İSTANBUL TO TRABZON, THE BLACK SEA COAST

Sept. 24, 2000
Hotel Gold, Samsun, Türkiye

We were a bit worse for wear on our last day in İstanbul. Deanna was hungover and I was developing a migraine from all the carbon monoxide. Türkiye had terrible air pollution, from cigarettes as much as from motor vehicles. We got up late and met Onur at 11:00 to return the car. We had a cup of tea with him and then Deanna went to the internet café while I did some other errands. By this time, we knew everyone in the neighborhood and no one was trying to sell us carpets, anymore.

We had lunch in the Indian restaurant after purchasing our plane tickets to Samsun (about $80.) The food was very good and we had a gorgeous Circassian waiter. We went back to the room to pack and nap. Rather late, we got up and went back to the neighborhood kebap place where we had a good, long conversation with Fuat, the manager, about restaurants in America.

During the afternoon, we visited a used bookshop selling books in English. The fellow minding the shop, Serdar, was studying English idioms. We spent an amusing hour defining expressions for him and often acted them out in what devolved into a game of charades that had us all in stitches. It was the highlight of the day.

After dinner, we paid our hotel bill and went upstairs to finish packing and go to sleep. My headache was getting pretty bad by that point.

The next morning, we had to get up at 5:00 to get to the airport on time. Refik came up and helped us carry our bags down. He was sleepy and made us tea while we waited for the shuttle. The shuttle cost us a mere 2 million lire each (as opposed to 14 million for a cab), but we were packed in like sardines. They dropped us off at the international terminal and we had to drag our bags all the way across to the domestic terminal.

View of Samsun from Hotel Gold

The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Samsun by 9:30. The Samsun airport turned out to be quite a way from the town and it cost us 20 million lire for a taxi. We had a reservation at an expensive hotel because they were the only ones who could speak English over the telephone. We decided to try the recommended cheap hotel, first. We got a room at the Hotel Gold with no problem and saved ourselves the difference between 35 million lire and 16 million lire. The hotel was quite nice, although only the night manager spoke English. One woman on the day shift spoke German and the day manager was very helpful and nice, even if he spoke only Turkish. We showed him our Turkish cheat sheet and he, in turn, showed us his English one. We all laughed.

Samsun was a modern city and appeared to be affluent. The main industry was tobacco. No one in Samsun tried to sell us carpets. Very few people spoke English. We learned more Turkish in one day than we had in a week in İstanbul.

People were very friendly and curious about us. Deanna’s shoe broke and we asked a cab driver (by pointing) where we could find a cobbler. He couldn’t explain, so he walked us a couple of blocks to a street corner where an old man in a prayer cap was mending shoes. He spoke no English, but was glad to see us and sent out for tea to serve us while he fixed the shoe. The bill came to about 75 cents.

I had a full-blown migraine, by this point, but I think the cobbler’s tea cured me. I had tried to sleep it off, but there was a jackhammer going beneath our window and, since Deanna absolutely refused to shut a window, it was too loud to sleep much.

We visited the museum in Samsun. It had a lovely Roman mosaic and some beautiful gold ornaments. I bought a postcard of the gold laurel wreath (full-sized) that they had on display. We walked for awhile, but it started to rain so we came back. We ate roast chicken with rice, salad, bread, water, and dessert for a combined total of less than $5. Earlier, we had beer, which was half to one third the price in İstanbul. Despite the inconvenience of having to cope in Turkish, I was glad to be out of tourist land. I was beginning to feel drained by all the people trying to take my money. In Samsun, people just tried to make us welcome. There was not such a competetive atmosphere.

Sept. 26, 2000
Hotel Horon, Trabzon, Türkiye

Yesterday, we got up and ate breakfast. The breakfast at Hotel Gold was exactly the same as the one at Hotel Park. We packed up and left our luggage in the lobby while we went out to do errands.

We wanted to buy some 3” x 5” cards to use to make Turkish flashcards. We went into the stationery store next to the hotel, but they had no idea what we were talking about. The clerk ended up giving us a small notepad out of her purse.

Next, we went back to our cobbler so that Deanna could get another pair of shoes fixed. He laughed and told his other customers how we had been there the day before.   He charged her 250K lire or about 37.5 cents to fix her shoe.

Our next stop was the ATM and then we headed back to the hotel where we sat and conversed in German with the owner’s wife while she peeled okra. We chatted with her until it was time to go to the bus station and then the desk clerk dragged our bags over there for us. We waited at the bus office for half an hour or so and then got on the service bus that took us to the otogar (bus station, usually on the outskirts of town) where we boarded the bus to Trabzon. Turkish buses are very nice. They have comfortable seats with foot rests and tray tables. The steward came around with drinks and snacks just like on an airplane.

Our route to Trabzon took us along the Black Sea through such towns as Ünye, Ordu, and Giresun. The seacoast was rocky and lovely, although very dirty in some spots. There were mountains along the other side of the road, completely covered in a jungle of green. It rained a lot in that part of the world. Trabzon was called the Seattle of Türkiye.  They appeared to be growing melons, corn, hazelnuts, and firewood, along with a tall narrow plant that we could not identify. (We later learned it was tobacco.) Ünye was a very pretty town with brightly colored buildings. From west of Giresun to Trabzon they were widening the two-lane highway by building a seawall and filling behind it. It was a huge undertaking, but was sorely needed. The bus and truck traffic made driving a slow process on the two-lane road. The drivers were not as fanatical as in Mexico, although they did pass on blind curves from time to time. In 350 kilometers, we came across only two overturned vehicles and no roadside shrines.

Trabzon was a fairly modern city and the part near the port could have been any beach town in the United States. Ataturk Alani, where our hotel was located, was older. Most of the buildings in Türkiye were four or five stories and the upper stories usually appeared to have been added later. The most prevalent construction method was to build a kind of post and beam frame out of reinforced concrete. The open areas were then filled in with hollow, clay blocks, which always seemed to be broken. Nicer buildings were plastered or tiled on the outside, but many were only faced on the front. They looked like they would crumble in an earthquake.

Turkish stairways were a source of wonder to me. They were invariably of a circular or winding variety. If you looked at the underside of them, they were smoothly plastered and betrayed no sign of supporting members. In partially finished buildings, the stairways often hung there, gracefully curving through nothingness. It had to be the land of flying carpets! I eventually learned that they were constructed of concrete and re-bar. Although the exact process remained a mystery.

We stayed in the Hotel Horon. It was a fancy hotel and we paid $50/night. Hotels could be as cheap as $7 a night, but they were frequented by Russian prostitutes and, as Deanna was also blonde, we decided to choose one of the nicer ones. For $50 in Trabzon, we got a shower curtain, minibar, and air conditioning. The breakfast was quite elaborate and included such western delights as pancakes (cold, with green onions), cornflakes, and orange juice. It was a nice break from bread with goat cheese and a hard boiled egg.

The plumbing was typically Turkish in design, although nicer than usual. Turkish plumbing all seemed to be designed with one aim in mind – to maximize splattering. All sink faucets were more than a foot above the sink, which was great if you wanted to wash your hair in the sink or fill a liter bottle with water, but lousy if you wanted to brush your teeth without taking a bath. There was no such thing as an enclosed shower in Türkiye. The water merely fell on the floor. If you were lucky, the floor sloped towards the drain. If not, you went through a lot of towels. If you had a drippy shower head, you were likely to walk around with a wet spot in the middle of your back. Turkish toilets looked normal enough, but they didn’t behave in quite the same way as western toilets. When you flushed, a great cascade of water flowed through the bowl, but almost all of it flowed back out again, leaving a good, dry surface to promote the adhesion of solid matter. Each toilet was equipped with a strategically placed nozzle on the rear of the rim which, with a twist of a knob, delivered a jet of water that missed anything important, including the solid matter stuck to the bowl. We encountered several regional variations of this design, including the toilet tank mounted high on the wall, blocking the window so it could not open and/or employing a chain so short that anyone under 5’6” could not flush. We also encounted the doesn’t quite seal and runs all night version. This model was also available in select American hotels.

Sept. 26, 2000
Hotel Horon, Trabzon, Türkiye

The Market in Trabzon

After breakfast, we wemt for a walk through the market. It was beginning to rain, so we got a couple of cold drinks and headed back to our room. When we arrived, three old ladies in hot pink gingham chadors were cleaning our room. We sat on the fire escape to sip our drinks while they finished. One could not criticize the housekeeping in the hotel. They scrubbed everything, including climbing out on the fourth story windowsill to clean the outside of the windows.

When they were done, we did laundry and then went out for lunch in a tavük (chicken) burger place that seemed to serve only spit roasted chicken wrapped in pita. Deanna did not want the bread. The best she could do was to get chicken on a plate with bread on the side. She was feeling a bit sick from all the cigarette smoke. We went back to the Derya Restaurant, where we had had dessert the night before, so she could have a bowl of soup. It had begun to rain hard, so we came back to study the Turkish flashcards I made on the bus, the previous day, and relax.

Sept. 27, 2000
Hotel Horon, Trabzon, Türkiye

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, last night. We originally just went up for a drink but we ate so many mezes that we made dinner out of them. The grilled liver was especially good. There was a talented band playing and they played Stand By Your Man for us. We pleased them by singing along.

It rained, again, today. We got up late and didn’t leave the hotel until noon. Then we spent three hours in an internet café.

We ate lahmacun (Turkish pizza) in a large restaurant on Taksim Square. They shooed us upstairs into the ladies’ dining room. Only single men were allowed to eat downstairs. It was better up there, anyway, as no one was smoking.

The Aya Sofia Muzesi

We finished lunch around 16:00 and by then it had stopped raining. We grabbed a taxi and made a dash for the Aya Sofia Muzesi, 4km west of town. The Aya Sofia was first a church, then a mosque, later a military depot and hospital during WWII, and is now a museum. It was originally built in 1238 and the bell tower was added around 1461. It sits on a terrace overlooking the sea, on the site of an old pagan temple. Restoration began in 1957. The frescoes had been painted and plastered over during the mosque period. Most of them had been lost, but the ones in the entry hall were well preserved and quite colorful.

Bell Tower at the Aya Sofia

They gave one an idea of what the others must have looked like. There was a ruin on the north side which may have been a baptismal font, but no one knew for sure. There were also fragments from the pagan temple.

Our cab had waited for us, so he took us back to Taksim Square where we walked around for a bit and then headed for the tour company, hoping to get tickets for a tour of Sumela Monastery the next day. The tour company had closed up for the winter, but the fellow there gave us a brochure in fabulously bad English and told us where to catch a dolmuş (combi.) We wandered down the hill through the Russian section to the port. We saw a few “Natashas” but they weren’t working too hard as it was still early. We walked back up the hill and bought a bottle of raki. Then we went back to the hotel and drank, played cards, and watched the Olympics for a few hours. About 21:00, we went out for dinner. We ate chicken and eggplant with rice at a place called the Volkan. It was tasty. Then we came back to the hotel. We hoped for good weather, the next day, for our trip to Sumela.

The Coast in Trabzon

Sept. 28, 2000
Hotel Horon, Trabzon, Türkiye

We got up fairly early and set off to find a dolmuş for Sumela. We found a dolmuş and waited an hour or so for it to fill but no one else came along. We bargained with the driver and he agreed to take us for 17 million lire instead of the usual 20 million.

Fresco at Sumela

Sumela in the Distance

We drove along the road to Erzurum for about 29km and then turned off on the road to Sumela. We wound along a narrow road, concrete at first and then dirt, for another 16km, following the course of a fast moving stream. We paused a few times to take photos of the monastery from afar and to enjoy a waterfall. Eventually, we came to a small parking area where we left the dolmuş and climbed a steep path for about 300 meters up to the monastery. The original church was built into the overhanging rock in the 4th century. Some of the frescoes date back to the 9th century but they are sadly damaged by graffiti. Most of the remaining frescoes were done in the 19th century. The monastery grew over time and assumed its current form during the 19th century. It was abandoned in 1923 after the Greek Orthodox inhabitants finally accepted that Greece would never retake Sumela. Sumela is built ino an overhanging cliff face, far above the valley floor. It is so high up that it is often obscured by clouds. We were in and out of the cloud on our visit.

Sumela Monastery

The monastery was undergoing extensive restoration. A stone cutter was fashioning the caps for walls, using an electric saw and a chisel. Absent floors and roofs were also being replaced and scaffolding covered the site. We stayed for an hour or so and then were driven out by five busloads of teenagers. In Türkiye, education is only compulsory between the ages of 7 and 12. This group, who looked to be about 16, was composed of more than 80% boys. Türkiye was not THAT modern, it seemed.

Sumela Close Up

Some of the Frescoes at Sumela

Stonecutter at Work

We returned by about 13:30 and went to buy tickets for the next day’s bus to Erzurum. We ate lunch in a restaurant on the square. Deanna took some Dristan (purchased for a mere 664K lire - $1) and, when we came back to the hotel to use the john, she fell asleep and slept all afternoon. Lunch had not agreed with me and I was glad to stay home and read.

CHARTRES AND ISTANBUL

Sept. 14, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

Today, we took the Grande Ligne train to Chartres from Gare Montparnasse. It was a scenic ride through varied countryside with lots of pretty, brick and stone houses.

Chartres Cathedral

We were a bit late leaving and stopped for a lunch of pork chops when we first got to Chartres. We got to the cathedral about 15:00. Chartres Cathedral sits on top of a hill. It was built in the thirteenth century and was the first cathedral to have flying buttresses included in the original architecture. Earlier ones were added to support bulging walls. The cathedral is quite large and has a labyrinth inlaid in the stone floor of the nave. There is more stained glass in Chartres than can be imagined, although the overall effect is still quite dark inside. Chartres has two bell towers, each of which is quite different. One of them is Romanesque and was built in the early thirteenth century. The other is flamboyant Gothic and was built in the sixteenth century. We climbed the three hundred stairs of the Gothic tower. The altar is surrounded by a carved, stone screen. The screen is the airiest, most intricately carved stone I had ever seen. Unfortunately, the stone of Chartres must have been rather soft because much of the carving is in poor condition.

Inside the Gothic Tower

After we inspected the cathedral, we walked down to the river. The houses along the river were old and very picturesque. We then walked up to an Irish pub where we had good English beer. All of the drinks in France were lukewarm. Even the English serve colder beer. We had to scurry back to the train, making it aboard with only seconds to spare.

The River at Chartres

We went out for dinner at an Afghan restaurant around the corner from our hotel. The food was very tasty. We then came home to pack.

Sept. 16, 2000
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

Yesterday, we took a cab to the Orly Airport. The cab arrived on time and our trip went smoothly. Our flight was an hour late, so we did not get to İstanbul until 18:00. I got to sit in an exit row. Deanna moved because she wanted to be able to put her feet on top of her carry-on. I was ecstatic NOT to have to put my feet on top of my carry-on.

It took until 20:00 to get our luggage and take a cab into İstanbul and then find a room. We had called the Terrace Guest House from Paris and a nice man named Doğan had promised to find us a room somewhere. There was no room at his Terrace Guest House, so we trundled our bags around the corner to the Park Hotel, owned by Doğan‘s father. The Park Hotel is right across the street from the Four Seasons and cost $50/ night. The only downside was the noise of the Four Seasons’ doorman whistling for taxis and loud busses full of inconsiderate tourists arriving in the midddle of the night.

At 3:15, I awoke with an awful case of what we decided was actually “Napoleon’s revenge.” It appeared that the seafood in the pasta salad I ate at Orly may have been a bit off. I was deathly ill for a few hours, but I took some Immodium and it seemed to have done the trick. I sat on the pot, bent double with pain, and tried to study Turkish for a couple of hours. About the time the muezzins started up in the morning, I went back to sleep and slept until just before 10:30, when Deanna got up so as not to miss breakfast. I was in no mood for food, so I stayed behind to shower and oganize my luggage.

The View of Hagia Sophia from Our Terrace

Deanna returned within the hour, having procured us a larger room with a better view and a terrace for the same price. While we were still too close to the Four Seasons (It used to be the prison from Midnight Express.) for my taste, we were two floors further up from the whistling man and somewhat off to the side. We had an unobstructed view of the Hagia Sophia and partial views of the Bosphorus and the Blue Mosque. I slept for a couple of hours while Deanna went off to get water and had a chat with Doğan, the nice man at the Terrace Guest House we had met over the telephone. When she got back, she rummaged in her suitcase for a while and then decided to take a quick nap. It had started to sprinkle, so I stayed put, although I was starting to get a bit hungry.

After we got settled, we went out for a wonderful lamb dinner at the Rumeli Café. It was considered a top end restaurant and we still managed to get dinner for two with two drinks apiece and dessert for under $30. Before dinner, we wandered around a bit and looked at the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, all lit up at night. As we were leaving the Blue Mosque, the muezzins started up and they were quite loud.

Turkish men (you rarely see the women) are very friendly and can be a great source of information once you make it clear that you will NOT buy a carpet. Waiters and hotel staff were wonderful and very helpful. Istanbul seemed to be full of Kurds who had fled the areas near Iran and Iraq. One of the waiters in our hotel showed Deanna his bullet scars. The Kurds seemed eager to talk to Americans and we made contact with families still living in the Lake Van area. If we bought carpets, we would buy them there, where they are made, and cut out the middlemen. We did visit one carpet shop on the way back from dinner on Saturday night. They specialized in kilims, which are something like a cross between a Navajo rug and a tapestry. The silk ones can be very fine. Carpets were cheaper in İstanbul than comparable ones would be in the United States, but the nice ones still cost thousands. We hoped they would be cheaper in the east.

The plumbing in our room was of the Russian variety. We had a shower, but there was no shower stall. The entire bathroom got splattered.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast on the roof. Our breakfast of bread, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, olives, and cucumber was included in the $50 rate. We had a fabulous view of the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and the Bosphorus from the roof.

The  Blue Mosque

We started for the Hagia Sophia but one of the rug sellers (They really ARE everywhere, but they speak good English and can be a great source of information.) advised us to go to the Blue Mosque, first, as there were no services planned for the present time. The Blue Mosque is very beautiful on the outside. Its delicate minarets appear too fantastic to be real. Something about İstanbul made me feel like I was in the Alladin Land setion of a giant Disneyland. The inside is beautiful, also, but not particularly awesome. Mosques are always plainer than churches because Islam forbids depicting anything that might be construed as an idol. There are many blue and white İznik tiles and they are lovely, up close, but are difficult to appreciate as a whole.

After the Blue Mosque, we went down the to the smaller Mehmet Paşa Camii, a lovely mosque built by Sinan, the architect of the Süleymaniye Mosque, in 1571. As this was a smaller mosque, the İznik tiles were quite effective, there. We also went to the Küçük Hagia Sophia Camii (Little Hagia Sophia Mosque), originally built as a church by the emperor Justinian in 527. In İstanbul, if they called something new, it was probably four hundred years old.

Wrecked Freighter

We continued down the hill to the Bosphorus and walked along the shore to a restaurant where we had beer and mezes (appetizers.) There was a freighter wrecked on the shore and Turkish boys were using its cranes for diving platforms.

After lunch, we trudged back up the hill to the Hagia Sophia. Built in 537, architects have been trying to match its huge, seemingly unsupported dome ever since. The emperor Justinian built the Hagia Sophia as a church and it still features some lovely mosaics. Many had disappeared in recent years and no one seemed to know whether they were being restored or just removed, as such work would not be permitted in a mosque. There was a massive scaffold covering a quarter of the dome that was an impressive piece of architecture in itself.

After the Hagia Sophia, we decided to go for a drink of the ouzo-like raki that we coveted. Many of the places near the mosque were not allowed to sell alcohol. We were waylaid by another rug seller and taken to his roof terrace for a glass of raki. Of course, we ended up continuing our education about Turkish carpets. They had two I liked in the $2000 price range for a 5’ x 7’. They were made in the Ararat area, so I would look further when we got there.

The raki that we had consumed was a bit strong, so we went back to the hotel and napped for a couple of hours. Then we got up and went out for meatballs. We went to the Sultanahmet Köftecisi, which had been recommended by my guidebook. They served only köfte (meatballs) and they were pretty horrid. We did manage to get dinner for two for about $6.00, however. We then went to a fancy place around the corner, called Omar, and paid $15.00 for dessert and brandy. As in almost all of the outdoor cafés in İstanbul, we were visited by kittens while we ate. After dinner, we walked home and went to bed.

Sept, 18, 2000
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

Mansions in Yenköy

Today, we got up by 8:00 and had breakfast in time to take the tram to Eminünü and catch the the 10:30 Bosphorus ferry. We sat on the European side of the ferry on the way to the Black Sea. On the way, we passed the Galata Bridge (for which the game of bridge was named) and the Dolmabahçe Palace where Ataturk died. Then we passed the Çirağan Palace, which burned down in 1910 and was later reborn as a horrendously expensive, five-star hotel. We passed the Rumeli Castle, which was once a fortress guarding the Bosphorus and is now a concert venue. North of the Fatih (second) bridge over the Bosphorus, we came toi Yenköy. There, we found the multi-million dollar homes of the rich and famous, including the ornate, white mansion of the Prime Minister. If I had endless money, this would be a lovely place to park my yacht in front of my villa.

Anadolu

From Yeniköy, we crossed the Bosphorus to Anadolu, where we got off the ferry to explore. We ate a wonderful lunch of mussels, salad, fries, fish, bread, calamari, and beer for four million Turkish lire or about $6.00 each. We sat on the top floor of the restaurant where we had a clear view of the Bosphorus and the sycamore trees. It looked very much like Tiburon in California. After lunch. We climbed a very steep hill to explore the castle ruins and peek over the ridge at the Black Sea. There were a pair of adolescent Turkish couples, girls in headscarves and chadors, making use of the romantic location. We had one dog escort us to the top of the hill and another dog escort us back to the village.

The Black Sea

Ruined Castle at Anadolu

We came down just in time to catch the ferry back. On the return, we sat on the Asian side of the ferry with some rather rude Slavic women who insisted on sitting on our already full bench. There was not a lot to see on the way back and what we did see was neglected in our guidebooks. We did see the Berlerbeyi Palace with its wonderful seawall of tentlike kiosks. We also got a glimpse of the Maiden’s Tower on the return.

When we got back to Eminünü, it was already 17:30 and most attractions were closed. We took the tram back to the Blue Mosque and ate dinner at the Can Restaurant. It was very reasonable and we were able to pick what we wanted from a delightful display. After dinner, we headed over to the Blue Mosque, hoping that the sound and light show would be in English. On the way, we fell into conversation with Zakir, a young medical student who was studying in English, found it very difficult, and needed to practice. He came from the Lake Van area where he had made friends with (I suspect Mormon) missionaries who had taken him back to Arizona for a visit. He was supposed to be selling carpets, but told us we would get much better prices in Van. He gave us the name of his cousin, there, and promised to email him and have him meet us at the bus station. He also promised to get us a discount at a nice hotel owned by his uncle. He chatted with us until the show began and we exchanged email addresses.

The show was pretty corny, but it was free and it is always pleasant to gaze at the Blue Mosque. We managed to get home without being waylaid by carpet sellers and had a very nice visit with Doğan, a friend of his from Vienna (Turkish) and the Kurdish gent that worked in our hotel. Doğan was a sweet, gentle, and very European man. His friend talked a lot, but he was good company. They shared a watermelon with us and then we left when their dinner arrived.

Sept. 20, 2024
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

We had breakfast on the roof, as usual. We spent some time trying to plan our Black Sea tour, so we got a late start. We dropped off some laundry and then went to visit Doğan. We spent an hour talking with him but he had never been where we were going, so we didn’t figure out how to get from Amasra to Sinop without dragging luggage on and off numerous minibuses. I would have gutted it out but Deanna’s luggage was heavier than mine and she refused. The Black Sea ferry, which usually ran until October, had ceased operation early in 2000. It looked like we would take a day trip to Şile so we could see at least one Black Sea beach and then fly to Samsun. We could take a bus to Trabzon from there and see some of the coast.

After our visit with Doğan, we descended into the famous cistern whose support columns were pilfered from Greek temples and include two heads of Medusa. There was about a foot of water in the bottom and numerous pale carp were living there.

Street Near the Süleymaniye Mosque

Having seen the cistern, we took a taxi to the Süleymaniye Mosque (Mosque of Süleyman the Magnificent.) The taxi ride was somewhat horrifying. We bullied our way through narrow streets where the sidewalks were full of trade goods and the numerous pedestrians were sharing the street with the equally numerous cars. The cab could not get close to the mosque, so we walked the last block or so.

Deanna was hungry, so we ate lunch across the street from the mosque before we went in. We were served by an old man in a Turkish hat, who spoke French and hovered about our table, splashing water onto the kittens who approached our table to beg.

The Süleymaniye Mosque

We visited the mosque after lunch. It is the largest mosque in İstanbul and is decorated with beautiful tiles and frescoes. It was completed in 1557. The sixteenth century stained glass windows were the most beautiful I had ever seen, probably because, being Islamic, they did not try to represent a scene and could, therefore, be as graceful and symmetrical as possible. 

Pigeons at the Yeni Cami

 When we left the mosque, we visited the tombs of Süleyman, Roxelana, and the architect, Sinan. Then we caught a cab down to the Yeni Cami (New Mosque, 400 years old.) There was a big sign saying, “No Visits,” but they let us in, anyway. It was very lovely, but infested with pigeons. There must have been a thousand of them on the front steps. One pooped on my head. We wandered through the outdoor market, but somehow managed to miss the Spice Market, which is adjacent to the Yeni Cami. We also did a little shopping in the permanent shops. Deanna bought MiniDV cassettes, although she couldn’t get the ones with an IC chip. I finally found a watchband for my Gucci watch (only Gucci makes 13mm.) It was at least $5 cheaper than the last one I bought in the United States.

Tea Seller in the Market

We took the tram back to Sultanahmet. Our laundry was not yet ready, so we had a beer at a café across the street while we waited for them to iron Deanna’s pants. We then decided to eat dinner. I had chicken kebaps with pistachio nuts and Deanna had a mixture of beef and lamb rolled in sesame seeds. Both were tasty. Our dinners came with rice, salad, and bread. With two beers apiece and a bowl of Çiçik (tsitsiki), the bill came to about $15. We then picked up our laundry, a whopping $3 worth, and went home to read the books we had picked up in the lobby that morning.

Sept. 20, 2024
Antique Internet and Caféteria, İstanbul, Türkiye

We had another lovely breakfast on the roof and I finally managed to satisfy our waiter, Selim, that I was not sad. I guess he misunderstood the fact that I am quiet in the morning.

We came over to the nearest internet café to do our email for the week. Email was a lot slower in these cafés than it was at home. The lack of speed, combined with bizarre keyboards, made the process frustrating and time consuming. It took me two and a half hours to answer six messages and write my weekly travelogue. Fortunately, internet cafés were cheap in Turkey, so it only cost me about $5. It cost me more than $7 for one hour in Paris. I  then sat in the café, waiting for Deanna to finish. There were many things left to see in İstanbul, but I was getting eager to move on. I couldn’t help but feel that our trip would not truly begin until we got out of the tourist area. I had been looking at tourists for two weeks and I was quite sick of them. I had truly enjoyed talking with the Turks I had met, but it would be nice to go somewhere where I did not have to plan my route to avoid rug sellers. The muezzins were wailing away at that moment. I thought I could hear at least four and they seemed to be engaged in a sort of atonal canon. The muezzins were live, not taped, but they performed using microphones and did not climb the towers. This allowed them to blend their calls with those of their competitors and the effect was magical.

Sept. 21, 2024
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

The internet café put Deanna in a foul mood, so we decided to eat lunch before attempting anything else. We ate at a restaurant specializing in baked potatoes around the corner from our hotel. We were served by a woman, but she didn’t have much to say.

Topkapi Palace

After lunch, we went to Topkapi Palace. For some reason, maybe because the buildings are arranged around a large, open area with grass and trees, it reminded me more of a school than a palace. There have been many fires at Topkapi and so most of the decoration dates from the early nineteenth century, although the palace, itself, was originally constructed in the mid-fifteenth century by Mehmet the Conqueror. It is situated on a hill overlooking both the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. There is a courtyard at the back, surrounded by spacious tiled pavilions (a wonderful place to read) and overlooking the water and the Süleymaniye Mosque. All of the tourists were waiting to have their pictures taken against this backdrop.

Deanna at Topkapi Palace

We were too late to get tickets to see the harem, so we walked through the rooms of treasure, instead. There were many jeweled turban decorations, some of which were quite fantastic. We saw the Spoonmaker’s diamond (at 86 karats, the world’s fifth largest) and the emerald handled dagger featured in the movie, Topkapi. There were numerous huge emeralds, including the world’s largest uncut one. Deanna had exclaimed about the amount of treasure, but I was somewhat disappointed.

Sept. 21, 2024
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

After Topkapi Palace which, like everything in İstanbul, closed at 16:30, we walked down to Gülhane Park and sat under the sycamore trees while I petted a kitten. Then we bought a bottle of raki and came back to the hotel. We could not get ice anywhere, but the attendant, Refik, promised to make some after I tipped him for the glasses he provided. We sat on the terrace, reading and drinking raki until it got dark. Then we decided to go out for dinner.

When we walked out of the hotel, we ran into our young friend, Idris, who worked next door. He introduced us to a guest at his hotel named Onur. Onur asked if he could join us for dinner. He lived in Connecticut, but was back in İstanbul to buy rugs. We vacillated for a while about where to eat and then set course for a kebap place up the hill from the Hippodrome. Onur seemed to know everyone and they all chided him about going out with two women. As we passed a carpet shop, a very handsome young man who turned out to be Onur’s best friend, Ibrahim, ran out of his shop and insisted on joining us. He was an incredible flatterer and kept telling me that I had beautiful eyes and trying to kiss me. Aside from that, he was an amusing fellow who told good jokes. The four of us had a pleasant dinner of mixed kebaps, mezes, fruit, and wine. Onur promised to cook us dinner the next night. We wondered if he was serious.

Sept. 22, 2024
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

Stained Glass in the Harem

We got up early and managed to get onto the first tour through the harem at Topkapi Palace. The harem was very beautiful. I especially liked the blue, red, and gold dome over the sultan’s bed chamber. The stained glass in the crown prince’s quarters was exquisite.

We also went to the Museum of Eastern Antiquities and the İstanbul Archeological Museum. They were both very nice museums, containing an incredible collection of statuary. I was impressed by the “Alexander” sarcophagus with its ranks of carved horses, which does not actually contain Alexander. We did see a bust of Alexander that had the most lifelike face I have ever seen carved in stone.

The Grand Bazaar

We ate lunch in a restaurant called Theodora that had just opened. It was very expensive and the food was bland, but the décor was gorgeous and they played Eric Clapton and B.B. King. After lunch, we walked up to the Grand Bazaar and wandered around for a few hours. I bought a scarf and Deanna bought some earrings. When we came out of the market, we were so disoriented that we had to use the sun to figure out which way to walk. Our feet were very tired, so we went back to the hotel and read for a hour or so before dressing for dinner.

Our friend, Onur, kept his word about having us to dinner. He barbecued lamb chops and served cucumber salad, bread, and red wine. The Turkish wine was okay. I liked it better than the French wine. He also invited all the people working in the hotel and carpet shop next door. It was a very nice party. I had to fight off the owner of the shop who said my eyes were bluer than the Blue Mosque, but he was really a gentle person who just wanted to separate me from Deanna so Onur could be alone with her. Onur promised to drive us to Şile the following day.

Sept. 23, 2000
Park Hotel, İstanbul, Türkiye

Offshore Rocks at Şile

Yesterday, we rented a car and Onur drove us to Şile. There isn’t much there. There are a few rocks offshore with a ruined castle on top and a lighted sign that proclaims that the Turks follow Ataturk. There is also a marina full of fishing boats and a few restaurants. We ate at the Panoramic Restaurant which was expensive and had mediocre food.

The Marina at Şile

After lunch, Onur took us 40km further up the coast to Ağva, his favorite getaway.  It is a long, winding road from Şile to Ağva. We passed through pine covered mountains that reminded me of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. We came across many cows, sheep, and goats in the road. They were the best part of the drive. On the way back, we passed a new development that was in ruins, presumably from an earthquake. It was odd that only that one development collapsed.

The Surf at Ağva

Ağva was much nicer than Şile. We walked out to the end of the breakwater and watched the surf. Ağva had big surf and looked like a good surfing beach. There is also a placid river that flows through the town and many hotels have docks and small pleasure boats along the banks.

Onur & Deanna in Ağva

We had tea in a tea shop in Ağva before leaving, as our chauffeur had been up late the night before and needed caffeine.

It was a long drive back and, once we reached the İstanbul area, the traffic was horrific, even though it was already 19:00. We came back across the Fatih Bridge. Somehow, we took a wrong turn and went half way to Sarıyer (north) in awful traffic before turning around and passing back under the bridge. We drove along the Bosphurus to Ortaköy and had dinner in a restaurant by the water. We drank a little too much raki and got into a very deep conversation about religion, relationships, and whether or not foreigners can every really fit in.

After dinner, we drove back to Sultanahmet. I wanted to go to sleep and avoid any more deep conversation but Onur wanted to go dancing. We compromised by climbing up to the terrace of the Ali Baba Guest House to dance. I was really just along to chaperone. Idris, from next door, tried the usual Turkish male trip and I had to peel him off with the explanation that I had a daughter older than he was. Deanna and Onur had some kind of a misunderstanding and it took at least a further hour of deep (and draining) conversation to straighten it out enough to say goodnight. Deanna was in tears when we returned to the room and even I felt very sad for Onur because he insisted on believing that if he finds the right person, everything will suddenly be okay and he was bound to be disappointed. He told us a very sad story about a woman from Seattle who had fallen in love with him, brought him to America, and then rejected him and gone back to her boyfriend. He had tried very hard to please her and was crushed. We tried to convince him that he had done nothing wrong. 

PARIS PROLOGUE

My travels didn’t begin when I began this blog. Even before I retired and began to document my travels here, I had already completed several lengthy sojourns abroad. These travels did not go undocumented. I took photos and kept journals. Sometimes, I wrote emails home from internet cafés.

In 2000, my friend, Deanna Sclar, her Teddy bear, Jake, and I spent three months in France and Turkey. Deanna, an automotive journalist, took extensive video and we always planned to produce a video of our travels. The video camera got dropped along the way and eventually stopped working. We were never able to review the 10 MiniDV cassettes of footage she recorded. Deanna kept the tapes for over a decade and, then, gave them to me. She hoped I would be able to do something with them, as I had a dear friend who was a video editor. I had already started cruising, by then, and didn’t get around to the project, right away. My video editor friend died, unexpectedly. I bought a MiniDV deck, thinking I would edit the footage, myself. By this time, I was spending most of my time in Mexico or on sailboats and didn’t get around to it. Finally, in 2021, when I bought my condo in La Cruz and was emptying out my house in California, I decided to digitize the tapes so that I wouldn’t have to drag the MiniDV deck to Mexico. The tapes were all but useless. Nothing had been recorded after the camera was dropped and the couple of tapes that could be viewed had such short clips that they couldn’t have been edited into anything usable. The video project was a bust.

Jakey Bear in Paris

Still, I wanted to do something to share our remarkable journey through parts of Turkey where most people will never go, many of which have been permanently altered by the Second Gulf War. Since I now have this blog and usually do not write when I am not traveling, I decided to take my readers on a journey back to Paris and Turkey in the year 2000. 

After all these years, it is funny to look at these photos taken with disposable cameras.  There are so few of them compared to what I would have taken with a digital camera or smartphone.  As it was, I filled fifteen cameras and spent a small fortune on developing.  Fortunately, they were also provided to me in a digital format.  The quality is frustratingly poor.

Sept. 6, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

After spending the Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles, Deanna and I boarded a United flight from LAX to Paris at 16:15. We spent a very uncomfortable night on the plane and arrived in Paris at 11:15. We dragged our baggage clear across the Charles de Gaulle Airport to get cash from an ATM and then got a cab to our hotel.

The hotel was nothing to write home about but it was in a great location, close to the Seine and Notre Dame. We paid FF620 per night for a small room with three twin beds and no view. It was a very old building but clean and at least not dark.

Notre Dame and the Seine

We slept until 21:00 when we got up and went out for dinner. We ate at a small crêperie near the hotel (Acacias Hôtel de Ville, 20 Rue du Temple.) The meal was tasty and we ate in an ancient, arched, crypt-like basement below street level.

After dinner, we strolled up to the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) and admired the sculptures and then across the plaza to the Seine. We crossed the river and were surprised to discover that Notre Dame was right there. We spent awhile contemplating the gargoyles on Notre Dame and then walked around the block, across the Seine, and back to our hotel.

Sept. 7, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

We were not terribly motivated, today, but we did get a few things accomplished. We didn’t get up until 9:00 and then we stopped for breakfast in a café before we went anywhere. We went looking for a better hotel but everyplace was fully booked. We had to keep looking because our hotel did not have room for us on Saturday night. We looked all over the Marais with no luck. We found a travel agency and managed to purchase tickets to Istanbul. If we had flown directly to Istanbul from Los Angeles, it would have cost $1500. We got round trip tickets to Paris for $600 and, with seven days advance purchase, tickets from Paris to Istanbul for $200. The $700 we saved paid for our hotel in Paris for the week. We were fine with that. We couldn’t get tickets with a changeable return, so we bought the cheapest 30-day tickets we could find and figured we’d buy other tickets to get back if we wanted to stay past October 13^th.

After we bought the tickets, we crossed the Seine and looked at hotels in the Latin Quarter. All of these hotels were full, too, but we finally managed to talk the manager at the Royal Cardinal Hotel into giving us a room for six nights beginning Saturday. We wouldn’t have to sleep on the street.

We ate lunch at the Biere Academie where I had a croque dripping with melted Camembert and a glass of cider. We then headed back to our hotel to tell the manager to hold our room until Saturday morning. We stopped in to see the inside of Notre Dame (not as impressive as the outside), but the line to climb the tower was so long that we decided to come back in the morning.

We went back to the hotel where I napped while Deanna got her hair done. We got up around 19:00 and walked across the Île de la Cité to the quai where we picked up a tour boat and took a sunset cruise along the Seine. After the cruise, we wandered through a fascinating restaurant district in the Latin Quarter and ate dinner at a Thai restaurant, which was just what I needed as an antidote to the Camembert from lunch. We then ambled around the Latin Quarter for quite awhile until we noticed some sort of art party happening on a footbridge near the Louvre. We walked over to see what was happening and met two friendly gentlemen with whom we talked for some time. Then, we continued our walk along the Rive Gauche to the Pont Neuf and along the right bank of the Île de la Cité until we spied the Tour St. Jacques, which we had noticed earlier. We walked over to see that and then headed for the hotel, after buying bottled water in an Asian grocery.

Sept. 8, 2000
Acacias Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

Arch de Triomphe

While we did not get an early start, we did cover a lot of ground. After grabbing breakfast near the hotel (This was always a process because I generally eat carbs in the morning and Deanna eats only protein, which is generally not part of a French petit dejeuner.), we took the Metro to L’Arc du Triomphe. We took a look at the arch and then walked down the Champs Elysées to the Place de la Concorde where we saw the obelisk from Luxor and looked down towards the Ferris wheel near the Louvre. We rode the Ferris wheel and got a nice view of Paris. The Grand Palais, Petit Palais, and Orangerie were all closed for restoration, so we walked through the Tuilleries Gardens and stopped for lunch at a kiosk there. After a nice lunch, we continued on to the Louvre.

The Louvre is really amazing. Not only is the original building huge, but the new, subterranean entrance plaza and attached shopping mall are also immense. It is all constructed of similar materials and blends very nicely with the original structures.

The Louvre

We toured the section of Italian paintings and saw the Winged Victory and Mona Lisa. We hurried through the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities and took a look at the Venus de Milo. We got a little bit confused looking for the Levantine antiquities and ended up in the new exhibit of the medieval Louvre. While excavating for the shopping center, they discovered the walls of the moat that surrounded the original Louvre (the four buildings surrounding the rear courtyard.) The moat has been excavated and you can walk around the foundations of the medieval fortress. It looks like something out of Sleeping Beauty.

We did finally get to the Egyptian and Levantine pieces. There were lots of glazed tiles and the piece that Deanna and I both liked best was a capital from the temple of Darius I featuring the heads of two bulls. You could see where the rafters once rested.

After the antiquities, we wandered through French objets d’ art and visited Napoleon’s apartments. He had a grand salon and a dining room that seated forty two at table.

By the time we had spent three hours in the Louvre, our feet had had it. We limped to the Metro through the underground mall and came back to the hotel for a nap. We were lying on our backs with our feet vertical against the wall and we both fell asleep that way. It was a wonder we didn’t topple off the twin beds.

After our naps, we dressed for dinner and hurried out to meet Deanna’s friend, Jeanne, at a place in her neighborhood called Rendezvous des Chauffeurs. We had sea snails, roast pork with spinach and crème caramel for dessert. Jeanne’s friend, Anne, joined us for dinner. After dinner, Anne drove us up to Montmartre, where we got a lovely view of Sacre Coeur all lit up and could see the lighted Eiffel Tower and a wonderful view of Paris. Montmartre was a happening place. Anne dropped us at the Gare du Nord Metro station on her way home and we took the Metro home.

Sept. 10, 2000
Train from Giverny to Paris, France

Yesterday, we were wiped out from our day of walking on Friday. We didn’t wake up until 9:00. Once we determined that there was no fountain show at Versailles, we decided to postpone our trip so we didn’t need to rush back for dinner.

We checked out of our hotel and took a cab to our new hotel, the Royal Cardinal, on the left bank. We checked in, dumped out stuff, and then went out for lunch. We had quiche and salad at a bistro across the street and then climbed up the hill to the Pantheon. The sun had finally come out for the first time since we arrived in Paris.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is a huge and wonderful building erected as a monument to the great men of France. Many famous people are buried in the crypt. We saw the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau, Zola and Victor Hugo, among others. The dome was crumbling, so the central portion of the building was closed off and there were nets just below the ceiling level over the arcade. In the center, there was a replica of Foucault’s pendulum.

After the Pantheon, we wandered down the Rue Soufflot to the Luxembourg Gardens. By this time, it was very hot and we wanted to lie on the grass. I had brought some painting supplies and I wanted to paint. When we got to the gardens, everyone was sitting on chairs or benches. I couldn’t find a scene I thought I could paint well. We sat in the shade for a while and finally mustered enough energy to continue around the gardens. Almost immediately, we came upon a lawn where people WERE sitting on the grass. We lay down and slept for an hour until it cooled off a bit. After our naps, we continued our circuit of the garden and inspected a lovely series of aerial photographs mounted on the fence. We located the place we were to meet for dinner with the help of three national policemen, bought some water and a bottle of wine, and headed back to our hotel.

We relaxed with a glass of wine and then dressed for dinner. The restaurant, Les Fêtes Galants, was not far from the hotel.  We walked there and had an aperitif while we waited for Jeanne and her friend, Margaret. We ate a delicious three-course meal. I had shrimp salad, veal in a scrumptious sauce, and an apple tart for dessert.

The hotel room was extremely noisy with the windows open and too hot with them shut. The café downstairs was noisy until two or three in the morning and traffic, sirens, and car radios continued the racket until dawn. We shut the window about 4:00.

Today, we got up early because we planned to go to Giverny with Jeanne. The hotel staff brought our breakfast to our room, so we had a relaxed morning getting ready. Deanna gave her Teddy bear, Jake, a bath. We left about 9:30 and walked down to the Seine to catch the bus to Gare St. Lazare. The bus did not run on Sunday. We walked to the Hôtel de Ville Metro station and took the Metro. We had agreed to meet Jeanne at the bus stop, but we were late and didn’t come in that way. By the time we found her and bought tickets, we had to run to the train.  Fortunately, it was on a nearby track.

The train ride to Vernon was pretty, but uneventful. We arrived in Vernon and immediately boarded a bus to Giverny.

Giverny

Giverny was gorgeous! There were aisles of flowers everywhere and a beautiful waterway surrounding the property, lined with bamboo and weeping willows. The lily pond was just like the pictures, although the Japanese bridge was surmounted by a wisteria arbor and painted an obnoxious Kelly green. Monet’s house was simple, but lovely. Inside, it was painted in bright yellows and blues and the walls were covered with Japanese prints. There were big, open windows in all of the rooms. It commanded a panoramic view of the flower garden.

Giverny

The town of Giverny was very quaint and picturesque. We ate lunch in a grove of trees by a stream. The waiter was merely a friend helping out the owner and he made up for being slow by being very friendly.

After lunch, we explored several art galleries and an old Romanesque church. I fell in love with a picture in a gallery, but the gallery was closed. I was about to go back and buy another painting I had seen when the bus came and Jeanne and Deanna rushed to climb aboard. We took the bus back to Vernon and caught the 17:38 train to Paris.

Sept. 12, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

On Sunday, we returned from Vernon on the local train which took 45 minutes longer (1:15) than the express. We got back to our hotel about 19:30. We took a two hour nap but still didn’t feel like dinner. We stayed in and tried to sleep. The hotel was very noisy and just got progressively noisier all night.

I got up fairly early on Monday because I couldn’t sleep, anyway. Deanna had put in her earplugs early that morning and was dead to the world. She slept through the alarm, maid knocking on the door with breakfast, and the telephone. I had to get up out of the tub to collect our tray which arrived fifteen minutes early.

Pumpkins on a Tripod

Deanna finally got up when the coffee came, but she needed a couple of hours to bathe and wash clothes.  I went out for a bit. I had felt like a walk since the night before and was going stir crazy. I walked over to the botanical gardens. The flowers there were beautiful. They had a large selection of morning glory vines growing on tripods of re-bar or bamboo. I inspected them carefully because I planned to plant some on my back fence, and I wanted to choose a variety. I decided on “The Star of Yalta” (fuchsia) and another one with a dark purple flower. The “Himmelblau” were nice, too, with very large, blue flowers. They were also growing squash vines on these tripods, which I thought was a great idea, since I had one gourd plant that took up half my back garden. Even pumpkins were growing on tripods and I had to take a picture of the large, orange pumpkins hanging in mid-air. There were a lot of art students from the college across the street sketching in the garden.

The greenhouse and the maze were closed, so I stepped over towards St. Etienne de Mont and passed the Roman amphitheatre along my way. I continued up to St. Etienne du Mont which had been closed when we went to the Pantheon. The church was unusual in that the arcades were almost as tall as the nave and the main course of clerestory windows were actually in the arcades, which made for a very light church.

I came back to the hotel after two hours and Deanna was ready. We boarded the Metro and got off at Cité. We walked to Sainte Chapelle, which is surrounded on all four sides by a palace and, unfortunately, not visible from afar. Sainte Chapelle is an amazing place. It is completely polychromed and the ceilings are blue with gold stars. The lower chapel is beautiful, but the upper one is fantastic. Being a chapel, rather than a cathedral, the whole thing is one elongated stained-glass apse. It is quite tall, with slender ribs and well-restored windows. The effect is stunning. We lingered, trying to drink it all in. The glass and the polychroming were so rich in detail that it was impossible to absorb everything.

Stained Glass at Sainte Chapelle

St. Denis

After Sainte Chapelle, we took the Metro out to the village of St. Denis. St, Denis was a pleasant village despite some rather unfortunate, modern architecture. We went there to see the Basilique St. Denis, which was the earliest example of Gothic architecture. It contains the first rose window and is quite stunning. The portals are almost Romanesque. The church contains elements which date back to the fourth century. St. Denis is buried there, as are all the French kings. We saw the tombs of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. There is an impressive collection of funerary sculpture displayed there, as well. The crypt contains remnants of the older churches. The graves were desecrated during the revolution but there were some sarcophagi dating back to the fourth century church.

Sacre Coeur

Upon leaving St. Denis, we got back on the Metro and took it to Montmartre. We got off at Abbesses and strolled over to the Funiculaire, It was getting close to 18:00, so we hurried into Sacre Coeur. The inside was rather unimpressive because they were working on the central dome and had most of the mosaics covered with bubble wrap. Sacre Coeur was not built until 1876 and so is quite clean and modern and does not contain much history. It is very beautiful on the exterior, however, and occupies a fabulous site. It is dramatically lighted at night. I wanted to take a photo at night, so we had a drink on the Place du Tertre and waited for dark. There are many artists painting on Montmartre, but most of the paintings were not very good. I still regretted that closed gallery in Giverny.

The food on the Place de Tertre is expensive and mediocre, so we walked down to the base of Montmartre and had soupe l’oignon and a glass of wine in a café with a lovely view of Sacre Coeur. Once I took my photos, we headed towards the Metro and stopped in a bistro where Deanna had a lamb chop and I had a crêpe for dessert. When the cigarette smoke grew overwhelming, we continued to the Metro and came home.

That night, we decided to try sleeping with the windows closed. It was much quieter and not too stuffy.

Sept. 12, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

Today, we took the RER train to Versailles. While the weather was okay in Paris, it was sprinkling when we got to Versailles. We ducked into an Italian restaurant and I ate pizza until it abated a bit. We then walked on to the palace of Versailles. Versailles is a truly amazing display of wealth, although it does not compare to the Russian palaces. Much of the marble in the king’s apartments is faux painting. The palace is quite large and the grounds are extensive. Unfortunately, much of the garden is not maintained. I found the pathways too wide, so that when you looked at a large expanse, all you saw was decomposed granite pathways crisscrossed with ruts. The formal gardens that were planted in flowers were exquisite on a small scale, however.

The Palace at Versailles

After touring the palace of Versailles, we walked through the gardens to the Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon. The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s hideaway, was lovely and rather modest. The Grand Trianon was more lavish, and the pink marble and formal gardens were impressive.

The Grand Trianon

After inspecting the Trianons, we stopped for a snack and Deanna ordered a hot dog. What arrived was an entire baguette, containing two hot dogs and smothered in cheese. For FF32, we got dinner for two. We walked back through the gardens to the palace and on to the train station. On the train, we had a nice conversation with a black couple from Dallas. Neither of us were hungry after the hot dog, so we came back to the (noisy) room.

              The Gardens at Versailles

Sept. 14, 2000
Hôtel au Royal Cardinal, Paris, France

The Musée D’Orsay

Yesterday, we got up fairly early so that we could go to the cybercafé but, when we got there, they were closed. We continued on to the St. Michel RER station and took the RER to the Musée D’Orsay. The Musée D’Orsay is really a delight. They have converted an old railway station into a museum. Somehow, they managed to add several levels of galleries without obscuring the wonderful, open architecture of the original building, with its unique dome of plaster roses. There is a large collection of impressionist paintings, including one entire room of Van Goghs. I was able to renew my acquaintance with Caillebotte. There was a marvelous, large painting of three men stripping a hardwood floor. We wandered around in the museum for hours until we just couldn’t take it any more and then we discovered the collection of art nouveau furnishings. All of the items were delicious, but there was one entire room taken from a chateau somewhere that was just fantastic. All four walls featured graceful art nouveau paneling and willowy built-in cabinets and free-standing furniture.

The Eiffel Tower

We didn’t get to the Eiffel Tower until 14:00. We wanted to eat lunch on the deuxième étage but they were only open for lunch from 12:15 to 13:45. We were unable to get a reservation for the première étage, either. By this time, Deanna was ready to throw a tantrum if we didn’t eat, so we walked down to the Seine and ate lunch at a boat that had been converted to a cafeteria.

After lunch, we waited in line for 40 minutes to get on the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the very top and could see all of Paris spread out before us. While it had seemed like we had crawled all over Paris, it quickly became apparent that we had visited only a small portion of it. They displayed a very useful series of photographs with a legend identifying all of the major attractions and another series showing which direction to look towards the capitols of all the world’s nations.

View from the Eiffel Tower

I was pretty beat when we returned to ground level but we got back on the RER and went two stops to les Invalides to see the tomb of Napoleon. Unfortunately, the les Invalides RER station is almost a mile from les Invalides and they were closing by the time we got there. We did manage to see the tomb and the domed building housing it, but we missed the museum.

By this time, I was so exhausted that I managed to lose our money bag, containing FF400 and some Metro tickets, in the RER station on the way home. We had agreed to meet Jeanne at 20:00 for dinner so, although the restaurant was rather close, we took a cab. My feet were so battered that I would have cried had we had to walk.

We had dinner at a Tibetan restaurant with Jeanne and her friends, Andi and Iris. The food was a kind of cross between Chinese and Indian and was a welcome change from French cuisine. I was deliriously hungry, having had a small lunch, and would have eaten anything.

After dinner, we went to the cybercafé, which was only a few blocks from the restaurant. I managed to send my email and write a newsletter, although the computer crashed when I sent the message. It appeared to have gone, though Deanna was not so lucky. Her messages kept disappearing. AOL.com did not function, but Juno webmail seemed to be fine. We didn’t get home until after midnight and slept like rocks.