A Day Trip to Ancient Myra

The hikers at the castle top!

On one of our few glorious, blue sky days, a group of us cruisers headed to nearby Demre where St Nicholas (of Santa Claus fame) was bishop during the 4th C A.D.  His remains were either carried off by devout pirates to Bari, Italy or are in the Byzantine church in Demre - remains controversy!

Getting around locally is easy via the dolmus, a shared taxi/van, often packed with sardine standing room only.  The unspoken rule is that women sit beside women and men beside men.  I once hastened to sit down while talking/gesticulating to the driver, who wrote the bus schedule on my scrap of paper while driving through a town with twists and turns.  While waiting I sat beside an older gentleman without thinking.  On turning around I noticed he had squeezed himself into the far corner as far from me as he could get.  I immediately got up and swayed around in the aisle.

Tomato capital of Turkey.  Unattractive house of abundance.  Warm enough to be in a t-shirt for the first time in a month.

The ride to Demre was on a beautiful coastline of innumerable bays and inlets.  The excellent road hugged the coast and so the bus occupants felt every turn.  The woman sitting beside me clutched a plastic bag the entire way.  It is not a route for those with motion sickness.

Comedy and tragedy masks probably from the amphitheatre frieze were remarkable with dramatic background of stacked tombs.

The main event of our day was to visit the ruins of Myra, founded in the 5th C B.C. and one of the most important cities in Lycia.  A Roman era amphitheatre at the foot of the tombed cliff was an unforgettable sight.

The Roman amphitheatre was built on top of an earlier, smaller Hellenistic one.

Cliff tombs like these are all over Lycia.

The architecture of antiquity is so much more appealing than that of modern.

We couldn't leave without hiking part of the Lycian Way to the cliff top and the ruins of a castle.  A few false turns found us lost a couple of times but we made it to the flag.  I'd love to go back to continue the trail on another sunny day.  Perhaps in the spring when the wildflowers should carpet the mountain slopes.

Our destination along an ancient wall and up a steep ascent.  What a day!