm up by the time we got going. They were calling for a high of 27C (81F).

We are going to like it here!

Thursday was a day of rest, for the most part. We spent the morning planning, although we still didn't come up with a firm choice as to where we are going next. Not that we're in a huge rush to figure it out because we are here until next Wednesday.

I know, that's only five days away, but there are a LOT of empty accommodation options available. Normally the British would be starting to come to this area for a holiday. But Turkey is not on the quarantine exemption list for Britain, so although they are welcome to come here, they have to quarantine for 14 days when they return home. So not nearly as many will be coming.

Fethiye and the Amyntas Rock Tombs

We are just getting ourselves into a blog posting routine here in Turkey. I know that it feels to most of you like you missed a daily blog post along the way, but our activities take place 7 hours ahead of eastern time and this blog post actually gets us caught up. You haven't missed a thing! 

We will try to post during our morning here which means when those of you in North America wake up each morning, there will be a blog post waiting for you and you will be able to read Travel with Kevin and Ruth while drinking your morning coffee.

First impressions of Turkey

As I write this, we have been in Turkey (country #39 for us!) for a total of about 7 hours.

And our first impressions are that we are really going to like Turkey!

Let's back up a little bit to our overnight stay at London's Gatwick airport. We had booked a cheaper and better than expected room at the Premier Inn Hotel located right across the street from the airport terminal.

Made it to London, England... and another glitch...

Our flight from Ottawa to Toronto was uneventful. It was just a small two propeller turbo prop plane, and it was probably 80% full. It was a one hour flight.

Then we had a five hour wait for our Toronto to London flight. We arrived Toronto at 4:00pm, and our London flight was scheduled to depart at 9:00pm.

Big change of plans!

We were in Gravenhurst, Ontario (about 2 hours north of Toronto) yesterday visiting with our son and his girlfriend. Our daughter and the grandkids showed up as well! It was a great family send off for us!

However...

Just before lunch I got an email from our Airbnb host in Berlin. She said that Berlin has been declared a Covid hotspot and that we would have to quarantine for 5 days after we arrive in Berlin. Not only that, but we might have difficulty moving on to another spot in Germany depending on the rules of the German state that we would happen to be moving to. 

Road trip!

 We had a bunch of last minute stuff to do at Ruth's dad's house. You would think that after having been there for more than two months we would have been totally organized to leave, but we still found ourselves rushing around at the last minute.

We didn't leave the house until around 12:45pm, and then we still had to drop one last load of stuff off at the charity shop, and go to the bank and do some other running around.

Looking forward to a road trip!

Well, we are done at the house... for now. There is still a lot to be done, or at least a lot that could be done. But eventually it will be up to the people who buy the place. In the meantime, Ruth's brother Colin will take over where we left off and it will be up to him to get some more things done over the winter.

The plan is that we will return here for the last two weeks of May next year. We have the auction arranged for Saturday ,May 29th.

We had been hoping to visit England

Ruth's parents came to Canada from England back in the late 1950's so she still has relatives there and we like to visit every few years. But the last time we were in England was in July of 2012!

So we really were due for a visit, which is why we originally booked our upcoming flight to London. The price was cheap, and when we booked it back in June we figured that maybe they would have lifted the quarantine for arrivals from Canada by now. Of course that hasn't happened which is why we are now carrying on to Berlin.

Packing for our trip

We always travel light, but I think this time will be especially light! We each have a Chester carry on size bag, so we can only take so much with us in the first place. 

We will be bringing all of our Tilley travel clothes... including our fresh supply of Tilley socks and underwear. Ruth will also be bringing a pair of jeans, but I am sticking with my Tilley travel pants and a pair of Columbia hiking pants.

The start of our 14th year

Thirteen years ago yesterday, we closed the sale of our house and moved into the motorhome to embark on a different lifestyle. We have no regrets at all... we love our life!

And so begins the fourteenth year of Travel with Kevin and Ruth. And we think it's going to be a great year!

Weekend with granddaughter Sadie, and Berlin accommodation confirmed

Lots of fun having granddaughter Sadie (7) with us for the weekend. She's a really good kid to look after, and such a little sweetheart. Of course that is just the grandpa's opinion, so it might be a little biased!

We didn't do anything special though. The weather wasn't the best, and you can sure tell that winter is coming!

One week to go!

A week from today we fly to London, England. Not that we will be seeing any of London, but we have been there several times in the past. We will not be leaving the airport terminal, and will be connecting to Berlin, Germany after a long layover.

This week will go by quickly! 

Things are coming together and we are starting to get excited!

Yesterday, I had thought that we might wait a few more days to book accommodation in Germany. But I had a quick look through AirBnb and came across an inexpensive one that caught my interest. I sent the host a couple of questions, which she eventually answered, but by the time I went to book it, somebody else had already done so!

So, while there are lots of choices available in Berlin because tourism is down and the weather is quickly cooling off, the good ones still do go quickly. I figured I had better spend a bit more time looking for one that is suitable for us.

What's the plan?

Back in to Ottawa yesterday where we had a nice visit with my mother and older sister. Then it was off to pick up Ruth's dad and we brought him out for a drive. We also had some running around to do, including a stop to change some Mexican pesos into euros.

When we were preparing to leave Mexico last March, we thought we had our cash situation figured out so that we wouldn't have very much left over when we actually crossed the border. But because of Covid altered plans, we ended up staying in one spot the last ten days and that actually meant we didn't spend as much cash.

Day trip to the U.S. border, and final paperwork on the new motorhome

Yesterday evening we posted our expenses for the month of September. If you missed it, you can read it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2020/09/september-expenses.html

We picked up the grandkids yesterday and took them out for a field trip day. The weather was kind of iffy, but we brought raincoats. The destination? The border town of Brockville, Ontario (pop 21,000) ... the site of Canada's first railway tunnel.