A series of articles covering our trip to the Holy Land on the Thomson Celebration cruise ship. Our itinerary had been changed at the last minute due to unrest in Egypt. A day in Alexandria was changed to give us an overnight stay onboard in port in Israel. The ports for this trip will be Marmaris, Turkey > Rhodes, Greece > Ashdod, Isreal > Larnaca, Cyprus > Alanya, Turkey > Marmaris, Turkey.
Click each picture below to access the main articles and photos of this fabulous trip.
Sunday 6 October 2013. We arrive back at Alanya, Turkey from the excursion which has taken us to Manavgat Waterfall and Side (a town, not the side of the waterfall...)
The Thomson Celebration is parked (nautical term) at the end of a long jetty. We leave the coach and go through the terminal building and out onto the jetty.
Looking back at the Red Tower or Kizil Kule of Alanya. This octagonal tower was finished in 1226 and is 33m high, which I make to be around 107 feet in old money. Obviously they got their bricks from Accrington...
It protects the harbour and shipyard which has been in use since 1221. From it a high wall links to the City Wall, which heads off up the hill. The history of the place is not dissimilar to that of Side which I described in the previous entry. Pirates, Ptolemaics, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans have all had a piece of it at some time or other.
Ah yes, you remember a couple of entries ago, when we had just landed here (another nautical term...) I mentioned that there seemed to be a load of old galleons lined up in the harbour?
Well I don't think they are all that old somehow but they are of that sort of design, if not exactly reliant on wind power... The customer base is not that old either, so I gather from the incredible din coming from it as it passed and the obviously frenzied goading of a DJ. Over the boom-boom-boom of house music (I have no idea what house music really sounds like, but I expect it to be as bad as the sound coming from this boat) he was shouting into the mic incessantly. By gad, in the old days we'd have sent the Navy...
Wood seems to be the material of choice for pleasure craft in Alanya and I do have to say I approve of this. Far nicer to look at than whitewashed metal.
The tug boats were, however, a little more practical in their design. And this winds up our last day of the holiday. We'll make the most of things tonight and we'll have a look at the Thomson Celebration herself in the next entry, together with a few of the staff and entertainers onboard, some of whom we count as good friends of several years standing (and a few years sitting or keeled over...)
Tonight the ship heads along the Turkish coast back to Marmaris and we will be heading back to the UK and slightly cooler weather!
Sunday 6 October. Thomson Celebration sails into Alanya on the southern coast of Turkey.
First impressions are very good! There's a massive wall climbing from a fortress all the way up the hillside, reminding us a a visit to Kotor in Montenegro and few years ago. And there's a line of what looks like old fashioned galleons lined up in the harbour. We'll have a closer look in a later entry. Because for now we have to get down and have breakfast before we jump on a coach for an excursion out for the morning.
We'll be visiting two places and start off at Manavgat Waterfall. This is apparently Turkey's most photographed waterfall. It is certainly my most photographed Turkish waterfall... Although it's not too high, it does spread out over the width of the river in a horseshoe shape. In fact its lack of height makes it disappear altogether when floodwaters run off down the river after heavy rain.
But there hasn't been any heavy rain so we can view it in all its glory. Along the edge of the river are terraces of decking set up as viewing platforms and some with tables for picnics or as part of a restaurant. All are deserted at this early hour and I flit from one to another finding different views. So let's enjoy a few photos...
After a while we move away from the waterfall and have a look at a few souvenir stalls. Miss Franny breathes a sigh of relief - they have fridge magnets! There are a couple of stalls selling pomegranates - seemingly to the exclusion of anything else.
Uh oh! We're being called! Time to get back on the bus for our second stop. A funny moment as our guide introduced the driver - whose name has totally by-passed me. I'll make one up... He said, "Our driver is Ahmet - the second best driver in the company!" This got everyone looking at each other in puzzlement.
"The second best? Well, who is the best driver?"
"Oh..." said the guide, "he had an accident yesterday...!"
