Canakkale

After the excitement of Istanbul, Canakale is peaceful.   That is, it is peaceful when you get there.  We had to take a shuttle bus into the small city, which dropped us off near the sea front.  Peter's aim was to see the wooden horse, so we enjoyed a lovely wander along the sea front, which really was very pleasant.

There is obviously money being spent on this sea front, there are various sculptures and interesting things to look, which have all been added this year.

We visited the naval museum and fort, including a quick nose around an interesting little minesweeper that the Turkish are very proud of.  Apparently it assisted in helping keeping the Allies out of the Bosphorus.  We were given an educational video which ended with the final words "You shall not pass!".  It immediately brought to mind Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

We even tried a little turkish cuisine - basically it was pick any four items =2 Euros each.  How cheap is that!  The lass behind the counter explained in her best English what things were, and we went from there.  I got caught out by the aubergines cos she didn't know the English word and called them vegetables.  Good job Peter likes them isn't it.

We had a lovely relaxing day, probably very much needed after the rushing around at Istanbul, but I can't help wishing we had organised ourselves better and got ourselves to Troy.  Ah well.  Maybe next time.

Still being put into place - one of the many lovely artistic pieces around the sea front in Varne. 

So that's my last port. I have one more sea day, and then we arrive in Iraklion, Crete, where I will leave the ship and fly home. I'm a little sad about that.  Peter will stay on and continue running the classes until the ship gets back to Dover a little over a week later.  So I think I will have to think about packing next.........