Turkey > The Temples of Aphrodisias

In the hotel courtyard, the breakfast buffet is ready. An extensive Turkish buffet. I still choose fairly standard: brown bread with cheese and sausage. From the hotel, we walk into the old town. It looks very different now. Last night it was a nightlife district. Now the streets are being scrubbed clean and shops are being restocked. Our hotel, for later this week, is nearby. We pop inside briefly to ask how parking is arranged there. It turns out there is a parking lot two hundred meters away. When we check in on Thursday, someone will show us the way, they say. We take a short walk to the marina, the old harbor. From the cliff, we have a view of the natural sea inlet. When we want to check out, another car is blocking ours. But the hotel does not have the key to that car. The hotel staff apologizes and goes to look for the owner. Meanwhile, an English couple arrives, who we are also blocking. There is nothing to do but wait. After more than half an hour, a Chinese girl arrives. She apologizes, nearly in tears. She had been called by the rental company that her car was blocking the way. She asks worriedly if we have been waiting long. We quickly get going. We drive again through the narrow streets.

Turkey - The natural inner harbor of Antalya

Signs show the route to the exit. This is no luxury; all streets are one-way. The navigation system has already given up. “Drive to the main road,” it says. Outside the old town, we follow directions along the broad streets out of the city. You have to pay close attention because regularly someone parks in the right lane or suddenly merges in or out. We reach the highway safely. Outside Antalya, the traffic quickly lessens. Only a few cars are on the road. The road winds into the mountainous landscape of the Taurus Mountains. When passing villages, we must slow down. Warnings about radar checks are everywhere. We don’t see any. Sometimes it is unclear where a village begins and which speed limit applies. The town name sign is sometimes hidden behind parked cars. We adjust our speed slightly to the other traffic. When others drive faster, we don’t stand out. At about three o’clock, we arrive at the archaeological site of Aphrodisias. Thousands of years before Christ, this was a sacred place.

Turkey - The marble Tetrapylon gateway of Aphrodisias

In the centuries before the Common Era, Aphrodisias was dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. After the start of the Common Era, the city flourished as a center of artists. Marble working was elevated to a specialty. The marble Tetrapylon gateway is a beautiful example. Thousands could watch from the stone stands in the stadium. The stadium is still fairly original. A threatening dark sky hangs over the mountains. The showers have passed us by so far. We hear thunder echo between the mountains. When we walk toward the theater, it does not stay completely dry. A few drops fall. Fortunately, it quickly dries again. From Aphrodisias, it is still a two-hour drive to Selçuk. We will stay here for two nights. Traffic gets busier, and we drive through more villages. We also encounter a toll road for the first time. To pay the toll, a separate device is needed. We ordered this device with the rental car. Supposedly, all toll costs will be paid this way. At the toll booth, there are two options: one lane for HDS and one lane with an image of a car with a kind of WiFi symbol. We have no idea which lane to take. Most cars choose HDS.

Turkey - The Roman period amphitheater in Aphrodisias

We choose that too. There is no barrier, so we can’t see if it works. Hopefully, it does. Around seven o’clock, we enter Selçuk. We park the car in front of the hotel. Inside, we ask about the parking lot. The receptionist looks at the security cameras. “Is this your car?” he asks, switching between cameras. “It’s fine, nothing more to do.” From the hotel, it is about five hundred meters’ walk to the center. There are good restaurants, the receptionist tells us. The TAT restaurant is his personal favorite. At the end of the shopping street, we see the restaurant. It looks cozy. We sit on the terrace. We order beer, some bread, and garlic yogurt as starters. On the terrace is also Adriaan, a Dutchman who moved to Selçuk a few years ago. During previous holidays, he liked it here. Adriaan recommends a typical Turkish meal. Based on his advice, we order two dishes and share them. The owner and Adriaan’s friend also join us. It is a pleasant evening. Before walking back to our hotel, we buy baklava. This is supposed to be the best shop in town. In the hotel room, we notice we still have the hotel key from the previous hotel. Because of the fuss at the parking lot, we forgot to return it. We quickly send a message, indicating we will return it on Thursday. We get a message back that this is fine.