"Cruising the Lycian Shore" is our first cruise in Turkey since October 2019, On this occasion, to give an impression of the experience, we are providing a kind of travel diary. Every day we will pick one image we took that day, accompanied by some explanations and thoughts.
On a two-week cruise, day 15 is the day of departure.
Inevitably, this is a bitter-sweet time, a morning of saying goodbye or farewell or see you again (I went for güle güle, which is essentially 'bye-bye' in Turkish), spread out between the departure times of our guests.
During our conversations (and continuing on from the farewell dinner the evening before), this is a time of looking back, albeit briefly, on what we experienced together. This time, those experiences included the grand archaeological sites that I, as an archaeologist, am expected (and happy) to present, the wonderful landscapes and seascapes, the nature of the region, the glances of local life and local cuisine, and now and then the vagaries of a gulet cruise!
It is also a moment of looking forward! Two of our guests are following up with a more individual exploration of Lycia for another few weeks - what a wonderful thing to do. Two more are already booked on two of our tours next year: Exploring Hadrian's Wall and Exploring Ireland - and I can't wait to see them on the latter. And finally, one guest booked a 2022 Cruising to the Cyclades while on our Lycian Cruise. You can imagine how thrilling it is to see such direct evidence of people enjoying their time with us, and of the things we offer them.
(The image, by the way, is of the ancient theatre in Patara, looking towards the reconstructed bouleuterion or council chamber of the Lycian League.)
As Cruising the Lycian Shore was my first PST trip (and our first Turkish cruise) in twenty-three months, I'd like to express my gratitude to our guests for joining us, to the crew of Kayhan 11 for their exceptional work and to my colleague, Uğur, for his indispensable presence and his unending attention to our guests' needs.
I hope that this first cruise diary since 2019 was of interest to you, our readers. We would love to meet you on our future trips!
Güle güle!
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