Day Trip to the Coast

Got up early in this yachting-bubble town--- lots of really high-end shops (just as at Bodrum earlier in the week), LOTS of really high-end shops, T-shirt shops, etc., along with all the boat trips to Rhodes, sailing cruises (many go to where I drove today), SCUBA and snorkeling boats--- the tourism boats all line the harbor for about a quarter of a mile, and although it’s almost May, there are precious few tourists here.

So I was up early, sauntering around looking for interesting things to shoot, and noticed people headed toward the NW part of the center of town wheeling little grocery carts that look like really rickety, 1930’s wheeled luggage, if that makes sense.

And I’m a trained police officer, and I start following them, and I notice people coming back into the center of town with similar little carts full of vegetables, and I think, “Hmmmmm. Must be a market day.”

And it was.

It wasn’t nearly as good as the one earlier this week, as this one is now all indoors, instead of taking over a bunch of streets, so it’s more industrial, and the light isn’t as good, and it just seemed more formal. But I tried anyway, “Photo OK?” and got some good responses. I was doing it more to practice asking (and shooting—it was dark inside, but there was bright hot light outside) than for really great shots, although some of the faces were as good as in the other market.


















And just as I was leaving the market the tour bus pulled up and lots of tourists spilled out of it and headed inside—in their tourist uniforms: not enough clothing, fanny packs, and huge purses.

I did advise a nice trio from Essex, east of London, whom I saw later on the harbor promenade and who were trying to escape from a boat-cruise salesman, The best way to deal with these guys is to say you are late for an appointment to buy a rug.

Early in the PM I headed out for a Greek city Knidos, which I’m pleased I didn’t know was about 65 miles away, or I would not have gone.

And boy, was it worth it!

Here’s the place I’m staying—Marmaris.




I stopped and had a standard little on-the-road lunch



overlooking this harbor.



I hit some great scenery on the way including these old Byzantine (?) or Ottoman (?) windmills, very like the same kind of place I shot in Herencia, Spain--- which are on my photo web site.







And an interesting irony about these 5 old windmill towers being here is that from the little ridge where they are, I could see about 30 wind turbines, with their big propellers slowly turning.

Knidos is out on the end of a peninsula, and it’s pretty craggy--- you have to cross the spine of the land four or fine times as the road wanders back and forth from the north coast to the south coast.

Saw this kind of scenery on the way to the end of the land,






and found the standard ruins out there waiting for me.












I wanted to watch the sunset from the ruins, but the place gets locked up at 6:30, almost two hours before sunset, so I’ll have to shoot for some sunset pictures from the next west-facing coast, a day or so away, at Fethiya.