Belek, Turkye, April 2003
For the second year following the 6 of us went to Belek for a golfing trip. Last year it was a bit hot so we decided to go a week earlier to
hopefully have moderate temperatures. The good news is that it hasn't rained and the sun was out every single day. The
bad news was that the temperature was as high as 35 degrees centigrade. And that isn't golfing weather. So it was a struggle
as far as golf was concerned. But that is the only gripe. Again we stayed at Tat Beach Golf Hotel. Not bad at all. Shelter
from the palm trees when you want it. Deserts are a specialty at the hotel and cut up pumpkins and other fruits make beautiful (if not edible) decorations.
Even in the garden around the hotel tortoises are abundant. Jo is teasing one here to get a good pic. Unfortunately
there were no fish in the swimming pool, we'll put that down on the complaints form;-)
In Turkye you'll find lots of Roman and even older ruins. Some of them are so large and in such good condition that the
digs in Italy and Greece pale in comparison. We visited the dig at Perge. In the blazing heat there's lizzards all over the place,
picking the prime hunting spots on the old remains. There'll be a story to the pic on the right, but I'll be damned if I know.
This one I do remember, it is a Roman bath. Not exactly operational but if you have a guide with you like we did
it does bring history back to life. We also visited a traditional 17th century turkish bath in Antalya and one at the hotel but I'll
have to run the pics by my travelling friends to get approval for publication. Don't hold your breath for those!
Finally a scenic shot of Hans in one of the greenside bunkers at the National golfcourse. In the background you can just
about see the snowcovered Taunus mountain range. 40 miles away and up to 13.000ft high. People were still skiing there in
May while we were cooking on the course. But no complaints, we had a ball. Perhaps we'll choose a cooler destination next
year though.
