Turkey 2026

istanbul

May 2, 2026

It was only a 4.5 direct flight straight to Istanbul from Porto. Our Marriott Hotel is in a great location.

Turkish flags are everywhere... including right out our window.

We had a great dinner at the rooftop restaurant that is part of our hotel complex. Unfortunately, it's way too cold to sit outside and enjoy the view.

Galata Tower near our hotel.

May 3, 2026

Crossing the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus Strait - on foot by way of the Galata Bridge.

At least 40 people are fishing along the bridge. I was surprised to find out they were fishing for anchovies.

The cats on the bridge are well fed.

There is a mosque in every direction.

We are escaping the rain by going into the Spice Market.

I have NO idea what this is.

Turkish delight, or lokum, is a traditional, soft, gel-based confection from Turkey originating as early as the 18th century.

It was okay... like a gummy bear with nuts. I tried an orange flavored one.

The cats are EVERYWHERE. In fact, there was a documentary a few years ago called Kedi - Cats of Istanbul. This one is trying to stay dry under the tree.

The Hagia Sophia is one of the more famous mosques in Istanbul. Unfortunately, the dome is obscured by scaffolding as it is being reinforced.

We also didn't bother going inside because the lines were so long.

It's a VERY windy day so it's quite miserable.

38 mph gusts!

My new business venture.

She's making lavash in the front window of the restaurant.

Everyone is always on their phones including clerics in prayer hats.

It was a long, windy walk to the quirky and colorful neighborhoods of Fener and Balat.

Somehow, we often end up in tougher neighborhoods.

Finally made it to the quirky neighborhood. We had lunch at this Turkish food restaurant.

Our first of MANY hummus plates.

These street people just showed up (upstairs!) and started to play instruments and sing. All the Turkish people dining there just ignored them.

Later, when another squall came in, we tried to take refuge in a packed coffee house. There were only two chairs available and this occupant was not about to give up their seat. So we left.

Part of the "colorful"...

...and the "quirky".

People were lining up to take a photo in the mirrored sunglasses. It was pretty much a "fail" for these two 65 year olds.

The colored stairs were not the same color as the ones on the Internet.

It can be extremely loud when the Call to Prayer comes on the loudspeakers just above your head!

Neighborhood shots.

It probably looks more colorful when the sun is shining.

A focused sentry guarding the entrance.

It's time to meet our tour group at our first dinner. The restaurant and view were wonderful.

Our group consists of 9 Australians, one Canadian woman, and us. All of them are wonderful people and we are so grateful to be with this lovely and fun group. Dinner was about eight courses and the food just kept coming and coming.

We were happy to see just fruit for dessert but then the chocolate lava cake and ice cream arrived.

May 4, 2026

The included breakfast is at another building up a steep hill.

This is what they bring BEFORE you even order!

This staircase is a favorite location for photos of wedding parties. We saw a few the day before.

There are multiple blocks with stores that just have electrical lighting or power tools, etc. This was the block for toilets and plumbing.

Our first excursion as a group was to the Blue Mosque.

We've finally learned to travel with headscarves.

You must remove your shoes while OUTSIDE and then store them inside. There are signs everywhere not to let your shoes touch the carpet.

It's stunning inside but so hard to capture in photos.

During prayer times, women are not allowed on the main floor and must be in these enclosed side areas.

Our guide told us that we were now walking to the Seven Hills restaurant for the great view of the Blue Mosque.

The rooftop restaurant is also known for feeding french fries to the seagulls. I think this is the craziest tourist attraction I've ever been to...! Robin was a little shocked how quickly this one flew away with the french fry.

She was a bit more prepared for this one.

Our group settling in for coffee and no one got pooped on.

The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops, attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily.

It's not like other bazaars I've been to where you are constantly hounded to buy.

Behind the window of this Turkish rug store, this cat found the perfect place to nap.

Out for another Turkish meal.

This beautiful park had been closed yesterday when we tried to go...

...but was open today.

Tonight, we are taking a cruise down the the Bosphorus.

It's a very nice boat but it's way too chilly to open the flaps.

Only the people with the warmest clothes stayed up on the top deck.

I opted for below where it was slightly warmer.

May 5, 2026

Once again, WAY too much food before you even order your breakfast.

We have an 8.5 hour drive to Kusadasi in this van.

Our guide, Murat, explaining various regions in Turkey. He ended up doing an excellent job during the whole trip and we were very pleased with him.

Many beautiful high rises in this city of 16.5 million people.

The sign at this gas station rest stop shows no dogs or rabbits are allowed. But apparently cats sitting in the middle of the floor are okay.

We stopped at another gas station rest stop for a cafeteria-style lunch.

The problem with cafeteria meals in non-english speaking countries is that you don't know what anything is...

...and you once again end up with TOO much food.

We are in a cable car heading up to the Pergamon ruins.

It was a rich and powerful Greek city from 280-130 BC.

Th theater of Pergamon, one of the steepest theaters in the world, has a capacity of 10,000 people.

My thousandth photo attempt trying to take an unobstructed photo with no people and then having Robin in the way taking a picture of... plants.

We made many pitstops at gas stations on this 8.5 hour drive. I expected horrible squat toilets and instead ended up with...

...the highest tech, CLEANEST bathrooms. This one has a contactless one drip (pee) flush, 2 drip (poop) flush, and a contactless button on the right to rotate the plastic around. Far better, than every gas station bathroom in the US!

FINALLY at our beautiful LaVista Boutique Hotel overlooking the Aegean Sea after what seemed like forever!

We checked into our fabulous room just at sunset.

On our hotel room balcony.

kusadasi

May 6, 2026

It's going to be a gorgeous day!

As many as twelve cruise ships a week stop in this area. In 2025, there were nearly a million passengers visiting.

Ephesus is known for its remarkably preserved ancient ruins, including one of the largest amphitheaters in the world and the iconic Library of Celsus.

This was the Library of Celsus.

These were the public toilets. They collected the urine to use as laundry detergent and wool softener.

We've been to so many ruins that I'd rather take photos of nature and....

...cats!

We are now at a country estate for our picnic lunch.

The setting was quite beautiful.

Of course, the one and only dog was at Robin's feet!

...and the Turkish picnic was delicious!

The estate also makes carpets on site. I knew this would be the part of the trip where someone would try to convince us to buy a carpet. We learned quite a bit about the process - and it's interesting. She's making a rug slightly bigger than the one she is sitting on, and it will take 4 months to complete!

As for the dyes... they use sage to make green, tobacco to make brown, acorns to make black, and indigo to make blue.

This machine pulled silk from silkworm cocoons and then wound them around the wheel on the left. The rugs can be make from silk, cotton, or wool.

Time for the high pressure sales pitch to dish out several thousand dollars for a rug.

They must have rolled out 50 carpets for our group.

But our group wasn't having it and no one bought anything.

Sometimes when you are in other countries you don't know the word for "men" or "women" when going to the bathroom... but this one is pretty clear!

Robin was thrilled that Murat walked us through a farmers market.

Definitely a market for the locals.

Can you believe the size of those cabbages??

Şirince (pronounced Shee-rin-jeh) is a charming, historic hillside village in Turkey’s İzmir Province, renowned for its traditional Aegean architecture, fruit wines, and lush green surroundings.

Many stalls sell this homemade Ouzo.

We went higher up onto the hillside to this hotel for our cooking class.

The hotel is made up of a collection of old stone houses.

The view is of the village of Şirince.

We all donned traditional Turkish wear.

The crew shredding carrots was quite focused.

The cook at the stovetop is thoroughly enjoying her job.

This was our chef/host adding yoghurt to our carrot and zucchini mixture.

A potato and parsley mixture was rolled in phyllo dough and deep fried.

Served with a tomato mixture.

One of the finished dishes.

The carrot mixture and hummus we made were our first course.

Everything about the dinner was OUTSTANDING... the food, the instruction, the view, and our new Aussie and Canadian friends. A dinner to remember!

Finally back at our hotel just as the sun was setting.

May 7, 2026

So many choices for breakfast at our hotel.

The view of the castle as we walk down the hill into town.

We can look back and see our hotel from the bend in the road. The water is SO clear!

Kusadasi is definitely a tourist oriented town with all the cruise ships that come in each day. Cute town... but a day or two is enough!

I can clearly see that it says "No Fishing" but apparently he's undeterred.

Looks like cats also own Kusadasi.

Today was supposed to be a free day for the group but we've decided to do an hour long cruise on this boat. It was cheap - €5 per person.

Yes, the tables are really that slanted.

It was a much more comfortable boat ride than the one in Istanbul on that cold, windy day.

Everybody else was in the shade. Not Robin.

Four cruise ships here today! So, there were probably at least 10,000 people that came ashore.

The view of our hotel from the water.

Cheap pizza for lunch. I couldn't do hummus again!

Our last night with this awesome view of the Aegean Sea.

cappadocia

May 8, 2026

We got up at 3am for 4am trip to Izmir for our flight to Cappadocia. Nice airport, BUT...

...I didn't expect squat toilets!

The view of Kayseri - an hour's drive to Cappadocia.

Mount Erciyes is in the center. It stands at 12,851 feet.

The famous Three Beauties Fairy Chimneys. According to legend, they represent the wayward daughter of a king that married a shepherd and had a child. "Fairy chimneys" are tall, thin spires of rock (shaped a bit like mushrooms, cones or towers) that rise above the valleys of Cappadocia. They're made from soft volcanic tuff, topped with a protective cap of harder rock such as basalt or andesite.

The Uchisar Castle is in the town of Uchisar.

We went to this wonderful nearby cafe that overlooked Uchiser. Robin and I shared a pistachio ice cream on chocolate cake.

Some of the others had Turkish coffee with pistachio milk.

Our next stop was another viewpoint called Pigeon Valley.

Obviously, it's aptly named.

The pigeons live in the holes that are inside the rock formations.

We traveled to another area with amazing formations. I have no idea what this area was called.

We were allowed to go inside Peri Cave.

There were only two small rooms.

I'm thinking that because these phallic rock formations are everywhere that there is...

...an obsession with viagra? None of the men on our tour were willing to stand in front of the viagra market.

No takers for the viagra tea either.

Of course, these tchotchkes were at EVERY attraction.

We are having lunch at a local family home. I believe that Intrepid travel includes a home visit lunch on all their tours.

The living room is ready to take all thirteen of us.

Our host/cook/mother Nuray was warm, gracious, and welcoming.

The meal was quite delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with her and learning about her family.

It is customary after the meal to spritz your hands with lemon water (kolonya) and have a piece of candy.

A wonderful photo of our group with Nuray.

We have finally arrived at our hotel - Aya Kapadokya.

The twelve room boutique hotel is home to ancient cave dwellings, grand arched rooms, a chapel, and two subterranean wineries. Every one of us had a different themed room. Before any of us unpacked, we all explored each others' rooms.

Our room was a stable.

We had two separate rooms plus the bathroom.

This was the third floor of the hotel.

Of course, Robin is already friends with the resident dog.

After unpacking, we traveled to to the Göreme Open-Air Museum.

It is Cappadocia's most visited attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. This remarkable complex of rock-cut churches, chapels, and monasteries dates back to the 10th-12th centuries.

It features over a dozen rock-cut churches and chapels.

Robin and I opted out of the group dinner and walked into the town instead. We ate here at Apetito.

All the dinnerware was of the Three Beauties.

Cute street.

We had two cats that visited us but neither tried to eat our food.

The group is having dinner at our fabulous cave hotel.

We could not have asked for a better group of people to tour with.

The view from one of the hotel terraces.

May 9, 2026

On our way to the hot air balloon ride at 4:20am.

This is our balloon. The basket lies on its side until the balloon is inflated.

The balloon is now ready and people are getting in. The most difficult part of the whole trip is getting in and out of the basket!

There is a pilot and co-pilot onboard. In addition to the two of them, the ground crew consists of another 8-9 people.

The sun finally came up over the ridge.

There are four sections that contain four people each. We are all fastened in by seatbelts.

Here is our whole group. Above the basket is a camera that rotates around the entire basket to take photos of all sides.

The rock formations kept changing.

On the busiest days, there are as many as 180 balloons that go up. On this day, there were probably up to 100.

We were so impressed by the skill of the pilots. We could go higher/lower as needed. We went down quite low and skirted around some of the fairy chimneys. (I know that I've posted many photos about the balloon ride... but it was MAGICAL!)

The landing area. You can see that one has landed and is deflating.

Miraculously, the balloon lands right on the trailer with the ground crew guiding it!

It takes a while to deflate the balloon.

I think all of us were wowed by this amazing experience!!

Later in the day, we were driven to Love Valley to see the same formations from the ground that we saw from the air.

It was nice that there were so few people there.

This area looks a bit obscene.

This formation is known as the snail.

We drove a long distance to visit Kaymakli. It's an ancient underground city that goes down ten stories into the ground.

We had to duck to walk through some of it.

Most of us only walked down one level because it was hard on the knees and difficult to get around.

We wandered the trinket shops and Robin ended up with another silly hat photo like we've done on every trip.

The word Giriş meand "entrance" but every time I see it, I think it's the women's rest room.

Visiting a pottery shop where they are showing one of our fellow tour members how to make a pot.

Although the pieces were quite beautiful...

...Robin and I were more concerned about this cat drinking the paint water. Robin told the employee about it and he said that the cat loves the paint water and won't drink clean water at all. No wonder... she acted wobbly afterwards and probably gets high every time!

We finished up this very long day by going to see the Whirling Dervishes.

The ceremony is held in Saruhan Caravanserai. Built in 1249, it is a remarkably preserved 13th-century Seljuk inn.

No cameras are allowed until an announcement is made allowing for video/photos for the last 10 minutes.

There is a room outside the main ceremony area that is great for photos.

We are back at Apetito with the whole group for dinner. Cappadocia has been fantastic and I highly recommend that anyone visiting Turkey not miss it!

Istanbul

May 10, 2026

We flew out of a small airport back to Istanbul...

...on an airline I've never heard of.

We are back at the Marriott but at a completely different building two streets away. This one has a way bigger living space.

Street art outside the hotel.

We took a walk down the Bosphorus where the cruise ship terminal is located. The Queen Victoria is here!

It's Mothers Day and we saw multiple generations of women out together.

Having chicken kebabs at our final farewell dinner with our group.

I can't say enough good things about Intrepid Travel, our guide Murat, and the wonderful group we traveled with!!

May 11, 2026

Cisterna Basilica is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul.

The shadow of Medusa is as interesting as the sculpture.

It was easily ten degrees cooler (or more) underground.

The cistern was created by the Romans during the 3rd and 4th centuries. It's so huge that you enter on one block and exit on another.

Lunch was at this cafe in the Cihangir neighborhood.

This cat was begging for food and would not leave us alone. It tried to jump in my lap. It definitely liked turmeric chicken!

So... I have not said anything about how DENSELY populated this city is!! This is the view outside a restaurant next to our hotel.

There are hundreds of tour groups everywhere.

This is when we tried to cross a street at a traffic light. Cars are always blocking the intersections.

Of course, you can always walk under some major intersections... but those are packed too.

It can also be difficult walking down the busy sidewalks with the metro flying by next to you!

We walked under the Galata bridge and you can see how many people are fishing from above.

The boat traffic is quite heavy so no fishing lines in the water here.

Seafood restaurants are everywhere. Wine's?

The view from under the bridge looking at one side of the Golden Horn...

... and the other side.

Simit is the iconic round, sesame-encrusted bread found across Turkey. It is a popular, affordable street food staple often called a "Turkish bagel," characterized by its ring shape.