Today we have a 320 km drive to Canakkale with a stop at the ancient city of Troy enroute. We leave our hotel and drive through this quaint town. Passing the enormous remains of the red hall that is currently under restoration.
The drive takes us past a large olive plantation.
We meet our guide Mustafa in a lovely shady restaurant for a quick lunch before we start our tour. It’s another hot day of over 40 degrees so we hydrate ourselves before going out into the sun.
Mustafa has grown up locally and he has written a book on Troy so he is full of knowledge on this ancient city or rather cities as there have been 9 of them dating back to 3,700 BC.
We start with a replica of what the Wooden Horse from the Trojan Horse story might have looked like.
Mustafa shows us parts of each of the 9 cities that have been constructed on this site which is very interesting.
We only have a short drive to Canakkale and we get a glimpse of the Agaen Sea.
Our hotel is on the waterfront overlooking the Dardanells and the Gallipoli Peninsula on the other side. As we are driving into Canakkale we see a few rally cars, weaving through the traffic and then we discover the road in front of our hotel is closed as the Rally Troy is finishing on the promenade outside our hotel soon. The Police let us through to our hotel and the rally officials immediately come up & speak to us to find out all about us. We are able to park off to one side so the rally cars have room to get past us to their official finish line. Michael tells the rally officials that he works as a motor sport official in Australia and they have an immediate rapport.
After a cool off in the air conditioning of our hotel we walk along the promenade which is full of people out for the evening. We have a beer in a café before going to a restaurant where we sit upstairs overlooking the Dardanells and watch the ships & ferries coming & going.
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