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Trabzon & the
Sumela Monastery
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Thursday 9th October 2014
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Thirty seven hours after leaving Istanbul,
we got our first glimpse of the city of Trabzon, which is
situated on the north cost of Turkey. |
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The weather forecast was for a warm,
sunny day and we were looking forward to going ashore. |
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Our route today was to be a
very scenic one. After leaving the city, we headed
south between the mountains, towards the Sumela Monastery. |
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Coaches can't go all the way up to
the monastery. At a point, some 1.2 km (by foot) below it,
it becomes necessary to swap the coach for a minibus (or
proceed on foot, if you have the time and the energy, of
course). |
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It was nice to see our captain joining us on
this excursion. |
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From the coach park, we got this
stunning view of the monastery, seemingly clinging to the side of
the mountain. |
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We boarded our minibus for the last
leg of the trip. We got these seats in the front, which was a bit
of a risk, we thought! |
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The drive up didn't take too long,
but it was a very winding road. Our driver stopped half way, so
that we could get these lovely views. |
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| Even the minibuses can only go so far. The rest of the way
has to be on foot and the path is quite rough in parts. Some
people struggled a bit trying to scramble over exposed tree
roots, but we were fine. |
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Finally, we got to the official
entrance to the monastery, where there was a ticket office... |
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...and more amazing views. |
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Geoff chatted to one of the ship's
lecturers while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. |
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Beyond the entrance, there is a
steep staircase up and into the centre of the monastery. |
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Our first view of the inner courtyard |
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The inner and outer walls of the
Rock Church and the walls of the adjacent chapel are decorated with
frescoes. |
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As we were climbing back up towards
the exit, a large stone fell from the side of the mountain.
It hit the shoulder of a lady in front of us and chipped
the edge of one of the steps (see below). We all got quite
a fright but the lady didn't seem to have been badly injured. |
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We left using the same staircase
as we had entered. |
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Doug seemed pleased that he had
been able to see and do everything today, with a little help from
his stick.
(Diana had wisely decided to stay on the ship!) |
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A better view of those exposed tree
routes on the path back to the minibus. They looked quite
sculptural. |
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It didn't take long to be driven down
the hill and soon we were back at the tranquil starting
point, where our coach was waiting for us. |
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Another scenic drive back to the
city of Trabzon |
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More buildings, half-built, which
seem to be a feature of modern Turkey. |
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At the entrance to the port, there
was quite a big traffic jam. A group of men were clearly
unhappy with one of the drivers and had surrounded his vehicle,
shouting and gesticulating wildly. When the driver got out
of his vehicle it looked like a fight was about to begin.
Luckily at that moment, a space emerged in the traffic and
we drove back into the port and to the relative calm of
our ship. |
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The sign at the base of the gangplank was always there.
We therefore always knew where we were and when we were
due to leave... in case there was any doubt!
After lunch we had the afternoon at leisure. Many people
decided to relax on board and enjoy the warm sunshine
on deck, but we were keen to explore the city. After all,
when, if ever, would we be coming back here?
The town itself is set quite high above the port, but
it was just the kind of exercise we needed to walk off
all the good food we had been eating.
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In the centre of town, there is
a very large square... |
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...from which there are many pedestrianised
shopping streets, many of which were very busy. |
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After spending a pleasant hour or
so exploring, we found a cafe on the square, where we sat, had a
drink and posted some photos on facebook. |
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We walked back to the port, risking
our lives as we crossed the very busy road at the port. It was clearly
not designed with pedestrians in mind! |
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We made it back in time for afternoon
tea, surprise, surprise. |
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It was one of those perfect "goldilocks"
afternoons... A moment in time when you wish you could stop the
clocks. |
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At 7.00pm and on schedule, we sailed
for Batumi, Georgia. We'd never been there before, so it would be
a new country to tick off our list! |
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Our cruise director, Neil wore this
Turkish costume for his "Turkish Trivia" quiz
that evening. I don't think he liked me taking this photo...
pity it's a bit blurred, because he looked really good in
it! |
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