Antalya Part 3: Museum and Falez

(Justin) After the previous day's adventure, we went to Antalya city as an entire family. This was about a 30 minute ride on the bus which came by our resort every 20 minutes. We met Gülnur, my friend and long-time language helper, who wanted to show us her city. First stop was the Antalya Museum, which houses a very large collection of artifacts from around the area-- from prehistoric fossils and cave dwelling artifacts to Greco-Roman statues and early Ottoman period pieces. Here are a few random pics from the museum, so much to see:

The Tapp family in front of the museum

The museum is located in Konyaaltı, and from the nearby bluffs you get a good view of the mountains and rocky beach below.

Next, Gülnur drove us to Lara, her side of town, for lunch at a great kebap place. This was my parents' first good Turkish food experience, they approved!

After lunch, we got some spectacular views of the waterfalls above the "falez" (from the French: falaise, meaning "cliff"). The falls are named Düden and Antalya has built some beautiful parks there. Antalya is to Turkey what Florida is to the U.S. After being in frigid/snowy Ankara all winter, we were happy to walk about like it was a warm spring day! Plenty of people were in the park area barbecuing and picnicking.

At the top of the falls you can see a walkway/gazebo above the river.

A tour boat down below.

Last stop was sandy Lara Plajı ("Plaj" from the Russian word for "beach"). Antalya is remarkable for its sandy beaches in the east and its rocky/pebbly beaches in the west (and down the coast to our resort).

It's not hard to see why this place is a tourism magnet. Beaches and resorts, ancient ruins and artifacts, forests and mountains--something for everyone. German and Russian tourists and immigrants were everywhere. The traffic was a bit difficult to navigate, and I can't imagine what it's like in the summer when the population swells.

We were definitely thankful that we had Gülnur to drive us around town! We made note of other places in town we wanted to see when we came back another day.