Turkish Delight - Exploring Marmaris

Having spent our first full day on the beach, it was time for some sightseeing & on Sunday morning we headed to Marmaris Castle, a half-an-hour walk from our apartment. Originally constructed in 400BC, the castle was rebuilt by Suleman the Magnificent in 1522 during his military campaign against Rhodes. A large part of the castle was destroyed by a French warship during WW1 with the Fethiye earthquake of 1958 damaging it even further. Up until 1979 the ruins were inhabited by locals until the powers that be decided that the castle was worth restoring. 

At 10am we had the castle practically to ourselves. 

We loved these ancient barnacled amphorae rescued from the sea bed.

There's a fascinating archaeological museum within the castle with some carefully curated and labelled exhibits. 

The giant bronze hands were excavated from the ancient site of Knidos and date to the Late Hellenistic period. They reminded us of something from the Jason & The Argonauts film we were mesmerised by as kids! 

I loved this grave stele (tombstone) dating from the Hellenistic era and dedicated to Charikles, a fisherman. The inscription, in Ancient Greek, reads : "Who once, having pulled ashore his net with skilful hands exchanged inexpensive fish for Bacchus' lovely drinks and completed his life in happiness". What a wonderful way to be remembered! 

The views reminded me of Santorini (minus the hideous cruise ships and the billions of tourists!)

We enjoyed a frappe in the enchanting old town before heading to the beach for a few hours of sun-worshipping and swimming. 

Lunch was a grilled vegetable sandwich and a beer. I let Jon eat my chips. 

Later on we headed back to the seafront for another Turkish casserole, vegetable for me, meat for Jon. We also indulged in a couple of Bacchus' lovely drinks, two €3 Aperol Spritzes !!

The following day, having exhausted our supply of fruit, we headed to the local produce market to stock up. We'd passed the Marmaris Amphitheatre a couple of days earlier and were disappointed to find the gates padlocked. Luckily for us, the caretaker was sweeping up and told us we could have a look around for free. Originally built in 2AD by the Romans, it seated 10,000 and was used for gladiatorial contests. These days it's only open during the Summer for concerts & events.

  

I like to take a pine cone home from my travels and picked up one up here.

This beautiful Turkish kedi (cat) decided to attack Jon. He's still got the scars! 

We couldn't resist a wander around this heavenly garden centre.

Neither could we resist the lure of the deliciously shady city cemetery.

The produce market was fabulous and judging by the stallholders' fascinated looks, seldom visited by tourists. 

Those tomatoes!!!

After buying enough fruit to keep us in breakfasts and beach snacks for the rest of the week - I think we spent around £4 - the Aegean was calling so we spent a few hours on the beach (and in the water). 

 

Lunch were huge salads in the very classy Bono, a hip cafe bar on the seafront and, as far as I know, nothing at all to do with the U2 front man. Jon had warm beef & goats cheese and I had beluga lentils with pomegranate & avocado.

After a chilled afternoon on the beach we headed over to the Old Town for dinner & drinks.

This area is known as Dreamcatcher Street....

Dinner was at Ney, served on the terrace of a three hundred year old house. 

There were so many traditional Turkish dishes on the menu we couldn't decide what to eat and had to ask the owner for help. We shared a delicious vegetarian mezze platter & a basket of flatbread, Jon had a mixed kebab and I had Turkish ravioli, filo pastry parcels stuffed with vegetables and served in a yoghurt and cumin sauce. We were quite glad of the thirty-minute walk home, we were stuffed. 

Thanks for reading, more to follow very soon!