Blog

Spring in Turkey is magical as we keep discovering.  We’ve just got back from a week there with George’s  brother in law Ian who is a keen birdwatcher , and also very well informed about botany, ancient sites and ancient history.  

The date we picked caused a panic – 29th April.  When we found a suitable flight on that date which suited the three of us we booked.  A week or two later we realised that it was the same day as the Royal Wedding, a day I had planned to be glued to the tv.  Obviously we couldn’t change without vast expense, so I had a brainwave.  My family had clubbed together to give me an ipad for Christmas.  This was the time it was going to come into its own.  I could watch iplayer, you tube etc. and see everything when we got to Kalkan in the late afternoon.  I set off feeling pretty smug – we didn’t even pack our laptop which we usually take for George’s tennis court lighting business, feeling pretty sure that we could cope with everything from the ipad.

Read more: April/May 2011

To think that a whole summer has passed since I last wrote. We spent the summer months just longing for September and our longest stay ever in Kalkan, 18 days.

We were very fortunate in letting the apartment really well during our first year, and had some wonderful comments, which we will post so that you can read them. Nearly everyone says they want to come again and for most it was their first time in Kalkan, so it was lovely hearing afterwards about what they particularly enjoyed. One couple, friends of our son, had actually proposed to his girlfriend in the Hotel Mahal just beneath us, but now married and with a baby boy couldn’t actually afford that luxury again, so rented our apartment and had the same views, but at a lesser price, and still swam in the same sea, and lunched in the Mahal’s beach club.

Read more: Kalkan - Late 2010

We’ve recently got back from a glorious two weeks in Kalkan – it should have been 10 days, but there are far worse places to be holed up in than Kalkan, waiting for ash to clear.

We arrived to glorious weather. As normally happens we were the only ones in the apartment, so had the pool all to ourselves for the entire time, and used it. It was quite fresh, April after all, but only for a few minutes. It proved to be a wonderful place to watch the swallows and house martins hurtling around, just back from their winter migration, and from our vantage point on the hillside, we could see many of their nests. We took a pair of binoculars out with us, and a European bird book for our guests. The binoculars are also invaluable for getting a close and personal look at the luxury yachts sailing into the harbour, and watching the diving lessons going on in the bay.

Read more: Early 2010