After Anzac Cove we moved back to the other coast where we caught a ferry across to Cannakale (Chan-ak-le). We were checked into the Kolin Hotel… quite nice. We had dinner in the hotel, went for a short walk (yes, it was still raining) and then returned to the hotel… and bed.
Next morning we were able to sleep in a little… unfortunately, due to poor operation of the ‘snooze’ button we slept in a lot! We leapt out of bed (literally)… shower, shave, pack dress and rush to the foyer. We ended up having enough time to ‘settle’ (as if we were sticking to plan)… calm, cool… nobody noticed the panic… Phew!
On to the bus and off to Troy. We had the same tour guide (Murat) as for Anzac. He was quite knowledgeable… and told us the many different stories, myths and histories of Troy, the Trojan-Greek wars etc. The various explanations of the Trojan Horse were: Hollywood version (most dubious… Brad Pitt could never really beat Eric Bana in a fight… beauty pageant maybe, fight ‘no’), Homer’s Illiad (possible but unlikely… ie the whole Greeks bearing gifts/Helen of Troy story), Troy versus Greek union of states war (for power/wealth, most likely… the ‘Horse’ was probably a form of siege engine).
Troy (Troia) could do with some maintenance… maybe even a ‘renovation rescue’.
Troy appears to actually be about nine settlements/cities built on the same spot. Early versions suffered destruction due to earthquakes or man… in some lucky cases, both. There is no shortage of building blocks to look at… remnants of 3500 year old mud bricks, stacked stone, carved stone and carved marble. Of course there was a replica Trojan Horse! Overall, interesting but…. I would rather have spent the extra time an Anzac!
After Troy, it was back to Cannakale. We had several hours to wait for the bus to take us back to Istanbul. So what do tourists do… eat and shop. We had Kebab for lunch. We thought we had ordered a snack but ended up with a plate filling meal+. Time to do some walking. We paid a quick visit to the Naval Museum which is housed in the grounds of Fort Kale (a fort/gun emplacement dating back to approx. 1000 AD… apparently built by Sulieman the Holy). These guns were manned in 1915 and had protected the Dardanelles against incursions from British and French ships. There was a near identical fort on the Gallipoli Penninsula. Cannakale is also home to the Trojan Horse from the movie 'Troy'. It looks very authentic!
Eventually, we boarded the bus for the 5 hour trip back to Istanbul. By the time everybody was dropped off at their hotel (we were last to be dropped off) it was midnight! We had to be up at 4.45am the next morning.
The Hotel staff at the Sultanahan were excellent... they assisted us as much as they possibly could. Wake up call, bags, and early breakfast delivered to our room. Superb service!!
Very happy to recommend!!
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