Moving day, and the ancient city of Olympos

We were out of the apartment in Finike at about 10:30am and headed for the big city of Antalya (pop 1,000,000). But we didn't want to arrive in Antalya until mid afternoon, so we planned to do some sightseeing along the way.

First, we headed towards the little village of Karaoz, with the thought of maybe doing some more Lycian Way hiking. But the weather was still not great and there was a 60% chance of rain. Besides, with all the rain we had three days prior to that, the trails would likely be pretty muddy.

While we had rain down at the coast, the mountains behind us took that as snow. Here's a bit of a before and after...

When we arrived in Finike.

And when we left yesterday morning.

Scenery along the way.

Blue skies to the right.

But clouds and dark skies to the left.

Snow in the mountains.

We love the back roads.

This would be a great boondocking spot, if not for the garbage lying around.

It's even paved!

The seaside town of Adrasan has lots of holiday properties.

We checked out both Karaoz and Adrasan, but there wasn't much going on. Looked like they were busy cleaning up from the storms that blew through on the weekend.

Still, we enjoyed the drive.

We hadn't originally planned on going to a ruins site, but with clearer skies forecast for the afternoon, we figured by the time we got there the odds of rain would be less, and we know that there is a lot of walking that can be done at most ruins sites.

So we headed for the ancient city of Olympos.

This ruins site is popular with the cruise ship crowd who dock at the city of Antalya. So although it's still fairly rustic, you see a lot of touristy entrance signs, and mostly in English. And, of course it's more expensive.

But the time to visit is definitely when there are no cruise ships around, so that's what we did.

Now this kind of graffiti we don't mind.

The road is washed away!

Because of all that weekend rain, the riverbeds that are dry all summer are now flowing. Sometimes the roads cross the riverbed during the summer, and now that is done for the season. We did see one four wheel drive truck go across, but we weren't about to attempt that in the rental car!

But we have no problem walking.

We had some lunch in the car, and then set off...

They have a rickety old bridge for pedestrians to get across the river.

We paid the 30 lira ($4.90 CAD, $3.85 USD) entrance fee per person and went to explore.

There are a lot of walls still standing.

This was on the other side of the river.

The city of Olympos was split into two sides by the river. With the water flowing, and no bridge at the site itself we could only explore one side... unless we wanted to get our feet wet... and cold!

Don't forget... you can click on any photo to make it full screen!

The site is located right at the waterfront.

The other side of the river.

There used to be a bridge.

Many hundreds of years ago. In fact, there were two bridges. They believe the original one was destroyed in a violent earthquake around the year 141. And it was hastily thrown back together which is why the blocks you see in the structure above don't look like they belong.

This is what they think the original bridge would have looked like.

There were a lot of puddles to avoid on some of the walking routes.

The tomb of Marcus Aurelius.

It's all Greek to me.

As we've said before, every ruins site is just a little different. This one had a lot of parts where you felt like you were very much in the jungle. One of our favorite ruins sites in Mexico is Palenque, which is also very much in the jungle. I think that's one of the reasons we liked it yesterday at Olympos.

Some of the ruins have supports in place to try to make them last just a little longer.

Me, doing some exploring!

This sarcophagus has a ship on it.

Hmm. I guess that's as far as we go!

The walls at the acropolis.

We decided we had better climb to the top of the acropolis to get a better view.

Looking down on some of the ruins.

Ruth, climbing up behind me.

Pretty vegetation.

We enjoyed two and a half hours wandering around Olympos!

But, we still had over an hours drive ahead of us. Time to get back on the road!

Our road crosses the river, with the river flowing over it!

Scenery along the way.

The rest of the drive was four lane highway. Quite a few big all inclusive style resorts on this part of the coast.

Antalya has a pretty big expat population. Quite a few British, Russian, and German people live here. We tried to get an Airbnb closer to the coast, but almost all the listings were in tourist buildings. We wanted to live with the locals, so we lucked out on a small apartment in an average residential area. In the city, but away from the coast.

Really happy with our accommodation for the next two weeks...

Living room.

Great WiFi, and the tv even has Netflix. We might actually turn it on and watch something!

Bedroom.

Bathroom.

Small balcony with a bit of a view.

Dining area.

Kitchen.

Unfortunately, no oven. But other than that, we are totally happy with the place.

For a two week stay, we are paying 130 lira ($21.30 CAD, $16.75 USD) per night.

Today, the skies have cleared and they are calling for glorious sunshine and a high of 21C (70F). What perfect weather to go for a hike in the mountains! So we are off to do just that. We might even encounter some snow!

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