In which there are trains and planes and sisters and sunshine

I've been away from the internet for the past 10 days or so, as I've been away on holiday in Turkey with my sisters, and for part of the time, with D, my sister K's soon-to-be sister-in-law.
We had a great time, and I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my sisters, and getting to know D.

I think it will take more than one post to cover it, so will take me a few days, but here goes!

Our flight out was on Tuesday evening, from Gatwick, so my younger sister E drove to mine for lunch, then we went to K's home where we left E's car and all 3 of us got a trian to Gatwick.

As we were going on holiday, I'd come prepared, and once we were safely on the train produced cans of G'n'T, slices of lime, and ice cubes (it's harder to transport ice cubes secretly and with no cool bag than you might think) so we all had drinks in style.

We then met D at Gatwick, and spent 4 hours on a charter flight filled with fractious children! Once we got to Dalaman, however, things improved - we picked up out hire car, and K bravely drove us home, in the dark (Both Turkish roads, and Turkish driving, tend to be.... interesting!

K's fiance owns a flat in Fethiye, which is where we stayed. It's about 25 mins walk from the centre of the town, slightly up on the hill, so it's a little cooler, which is nice.

We spent our first morning stocking up on food, then, as one does, we headed out to the Hamman (Turkish Bath). We decided, on the advice of some of K&C's friends, who had visited just before us, to try a new hamman at one of the local hotels - it was very modern and shiny - and instead of the traditional cold shower after the sauna and scrubbing there was a very cold plunge pool, instead. It was fun, and very relaxing,but all of us who'd been hamman-ed before agreed that we preferred the less slick sand more traditional city hamman, and resolved to go there for our next scrub! Although the hamman proved, once again, that no matter how well you believe you've exfoliated, the Tellak (masseur) will prove you wrong. I do wish that there was a Turkish Bath near me at home!

The following day we decided that some Proper Culture was appropriate, so we drove to Patara, which is a Lycian site - it was an important naval base around the time of Alexander the Great, was mentioned in the Iliad, was visited by emperors Hadrian and Vespasian and was the birthplace of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (AKA Santa Claus).  It was eventually abandoned after the harbour silted up, any many of the ruins were hidden, and preserved, by the sand dunes.


Parliament Building, Patara

There has been a lot of archaeological work going on over the last 20 years or so, including, most recently, the excavation and partial reconstruction of the Parliament Buildings - there were the headquarters of the Lycian league, and the archaeologists have partially rebuilt it using some original and some replacement material, and leaving parts as they were found, so that in the seating, for instance, you can see the original ruin, how the building was constructed, and finally the finished article, faced with marble etc.

Patara amphitheatre

There is also an amphitheatre, which has not been rebuilt, 2 bathhouses (one of which is currently propped up with a good deal of scaffolding,

Harbour Baths, Patara

And the triple-arched 'Arch of Modestus' (who I can't help feeling may have been misnamed) and, of course, several of the pointy topped Lycian sarcophagi which I have come to associate with this part of Turkey (there is one in the post office garden, in Fethiye, for example..)

Lycian sarcophagus and arch of Modestus, Patara





 Oh, and did I mention that as well as these spectacular classical ruins, Patara just happens to have a rather nice beach?



I have to admit, that being able to swim and sunbathe on a beautiful white beach in between sessions of exploring ancient Greek/roman and Byzantium ruins does add something to the experience!





After leaving Patara, we went on to Letoon, but that will have to wait until a later blog, as I need to sleep, now.



In Which I Spend a Cultural Morning

When I arranged to Zombie I booked a hotel for Friday night as well as Thursday, as I knew there was the possibility we might not finish filming until late, and I didn't want to be rushing to catch a train. It also left me with the option of spending Saturday in London.

Thame & Skyline from Canary Wharf

I was able to take some pretty pictures of the skyline before turning in for the night. The hotel I was staying in was right on the river, and had a ferry across to Canary Wharf, which I took in order to get a meal on Friday night.

Thames & Canary Wharf

On Saturday morning,  I decided to visit the British Museum, and to see the Afghanistan exhibition which is running until July.

The Great Court, British Museum

It really was very impressive.  And not only the exhibits but also the fact that they have survived at all - many of them were preserved by museum curators in Afghanistan who hid them to save them from looting or from destruction by the taliban.

The exhibits span millenia - there are gold vessels from around 2000 BC, through to painted glass, carved ivories and gold ornaments (including the crown) which date to the 1st Century AD. Afghanistan was on the Silk Road, and traded across the world, so the artefacts show influence (and sometimes imports) from Mespotomania, China, Indian, and the Greek & Roman Empires.

The crown was part of a set of grave-goods discovered with the body of a 1st century nomadic woman - it's actually made to come to pieces and fold flat, which displays a nice mix of practicality and adornment. it's also incredibly delicate - all of he individual flowers are  made from very thin gold, and even inside the safety of a display case it moved - presumably due to visitors footfalls - you can see how impressive it would be when worn, moving with evey breeze, and every movement of the wearer.

She and her companions also had numerous gold beads which originally decorated their clothing, also big, chunky necklaces, bangles and anklets. They were all very young - in their early 20s when they died. (the exhibition offeredd no explanation as to how they died, but I guess that life expectancy wasn't high for 1st century nomads)

When I had seen the exhibition, I look a quick look into one or two other rooms, to see some 20th Omani wedding jewellery, and to visit one of my favourite of the museum's exhibits, this Ice Age sculpture of swimming reindeer, which is around 13,000 years old. It gets me every time. 

It's such a lovely thing, and the thought that it has survived, and still speaks to us, after so long, is, at least to me, astonishing.

I do love the British Museum. I love that (apart from the special exhibitions) it's free, so that one can pop in and out, and spend just a little time, without feeling you haven't got your money's worth.

I love that it has such a huge range of exhibits, covering so many cultures, across so many centuries. I wish I lived s little closer, but as it is, I manage to visit most times I'm in London, and perhaps, by the time I am old and decrepit, I shall have managed to see it all...

On this occasion, I didn't stay for long, as my day as a zombie had worn me out, so I eneded up heeading back to Paddington to head home for an early night. Maybe next time I shall stay a little longer.

A Quite Interesting Evening

It's March, which means that the Bath Literature Festival is back in town. This year, there were fewer events which I wanted to see - at least, fewer which were on evenings or weekends and which I was able to get to, so although the festival has been running for a week, the first event I went to was on Thursday evening.

Billed as "QI: Book of the Dead" it featured John Lloyd and john Mitchinson, who are the co-creators of the TV programme "QI" (nd who have written several books together, including the most recent one, The Book of the Dead, (which is a book of potted biographies).

John Lloyd was also involved as producer of 'Blackadder', created 'the News Quiz', co-wrote 2 episodes of the original 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

John Mitchinson is a former publisher, and head researcher for QI.

The evening was highly entertaining - both Johns talking about various interesting facts - John M talking about Florence Nightingale, including her invention of the PieChart, and all of the different things which people have speculated may have caused her to spend the last 50 years of her life in bed. John L spoke a lot about teaching, and in particuar the fact that he believes that we remember things we find interesting, so teaching ought to focus more on fnding the kind of interesting, counter-intuative facts we get on QI, so as to stimulate interest, and encourage children to ask more quesrtions, and more challenging questions, rather than focussing solely on learning and remembering facts.

He had a rather nice quote (unfortunately I failed to make a note of whom he was quoting) that we "spend the first 12 months of out children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next 12 years telling them to sit down and shut up" with the comment that as a result children learn to stop asking the difficult questions...

although there were serious points being made, the event as a whole was very funny. (and I learned that there are no such thing as fish...)

After the talk, I was able to briefly meet both Johns and thank them for the evening, and also swap a few lawyer jokes with John Lloyd, (who was a lwyer in early life...)

All in all, well worth going. On my way back to my car, I went past the Abbey, and took a few photos, as it in unusual to see it without dozens of people around, and it was looking rather dramatic!