More Pictures of the Venosa Hotel

The constructors are going to have to get a wiggle on if this hotel is to be finished by May 1st

Reception

Shrubs and Trees awaiting planting out

Something will have to be done about water shortages in Yeşilkent if all these plants and the turf that has been laid are to be watered throughout the summer. We had no water for days at a time during the summer before this hotel was built so goodness knows what it will be like this year!

Kiddies pool, main pool plus in the background aqua-slide pool

Kiddies pool, main pool plus in the background aqua-slide pool

Sea view from the swimming pools

Indoor Pool 

 

Yeşiltepe

We took a walk around Yeşiltepe with our friends Stuart and Pat. It's beautiful countryside up there at the moment as all the spring flowers start to bloom. Everywhere is still fresh and green from the winter rains.

Yeşiltepe (greenhill)

Pat and Stuart taking in the beautiful views at Yesiltepe

Café More

Good news - Café More has now re-opened after a re-fit. Mine and Evrim have returned from their
globe trotting adventures revitalised and ready to tackle another season.

The décor has been changed to lilac and white

and there are new paintings and wall hangings to brighten up the café even more.

Vandalism update

Pat and Craig's nightmare continues as the workmen demolish even more of the property. The side walls have gone, so has most of the pool, as well as all the pipes for water and sewage, and the electricity supply

The plank at the far end is the only way to access the house - dodgy or what?

Fortunately the water and electricity have been reconnected, but they have to use a neighbour's house for bathroom facilities and the only way into the property is to "walk the plank"

What a mess!!!

Meanwhile, the council and the demolition company are blaming each other for a "mix-up". The council say it was the wrong property and the company say it was the one they were told. Now nothing is being done and Craig and Pat are left with this mess.

T.U.V.

We decided that, as the car is now out of guarantee, that we would have it converted to LPG. This entailed taking it to Soke for the conversion, then it had to be taken to be tested for gas-leaks and certified, followed by a visit to another official establishment for an emissions test. Once all this had been done we had to find the MOT (TUV) station and have the car checked over. It passed it's MOT, and so then we had to find the police station in Soke to have the gas conversion registered on the vehicles logbook. Whew!!!

TUV Station - cars enter at this end and hopefully come out the other with an official stamp to say it has passed it's inspection.

More Council Vandalsim

As you have seen from the blog recently, the council seem intent on demolishing Didim, Altinkum and Yesilkent single-handedly. But reality really kicks in when it affects your friends. Yesterday (Sunday), a council official turned up at Pat and Craig's with a piece of paper and a work-crew complete with JCB and pneumatic drill. According to the paper, the pool and terrace had to be demolished because it was too high. This was the first Pat and Criag had heard of this, and the house has been built 6 years. Erdi and Egeman from the Blue Restaurant came to try to argue with the official, but after an hour of discussion and despite their protestations, the destruction began.

The Circus is Coming to Town

These circus artists were outside the local school waiting for parents and children to emerge so as to distribute leaflets about the circus which will be in town next weekend.

Cumhuriyet Bulvarı

This road was only put down 2 or 3 years ago, and already it is being pulled up and totally relaid

My second attempt

As you can see, my dabbling in the world of domestic science is paying off. These are my second batch of croissants, and as they say, practice makes perfect. I learned from my first attempt, made a few minor alterations to the technique, "et voila" ....

Strays

Since the transient members of our community have returned to UK, Istanbul or Ankara they have abandoned loads of cats which are seeking out food wherever they can get it. This is one of them that we have named "gingernuts".

The Venosa Beach Resort and Spa - update

The Venosa can be seen from a long way off, this picture was taken from by the Lunapark. The hotel is that white lump in the centre of the picture. It can also be seen quite clearly from Akbuk.

The landscaping around the hotel has begun and these chaps are putting down the tiles around one of the swimming pools.

Below is the open air entertainment zone right down by the beach.

and this is the swimming platform that the hotel has built for the guests (and locals?) to use.

More demolition along Altinkum Seafront

This is the area known as "hassle alley" to some, where the small retail outlets stood opposite the camel rides.

As you can see, the work has started on removing these units. We don't actually know what will replace them, if anything.

At the moment it is all just a complete mess

and these are the restaurants that were just a few hundred metres along the road.

As you can see, they are suffering the same sort of fate.

Birthday

I must say thank you to all the good wishes I received on my birthday today. I was pampered rotten by Sue (nothing new there then eh?). I had eggs and bacon for breakfast, and was treated to roast pork and all the trimmings for dinner.
During the day I turned my hand to a bit of cookery (I can hear the gasps of astonishment from here you know!!!). I wanted to try to make croissants, which are virtually impossible to get here in Didim, and when you can find them, they are not so good. With all the rising of the dough and rolling out etc, it took most of the day, but this is the end result .... not bad even if I do say so myself.

A walk to Altinkum

It was a lovely day, so we walked into Altinkum along the clifftop path passing Marti Sitesi and Palm Wings on the way

Found many spring flowers in bloom along the way

At the end of our walk we found this little restaurant. It was packed and we discovered why when we came to pay the bill. The prices were similar to those of the Belediyesi Cay Bahce, ie very low, with 2 cans of Coke only 3 TL

Bafa and Azap Lakes

We decided to go for a picnic, so we packed the chairs, food and beverage into the car and sallied forth. We drove to Bafa lake with the intentions of watching the flamingoes. 

However, try as we might, we couldn't find any.

We found Egrets and other wading birds.

 And we found a little fishing village.

So we continued on our journey and made our way to Lake Azap in case they were there.

None here either, but by now we were hungry, so we settled down to our picnic looking at this stunning view. We were privileged to spy an eagle, some pelicans, a kingfisher and several other species of bird during our meal.

And we had it almost to ourselves

Then we descended to the Soke outlets but were surprised to find that since our last visit, just a month ago, some wind turbines had appeared. 

They are right next to the outlets, on the opposite side of the main road and spread out over two or three fields.