Day 9, part 1 (April 8, 2013) of our OAT's Turkey's Sacred lands and Ancient Civilizations Tour. We traveled from Erzurum to Trabzon on our luxury bus and visited the Sumela Monastery (another post)
We depart Erzurum for Trabzon situated along Turkey's Black Sea. We must cross the northern Anatoli mountains. We went through many tunnels, crossed many bridges and went over a pass that makes our Teton Pass in Jackson WY seem short in length.
I kept thinking, "This road must have cost billions." It was undergoing construction of new tunnels--cha-ching, cha-ching!
But first the dogs of Mt. Palandöken (we stayed at the base of the mountain the evening before--6 miles from Erzurum)...
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| St. Bernards |
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| Time for breakfast! |
Now we are on the road, riding through the countryside.
For the second time in as many days, we are pulled over and our luggage compartment searched for the presence of contraband cigarettes. We suspected they were also looking for terrorists/weapons
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| The guy on the left boarded the bus, checking the overhead racks |
As we gained altitude, the snow increased.
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| Karen channels her inner "Ataturk" |
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| Ed and Roger discuss world peace |
We go over this pass and eventually start to climb again.
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| New tunnel, under construction |
As we drop over to the Black Sea side of the mountain range there are idyllic valleys. It looks like Switzerland except for the mosques.
This Black Sea region is known for it's anchovies. (We haven't had any yet...)
Our lunch, back on the other side of the mountain was wonderful, in a region know for it's dry beans and hazelnuts.
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| Choose you entrée |
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| Nurdan, our guide, seems to think I might steal her beans--smart girl! |
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