Tour - Day 11 - Canakkale - Gallipoli - Istanbul

After walking a bit and photographing the Trojan Horse we boarded a ferry to cross the Dardanelles, about a 30 minute ride.

Then we had a tour of the Gallipoli Battlefields from WWI. During WWI, Winston Churchill wanted to seize the Ottoman capitol and control the Dardanelles and eventually open a route for Russia from the Black Sea. On April 25, 1915, British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troups landed at Gallipoli. The campaign lasted until January 1916 and resulted in a half million casualties, 130,000 were deaths. The ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Allied Command) suffered heavy losses - 8700 Australians and 2700 New Zealanders lost their lives here and this has become a sacred ground for them. There are cemetaries scattered around the hillsides, all Aussie and New Zealand graves. There were also 86700 Turks killed here. Although Turkey won the battle and the Allies eventually withdrew, the Turks eventually lost the war and that was the end of the Ottoman Empire.

From there we headed back to Istanbul, arriving here about 5:00. Here we all are in the bus:

Tomorrow after breakfast we bid farewell to our new friends. I’m kinda sad. But we also have 5 more days to explore this amazing city and I’m sure we’ll have a good time. After dinner tonight, we got on the elevator with David and Donna, and it got stuck between floors, and felt like it was going to fall. This went on 3 or 4 times. We pressed the alarm over and over and it rang but no one responded, and then all of a sudden it went slowly back to the first floor. Warren and Lyn were there waiting for the next elevator and they had not heard the alarm at all. I’m glad we weren’t stuck there. I may take the stairs to breakfast. Of course we are on the 4th (which is really the 6th) floor - that’s a lot of stairs!

Since I don’t have many photos today, here are some photos from Cappadocia from Lyn - they went on an early morning balloon ride. I wanted to but it was expensive and I decided not to. Of course now I’m kicking myself - why didn’t I go - who cares what it costs!!! Maybe next time.

Locals call these formations Fairy Chimneys, but other things may come to mind as well.

Here is a video - it's not much to look at, but just listen - you can hear three different mosques calling the people to prayer. This is from our hotel.