Flying Visit to Dublin

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Clunegapyears

29-31/08/2025

To Dublin

Another early start. And a day full of food.
Breakfast at the hotel.
Cakes and coffee at Istanbul airport lounge.
Brunch on the plane
Coffee and cake at the shopping centre whilst we waited for Delia to finish work.
Dinner out at an Italian.
No wonder all my clothes are tight.

*And the caravan repair sent a video to show all the body work has been done. Yay.*

A Day in Dublin

We had a hire car so we left the still working Delia and Liam in bed. We went to Avoca handicrafts looking for gifts, but pretty useless. Then to the James Joyce Martello Tower in Dun Laoghaire. Fabulous little gem with informed delightful staff.

The whole purpose of this trip was to celebrate J’s sister Amelia’s 80th birthday. Two brothers had flown in from Chicago. Sadly Amelia is in a nursing home and didn’t feel she could cope with a meal out. All the sibling’s visited her at the home.

From Dublin

Hire car dropped. Dublin business lounge was not up to much … no tonic water to go with my gin!!! Understandably closing today for refurbishment. We perched on a radiator at the gate for an hour and a half as the plane was delayed. Seems to be a thing that there are insufficient seats at gates.

*Biz class starter, pud and cheese. Lunch was chicken and I imbibed champagne* 😃

Flight didn’t land until 2130. Istanbul international airport is huge. We walked for miles to passport control and then even further to the metro. We had 2 long train rides to our hotel, arriving gone 11 pm. Hoped the wine night cap would help us sleep but …

*… but the duvet was too short, so a choice … cold feet or cold shoulders!*

Back to Ankara

01/09/2025

Goodness first day of a new month! Hotel breakfast not up to much. Near the hotel we managed to buy new Turkcel sims as the Vodafone do not have a good signal away from towns. And get some cash out … PTT and Halkbank do not charge a withdrawal fee. We have paid £16 before we sussed which banks to use. 😮

All the work has been done on the motorhome, bar the motor for lifting the bed and the replacement step. The latter is in cargo. So we’ve booked a night in another cheap hotel and booked Corrie in for another night at the kennels.

We then had best part of an hour train to the train station for our high speed train to Ankara, arriving at 1520. A taxi to our 4th hotel. J napped and I washed out our smalls.

A lot of effort for such a short time with the family. And I was very sad not to see Amelia.

Ankara and Istanbul in 2 days!

Posted on August 31, 2025 by Clunegapyears

Ankara

27/08/25

Up early to drop Corrie at the Perfendy Otel. The mechanic where Jez is going for work had arranged it for us. No cages or kennels. A yard for daytime and a bedroom at night. Corrie trembled when we arrived. She thought she was at the vet. Regular updates from the kennel. It took her a few days to settle. Her first time in kennels.

*But on the last video she had made friends with a calm 3 legged dog!*

Then a drive across Ankara to the motorhome repair shop. A straight wide and free flowing road. Rush hour didn’t seem to exist.

We spent a couple of hours going through the work using google translate. The head honcho was checking on the phone what could be out sourced. One of the mechanics kindly dropped us to our Ankara hotel. Dropping bags, we checked out the train station for tomorrow. A cheap taxi to near the Anatolian Museum of Ancient Civilisations for lunch. And then into the museum. Both feeling tired, we pretty much scooted through. Focussed on the Hittites treasures that had been found at the sites we have visited.

Istanbul

28/08/25

0840 for the high speed train to Istanbul. Airport style passport checks. Allocated seats. Left and arrived on time to the minute. Only annoyance was no usb charging points, but we had a battery pack. Trolley and buffet car.

Istanbul was busy and a sensory overload. We were assisted by 2 locals to buy transport cards and then load money onto them. Metro to the old part of Europe Istanbul.
Straight to a restaurant where we eventually managed to check in for our flights tomorrow. And to book a luggage storage in a nearby hotel.

Tbh we were not loving Istanbul. Too crowded. Too touristy. Reminded us of Marrakesh.
We did a gps.mycity introduction walk which took us through the spice bazaar. Seething mass of humanity. J had to hold onto me so we didn’t get separated. Hated it.

The main architectural sites were more open and calmer. We didn’t go into any as a) we were shattered and b) we knew it is a long way out to our near airport hotel.

*A chap who offered to help us, said he was boss of* *city transport, said its much less crowded November and February /* *March, should we decide to return*

In fact, we hadn’t realised just how difficult to get to our hotel. The super helpful chap in the hotel, where we had left our luggage, checked several routes and recommended 2 buses. He warned us that they would be busy and slow as 6 pm by now. They surely were. The whole journey from arriving at the bus station (on foot through the bloody spice market again) to the hotel was 3 hours. But at 40 lira each per trip, the total cost was about £3 for both of us. Driving direct 37km, but of course the bus wasn’t direct.

We’d gone past hungry so demolished a bottle of red in our room and flaked out.

Gordion and King Midas

Posted on August 31, 2025 by Clunegapyears

26/08/25

We spent the morning at our lake pitch, doing jobs in readiness for our Dublin trip tomorrow. We’ve packed for Corrie for her 5 night stay in a Pet Hotel and two rucksacks for us.

The hand written sheet is details of our 3 hotel bookings, high speed train Ankara to Istanbul, flights Istanbul to Dublin and Dublin car hire. They are all held digitally but on email, WhatsApp and message.

After lunch we visited Gordion. This goes back to Hittites and was the capital of Phrygia. They both traded together until the Phrygians took over Hattusa, the Hittite capital. We didn’t visit the ruined fortress C9 BC, but the museum and Midas Tomb.

The museum flowed well and had English info boards. The pottery pieces are C6. There had been a fire at the fortress 800 BC and metres of clay were piled on top to make foundations for the new building, thus preserving artefacts often intact.

There are approximately 100 funeral mounds. Most were raided. The biggest, the Midas Tomb took 1000 men 2 years to construct. It is the 3rd largest in the world at 300m diameter and 55m tall.

The Midas Tomb is now believed to be Midas’ father, Gordion, thanks to carbon dating of the bones. So c.740BC. It was one of the few to have not been robbed so even the funeral meal dishes were still there. Inside is the world’s oldest wooden building inside a mound. In fact, the world’s oldest standing wooden building. It is constructed from juniper and pine. The timbers have been standing over 2700 years. Turkish miners carefully constructed a tunnel for visitors. It was a bit of a wow moment.

We came back to our spot by the lake.

Gavur Kalesi and Humana

Posted on August 31, 2025 by Clunegapyears

25/08/25

A very quiet night until two sets of visitors to the water trough in the morning.

We drove and then walked up to Gavur Kalesi, a Hittatie ruin fortress. Not much there other than a few corners and an entrance.

Haymana is a thermal spa town. Fortunately, we didn’t expect much, as Harrogate or Bath it certainly ain’t. A few run down spa hotels in town and a large modern one on the edge. Many abandoned rotting houses. I then read that there was high unemployment and youngsters leaving. The ice cream and cold drinks were good though and cheap at under £6.

We discounted an overnight parking as way too busy with Ankara all spending the day by the lake. We came onto a a further away lake. Managed to find a patch without too much broken glass. We watched lads just fling their empty bottles. But then super quiet.

Hats off to the Hittites

Posted on August 31, 2025 by Clunegapyears

Hats off to the Hittites. A major civilisation in the Bronze Age. Fought and beat the Egyptians. Eventually signed a peace treaty with them. A copy exists in NY UN HQ as the first peace treaty. The Hittites took over from the Hatti people. Hattusa was their capital city from 1650. Evidence of developed trade with Syria, Persia etc. The Sea Peoples were their eventual undoing about 450 years later.

Yazilikaya

23/08/25

A longish drive to see the main Hittite sites. These are the most important group of Hittite rock art. Two main chambers displaying Gods and scenes. The holy site was in use until late C16 bc.

*J and I both suffered yesterday (and so did our cassette toilet) from our bad eating day (cakes, ice cream and chocolate) so the French rubbish bin made sense!*

Hattuşa

24/08/25

Thousands of tablets were eventually translated which told their history, laws, pacts trade etc. Finding them must have been an amazing archeological moment.

The only traces of this massive site are the stone foundations of the temples and the massive perimeter wall. They worshipped thousands of Gods, often those of assimilated civilisations. Lots of Gods so lots of foundations. Houses and the tops of temples were constructed from wood and mud bricks. Gates and walls also remain. Another them and us culture, but slaves were allowed to own property and marry.

J and I elected to walk the route, whereas everyone else elected to drive. But we loved the walk (except the long uphill) and being able to take in the views. A Turkish car stopped to chat. Amazed that a) we were walking the route and b) at how many places we had and planned to visit.

Our parking tonight is south of Ankara. A quiet spot with just one family picnicking. As they left, we were presented with a bag of tomatoes, cay/tea and an inordinate number of peppers. What on earth to do with them ??? as we only have 2 more nights in Jez before our Ankara / Istanbul / Dublin expedition.

Clune Gap Years

A journal and reflections of our motorhome travels

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Flying Visit to Dublin

Ankara and Istanbul in 2 days!

Gordion and King Midas

Gavur Kalesi and Humana

Hats off to the Hittites