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Disclaimer: I must emphasise that I didn’t take any of the photos in this post. They were all taken by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melissa_maples, who kindly rescued us from our magical ability to get lost even when given very specific directions, and led us to cake and culture in Kaleici. Not only is she a great tour guide, she is also a fantastic photographer and regular blogger and is pretty much directly responsible for our location choice for this holiday. I’m over the moon that we have her photos to remember this trip into Antalya (we were staying at a resort in Kemer, about an hour away by bus) and that there are several lovely ones of all of us together.
Once Melissa had found us, we determined that the first order of business should be cake. We stopped at Güneş to eat tiramisu. The Turkish formula for tiramisu seems to be as follows:
I can confirm that we cleaned our plates.
Keiki and me.
After cake, Humuhumu asked to go on the swings. One of the fantastic things about Turkey, or at least Antalya and Kemer, is that there seems to be a nicely equipped playground in a park associated with every small shopping district or restaurant block. We had to walk all of a hundred metres to find a set of swings and slides.
Humuhumu getting ready to slide.
Humuhumu about to push off from the top of the slide.
Daddy catching Humuhumu at the bottom of the slide, so she doesn’t get her shoes muddy.
Humuhumu smiling on the swings.
Humuhumu laughing on the swings.
After cake, we hopped on a bus to Republic Square and its gigantic statue of Ataturk. (There are a lot of statues of Ataturk, and every main road in every city is Ataturk Boulevard.) From there we strolled up to Hadrian’s Gate, and through it into the old city. Melissa took us to her favourite restaurant, Vanilla, for lunch. By this point in the day it was very hot, so we were grateful for the cool oasis offered by the restaurant’s lounge, which we had to ourselves.
Lunch arrival. Drinks are fresh-squeezed orange juice (Humuhumu) and homemade lemonade (everyone else). I had a chicken curry dish. Humuhumu swiped my rice and naan bread. Melissa had a gravadlax salad. The bloke had fettucine with walnuts and gorgonzola. All of them were delicious.
All (well, Humuhumu) aboard the Momma Train!
We savoured our lunch and after some freshening up (read: nappy changes for littles) we carried on through the old city and down to the marina.
Humuhumu running down the cobbled streets of Kaleiçi.
Humuhumu riding Daddy’s shoulders through Kaleiçi.
Humuhumu smiling at Melissa from Daddy’s shoulders. Mummy’s head just visible.
Finding the way to the marina turned out to be remarkably easy. You just keep heading downhill. There are lots of sets of steep, slippery steps that provide shortcuts. Since the bloke and I were both carrying children, we avoided those, so our journey was quite a bit longer than it could have been, and very pleasant too.
Daddy and Humuhumu watching the fishermen in the marina.
We walked around the marina past all the themed boats offering to take tourists out into the bay and along the coast. Our destination was the brand new glass-walled lift to take us back up to the top of the cliffs. We didn’t get to peer out whilst on the lift as it was rammed pretty full, but we did get to appreciate the view from the top once we’d disembarked.
Tourist family shot overlooking the marina.
Tourist family shot overlooking Kaleiçi.
Everybody smiling in Kaleiçi, except for Keiki who was pretty adamant about looking the other way.
Having admired the bay from several angles, we decided to start the hour and a half journey back to Kemer. We’d had a grand time and we figured it was best not to push Humuhumu too hard. She conked out almost immediately, clinging to the bloke like a baby koala, so we’re pretty certain that was the right decision.
It was terrific to spend facetime with an LJ friend I’ve known online for over ten years, and to be treated to such a tour of their city. I’ll treasure the memory of this day out. I’m so grateful to have these pictures to remind me of everything we did (and ate, yay fooood).melissa_maples: <333333333!
melissa_maples, who kindly rescued us from our magical ability to get lost even when given very specific directions, and led us to cake and culture in Kaleici. Not only is she a great tour guide, she is also a fantastic photographer and regular blogger and is pretty much directly responsible for our location choice for this holiday. I’m over the moon that we have her photos to remember this trip into Antalya (we were staying at a resort in Kemer, about an hour away by bus) and that there are several lovely ones of all of us together.Once Melissa had found us, we determined that the first order of business should be cake. We stopped at Güneş to eat tiramisu. The Turkish formula for tiramisu seems to be as follows:
- Remove alcohol, substitute additional chocolate
- Make cream filling as light and fluffy as possible
- Serve pieces nearly as large as baby’s head
- Profit
I can confirm that we cleaned our plates.
Keiki and me.
After cake, Humuhumu asked to go on the swings. One of the fantastic things about Turkey, or at least Antalya and Kemer, is that there seems to be a nicely equipped playground in a park associated with every small shopping district or restaurant block. We had to walk all of a hundred metres to find a set of swings and slides.
Humuhumu getting ready to slide.
Humuhumu about to push off from the top of the slide.
Daddy catching Humuhumu at the bottom of the slide, so she doesn’t get her shoes muddy.
Humuhumu smiling on the swings.
Humuhumu laughing on the swings.
After cake, we hopped on a bus to Republic Square and its gigantic statue of Ataturk. (There are a lot of statues of Ataturk, and every main road in every city is Ataturk Boulevard.) From there we strolled up to Hadrian’s Gate, and through it into the old city. Melissa took us to her favourite restaurant, Vanilla, for lunch. By this point in the day it was very hot, so we were grateful for the cool oasis offered by the restaurant’s lounge, which we had to ourselves.
Lunch arrival. Drinks are fresh-squeezed orange juice (Humuhumu) and homemade lemonade (everyone else). I had a chicken curry dish. Humuhumu swiped my rice and naan bread. Melissa had a gravadlax salad. The bloke had fettucine with walnuts and gorgonzola. All of them were delicious.
All (well, Humuhumu) aboard the Momma Train!
We savoured our lunch and after some freshening up (read: nappy changes for littles) we carried on through the old city and down to the marina.
Humuhumu running down the cobbled streets of Kaleiçi.
Humuhumu riding Daddy’s shoulders through Kaleiçi.
Humuhumu smiling at Melissa from Daddy’s shoulders. Mummy’s head just visible.
Finding the way to the marina turned out to be remarkably easy. You just keep heading downhill. There are lots of sets of steep, slippery steps that provide shortcuts. Since the bloke and I were both carrying children, we avoided those, so our journey was quite a bit longer than it could have been, and very pleasant too.
Daddy and Humuhumu watching the fishermen in the marina.
We walked around the marina past all the themed boats offering to take tourists out into the bay and along the coast. Our destination was the brand new glass-walled lift to take us back up to the top of the cliffs. We didn’t get to peer out whilst on the lift as it was rammed pretty full, but we did get to appreciate the view from the top once we’d disembarked.
Tourist family shot overlooking the marina.
Tourist family shot overlooking Kaleiçi.
Everybody smiling in Kaleiçi, except for Keiki who was pretty adamant about looking the other way.
Having admired the bay from several angles, we decided to start the hour and a half journey back to Kemer. We’d had a grand time and we figured it was best not to push Humuhumu too hard. She conked out almost immediately, clinging to the bloke like a baby koala, so we’re pretty certain that was the right decision.
It was terrific to spend facetime with an LJ friend I’ve known online for over ten years, and to be treated to such a tour of their city. I’ll treasure the memory of this day out. I’m so grateful to have these pictures to remind me of everything we did (and ate, yay fooood).
melissa_maples: <333333333!tags:
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And I fully support that Turkish version of Tiramisu. Sounds great.
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In the first one I assumed the breezeblock-like size of the Tiramisu was a trick of perspective, then I saw the other ones. They clearly take their cake seriously there.
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It was fantastic. There was yet another (daintier) version served at the resort which included pistachio and was also delicious.
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Thanks for sharing your holiday, looks glorious!
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Glad you enjoyed reading it!
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