Tuesday, April 06, 2010

MED BREAK

BODRUM, TURKEY - JULY 2009


"BA 2670 - London Gatwick to Izmir; there is a chance to see the Balaton Lake, the Danube River (not that blue...), some nasty clouds and some portions of the Anatolian Peninsula..."


"VILLAGE VIEW"


"ROOM"


"MORNING SUN"


"VIEW THROUGH THE PINES"


"ENJOYING"


"CLUB MED - Reception, restaurant, kids club, spa, archery field, pool and gym, houses and pétanque"


"PALM TREES"


"GREEN CLUB"


"FLOWERS"


"SHIPYARD - Dry dock"


"BEACH LIFT"

48 comments:

Trotter said...

Hi Folks! From February to July 2009 I was stuck at home and office; hope this won’t happen again this year... ;) Anyhow, in July there was a chance for a Med break: in the Mediterranean and in the Med... It was a wonderful trip back to Turkey and to some gorgeous spots... Hope you enjoy and have a great week, after the short break for all those who had Easter holidays…
PS: I’m in advance with regard to the usual twelve months delay in posting; but I don’t think that the current nine months will persist… ;)

SusuPetal said...

Those swans on the bed are fun!

So much green in your photos! Oh I'm envious, in Helsinki it keeps on raining. Well, it's good with rain, heaps of snow are melting away.

Olivier said...

encore un superbe endroit, tout pour etre bien. J'aime beaucoup la bouteille de champagne au milieu sur la premiere serie ;o))

joo said...

Looks like wonderful place to relax. I love all photos, but swans are simply enchanting:)

Cloudia said...

Ah!
Sorry I haven't been visiting as often as I'd like, but I've been
having connection issues that I THINK I've solved. Thanks for YOUr
visits & comments :)

Aloha from Waikiki


Comfort Spiral

Emery Roth said...

I feel better already. Very relaxing!

[G@ttoGiallo] said...

Oh, thanks for going East !
Encore plus loin...

Unknown said...

I like the greenery in the pics - always a welcome sight.
Still having connection problems.

PeterParis said...

Happy with ClubMed in general? Haven't tried it for years.

Anyhow, this one looks really nice!

(Too bad you couldn't make it to Paris during Easter! Really look forward to share a "coupe" with you and your wife one of these days!)

Thérèse said...

Better to see the clouds out of the plane windows than once at the hotel...
Some serious relaxation here!

Rakesh Vanamali said...

I'm enamoured beyond words seeing your pictures!

Club Med and all its lush green seems heavenly!

eye in the sky said...

Club Med! Wow! Saw a tributary of the Danube once in Munich and I never actually thought it stretches as far as Turkey, but then why not - it's Europe's longest. Great photos, as usual!

yyam said...

Looks like a nice cosy place to relax...I don't see other people at all! ;)

Love your little artwork on the bed!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

This looks like a cool and pretty spot. I love the photos from the airplane. I, too, like the towels made to look like swans that are on the bed!

Pietro Brosio said...

Gil, these are wonderful views of a really beautiful place! It's so green and relaxing there, and in the club Med the food is excellent too, isn't it? Great collages! Thanks for sharing these splendid images!
Have a nice day!

Gattina said...

Besides Egypt in November because of the warm weather, Turkey is my second favourite holiday country ! I made two roundtrips through Turkey it's such a beautiful place !

Anonymous said...

just fantastic

Leena said...

Green, sunshine, good food - relaxing.
We are waiting for green and sunshine :)
Nice day to you!

Cergie said...

Certainement une pause très régénérante, apaisante, bien venue pour vous et agréable pour nous : je sens presque l'odeur des pins, avec leurs petites pommes, et tout ce vert fait du bien...

hpy said...

DEs paysages bien agréables, à fêter avec une petite coupe, mais la bouteille est trop petite pour que nous la partagions tous!

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

Hi Gil,
What a life, I hope that the reason is good and that you can enjoy your (blog)break? I'll sure will miss your regular posting, The photo's , your travels and you , your stories, but eeeh life is there to enjoy right?

Maybe I follow your in footsteps, and maybe I'll take a break too, just to get more blog-energy because I know the feeling...

Tkae care my friend, greeings fro your travelmate (your wife) and thanks for showing so many nice travels, I am (and was) always glad to visit your blog, thanks I hope to see you back later this year:)

JoAnn Holland

diane b said...

It does look like a great country for a relaxing holiday. Very pretty and very green.

alicesg said...

Wow nice vaccation. I like those towels that are wrapped like animals. Looked like a fun and relax holiday.

S-V-H said...

Now I know what MED means...Club Med...of course I know it...*smile*... I was visiting the blog, but I have only seen your photos from your flight from Miami to Atlanta.

This place here seems to be very relaxing - your wife seemed to enjoy it too :)

Susanne

Ron said...

Very nice post! Looks like a relaxing good time.

I haven't been to any new Hard Rock Cafes lately. Not sure when I will hit the next one. Thanks for checking back.

Oman said...

wow. literally a room with a view. i love it.

Nikon said...

Hi Gil, it sure looks beautiful there.
The green of the grass and vegetation is fabulous!
looks like a nice place for a vacation :)

lv2scpbk said...

Love the towel decorations on the bed.

leo said...

Hi Gil, I havent been logging into the net that much, hence my absence. But I made up by visiting all your past posts that I've missed :) There's nothing wrong wt your format and I especially like the quotes. This looks like bliss esp wifey reading at the balcony. Hv a great weekend.

Rajesh said...

Breathtaking views. Have a nice time in this lovely place.

Indrani said...

That is a grand arrangement with towels. :)
Lovely shots.

Light and Voices said...

Simply divine photographs! It shows how much you and your wife love to travel.
Joyce M

juka14 said...

Nice swans on the bed, a quiet place to relax...

Lakshmi said...

This is the second post on Turkey that Im reading today and am very tempted to go there this year..

Dina said...

I love how you two always find the right places to enjoy life.

Chuckeroon said...

Slave driver, Trotter! Do I get no peace from you? Isn't it just super flying over Europe on a clear day? You know it, you've got the atlas, you've got the Michelin maps in the car, you grew up watching the motorways and towns grow and transform, you've read the history at school - and there it all is!!! Like Toytown laid out perfect and recognisable below! (Turkey's nice, too)

BLOGitse said...

It's ages we been to Turkey...
And now we don't need to travel - here in Morocco we have enough to explore for couple of years...
No. That's not true!
We're planning a visit to Lisbon, Helsinki... :)
Helsinki in May/June but Lisbon is open - we have to get out of the hotel to our new home first!
Did you know it's only about one hour flight from Lisbon to Casa?! :)

BLOGitse

Kcalpesh said...

That's a lovely looking place! Awesome pictures!

Pixellicious Photos

Andrea Gerák said...

Tesekkür ederim for sharing, Gil! Turkey is a wonderful country, I long to go back!

@eye in the sky: that's a surprisingly new information for me that the Danube stretches to Turkey - the farthest toward Turkey it stretches is the Romanian-Bulgarian border. If you wanna see it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Danubemap.jpg

Regina said...

Beautiful place!
Suberb and wonderful snapshots.

Thank you for sharing Trotter.
'Till next adventure.

Paz said...

wonderful sights! i love the way they decorated the bed with the swans and the rose petals. ;-)

have a great week,

paz

Mariposa said...

looks like you had a relaxing time there :)

Trotter said...

Hi Folks! So, a swift move to Turkey and here we are again near the windy Aegean Sea to enjoy sun and water and try to have lots of fun... This post is rather on the green side, but the blues will be back soon; actually, the Blues are somehow like the comeback kid: they always return... ;)
From this post, we don’t see much how beautiful the site of the MED Bodrum is; however, the next posts will show it to all of you who take the time and the patience to drop by and leave a comment and also to those who merely come here or see the post elsewhere; if any... ;))
Thanks again for your comments and support. Sometimes it seems so hard to get a comment; even when one is strongly improving his delay in posting... ;)))

Susu,
They came straight from Swan Lake to that bed... ;)
Hope that rain is definitely gone from Helsinki; it’s so much more beautiful on a sunny day... All towns actually are!!

Olivier,
Petite bouteille et, en plus, Pommery... Il ya eu du temps où on buvait Moët et Chandon et Veuve Clicquot dans les vols de British Airways; après, la crise a pris tout le monde… ;) Je me rappelle même qu’une fois, dans un vol Londres-Singapore-Sydney, l’équipage que sortait à Singapore m’a offert une bouteille de Krug (75cl) pour le reste du voyage… Des beaux temps… ;)

Joo,
It surely is a wonderful place; and you have seen nothing yet... ;). The maid surely had some cruise experience, to be able to make such enchanting swans with the towels... ;))

Cloudia,
Aloha! It’s amazing the amount of new troubles we now have; just imagine if some thirty years ago anybody would care for having lost his/her connection... ;)
Hope you are «wired» again... What a language... ;))
My pleasure to visit and comment your Oahu blog; would love to visit it again in reality, rather than only virtually... ;))

Ted,
Thanks! My pleasure to make it better for you; it looks in the countryside, but it’s actually just by the sea, as you’ll better sea in the next posts... ;))

G@tto,
Ah, encore un effort... Ça me rappelle un autre livre, mais cette fois l’histoire n’est pas avec Lulu, mais plutôt avec E… Bon, j’arrête et c’est à toi de trouver les détails… ;))

Keats,
Hope those connection problems will be solved, if not yet, soon…
The green will become blue in the next posts, hopefully… There is no blue sea like the Aegean Sea… ;))

Peter,
It’s becoming a bit more comfortable, in particular with the renewed four and new five-trident villages, but still keeps its old charm… Excellent locations (unbeatable), good food (not anymore only at dining times; you won’t feel hungry without having anything to eat... ;)), nice entertainment, exciting sports, interesting excursions and the «do or don’t» philosophy that puts you at ease making what you want and not making what you don’t want... ;). Quite nice for a break (or for a holiday with grand children... ;))!!
We’ll share the «coupe» here in Lisbon next July, if there isn’t any chance to make it earlier... ;))

Thérèse,
It depends on how close you see them... Once I flew New York-New Orleans and return in the middle of clouds, thunderstorms and heavy rain and I tell it isn’t a piece of cake... Furthermore, this happened some twenty days after the July 1982 crash of Pan Am Flight 759...
The break was supposed to serve the relaxation purpose... ;))

Rakesh,
Club Med has probably some of the most extraordinary locations for holiday resorts; they started buying the land in 1950 when no one else thought of all-inclusive holidays at an affordable price... then... Nowadays, they say that, after 2005, they «refocused [their] activity on high-end global tourism to become the world specialist in upscale, friendly, multicultural all-inclusive holidays»... Nice try… ;))

Yvonne,
There were lots of people; actually the Club was almost fully booked... but we don’t feel that except at dinner time in the main restaurant and on the beach in the morning just before lunch time... ;). Anyhow you’ll see some people in the next posts... ;))

Trotter said...

Replies, Part Two:

Eye,
The Danube is European Union’s largest river, but only second longest in Europe; it’s convenient not to forget the Volga… ;). Actually, it empties in the Black Sea, after flowing through four capitals (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade) and after forming part of the borders of ten countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine); but it doesn’t touch Turkey... ;)). In Munich you are probably talking of the Isar River...

Pat,
A pretty spot, that for sure! All Club Med resorts are in perfect locations; they knew where to drop the anchor in the early fifties and sixties… ;)
This time the pictures from the plane aren’t as exciting as the Miami views on the previous post!!
That maid should have some cruise experience to arrange the towels on that swan performance type… ;))

Pietro,
The locations at the Med are usually perfect!! As for the food, the combination of French, international and local usually gets you a really treat… And nowadays you have food around the clock; much better than the old 7:30/9:30 for breakfast, 12:30/14:30 for lunch and 19:30/21:30 for dinner… ;))
I know that the pictures in collages lose a great deal of quality, but I’m getting used to showing much more photos using much less space… ;))

Gattina,
So where do you run to in February? Not staying in Waterloo, if you have to head to Egypt already in November…. ;))
I’ve been three times in Turkey and still have at least one more visit to make: Cappadocia (and Istanbul, but not under a snow storm… ;))!

Vaggelis,
Glad that you liked!! It’s just across the sea from Kos, now that the Club in Kos (another excellent location) is closed, supposedly for renovation…

Leena,
Hopefully spring has also arrived to Finland! We had some sunny days here at 23ºCelsius, but it seems that weather will change tomorrow back to some rain showers; we had already enough… ;))

Lucie,
Il y a du vert partout dans ce Club Med Bodrum; sauf vraiment à la plage… ;) Il y avait même un problème en gestation, car le propriétaire du terrain contigu voulait bâtir un hôtel entre le site du club et la plage privative; heureusement on a fait des découvertes archéologiques dans son terrain et maintenant tout s’est arrêté, peut-être pour des années, j’espère… ;))

Hélène,
La prochaine fois j’essayerai d’avoir une Magnum pour tout le monde; et au moins Moët, pas Pommery. British Airways ne traite plus ses clients fréquents comme auparavant… ;))

JoAnn,
Oh dear, you never read what is written... ;)). The break was made in July 2009... Two Thousand Nine... a long time ago... ;)). So, you won’t miss my regular posting, provided that you come here to comment; there will be something new every week, hopefully, though the next two weekends will be rather busy... ;))
You don’t need to take any breaks! I’ve never seen anyone so vigorous!!
Hey, don’t go away; we need you around in the blogosphere... not just by the end of the year... ;))
Anyhow, why am I writing all this, you’ll never come back to read the answers; I suspect you don’t even know there is a reply to your comments. Do you?

Diane,
Green is probably a special treat for the Club Med residents... ;) The country in itself, as far as I know, it’s not an example of widespread green; actually, it doesn’t seem to have as much rain as, say, Scotland... ;))
Pretty, you have some gorgeous places to see... ;)

Alice SG,
It was a nice break! And the swans made a sensational appearance in one of the nights... Anyhow, it wasn’t like in the cruise ships where every night you get a different animal on board... ;))

Sue,
OK! So, now you’re acquainted with the theme... ;))
That flight from Miami to Atlanta made some nice shots... It seemed everything went well: light, sun, location... ;))
We both had a great time there; and when on a sunny beach, Mrs. Trotter is always happy... ;))

Trotter said...

Replies, Part Three, prepared sunday night... ;)

Ron,
It’s very relaxing indeed; and there are no ice hockey games to make one nervous... ;))
Look forward to seeing the improvement of your collection of Hard Rock Cafes!!

Norman,
This time the view was a bit short, straight into the dense pines, letting you just see a bit and imagine the rest of the Aegean Sea in front... ;)). But the views of the green were perfect...

Paul,
It certainly is a nice place for a vacation!! Maybe it is a bit too French and too European for American standards... I like it anyhow... ;)). And it’s true that the base language is no longer only French...

Barb,
To make those towel swans, someone had been in the cruise ship industry before joining the Club Med staff... ;))

Leo,
Great to read you back here!! It has been already some time...
I’m glad that you like the layout and the format of the posts. With the collages, I’ve reduced the number of pictures per page (though multiplying them in the collages...) and the number of posts per page to only two. This way it will be easier to download... I hope!!
Also love those quotes!! And we carry always some different books, even for a short break... ;))

Rajesh,
I had... It was last year in July... You probably didn’t notice, but there is a short delay in posting: usually a year, now a bit less... ;))

Indrani,
The maid must have been in a cruise ship before joining the Club... ;)). Thanks for the compliment! Coming from an expert, makes my day...

Joyce,
We actually love to travel, but was a bit intrigued how the pictures show that passion... ;)). Anyhow, the problem is being stuck, and that is what is happening to us now... ;))

Juka,
It can be quiet or exciting, depending on your mood; if you start sailing, playing tennis, surfing, going to the Archery, not to mention the after lunch pétanque (boules) , etc... You’ll be quite busy at the end of the vacation... ;))

Lakshmi,
So after the US, Turkey... What a traveller we have here!! ;)
It’s not that far for you... Start packing!!

Trotter said...

Monday's comments:

Dina,
Forty years of experience... ;))

Stuart,
No peace possible: you’ve got everything and the best mark for Geography in school... and still there is so much elsewhere to see... ;))
You’ve seen green Turkey; there will be other colours following... ;)

Blogitse,
We also have a lot to see in Morocco... ;)).
But there is a direct flight Lisbon-Helsinki four times a week and a direct flight Lisbon-Casablanca every day of the week... TAP Portugal, great airline... ;)

Kcalpesh,
Thanks for the compliment; the location is much better than the pictures... ;)

Andrea,
Great to read you back here!! Indeed, there are many beautiful places in Turkey...
About the Danube I already mentioned it to Eye...

Regina,
We’ll be strolling around the Blue Aegean in the next post... ;)

Paz,
Someone with cruise experience... ;))

Mariposa,
It was definitely a nice break!!

A Lady's Life said...

It reminds me so much of Malaysia with the palms and the cozy balconies surrounded by quiet beauty.
:)

Trotter said...

Lady,
I've not been on the beach in Malaysia (only KL and Malacca...), so I can't compare... ;)