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We're finally home and finished traveling for the moment, so I wanted to give you a little report on the trip to Turkey. In a
word, it was great. There were a few surprises, but it all worked
out very well.
The Tussock yacht was beautiful and the crew couldn't have been better. There was a traditional Turkish dish served at each meal,
all very well prepared and delicious, and the wine and drinks were abundant. (Well, a few of the passengers griped when they ran out of gin, but vodka and tonic seemed an acceptable substitute to me.)
The man surprise was that none of the European passengers or anyone in the crew knew anything about the Venus transit. It was booked as a astronomy, nature and archeology cruise, so when we and the Marwines showed up planning on Venus being the highlight of the trip, everyone was a bit confused.
Fortunately, the captain was flexible and made sure Alan had a good spot to place his telescope, the Europeans were interested in the event as well as the other aspects of the trip, and we Americans enjoyed the nature and archeology (as well as the transit, which was brilliant--my husband took the attached photo through the telescope).
Some people signed on for more than one week of cruising, while we went sightseeing on land. The coast is truly beautiful, so either choice would have been good. And Turkey was extremely hospitable to Americans, of whom there were relatively few, at least in the places we went to.
We left the boat in Marmaris and went to Rhodes, then back to the coast and on up to Ephesus and Bodrum. Fascinating and worth the trip, even though we had too little time to see much of Rhodes, so we stayed in the old city, which is incredibly tourist-oriented. But prices were still reasonable,
and it was fun to imagine where the Colossus must have stood.
One of the best things about the trip was the good people we met. You know Alan Marwine and Gail Bass, and we couldn't have asked for nicer travel companions. We've been in touch by email since, and Alan tells us you are going into pharmacy. Does that mean you'll no longer be organizing trips? I hope not, since you seem to have a feel for the kind of travel we like best.
Whatever you do, I wish you great success. And we thank you for launching us on another fine holiday.
Janet
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