Turkish Riviera!

We had an amazing vacation in southern Turkey during spring break in April!  We stayed at a great resort called Blue Waters Club in Side, an hour from the airport in Antalya.  The resort was incredible - with several different pools and giant waterslides, tennis, mini-golf, badminton, volleyball, a fitness pavilion outside, and all-inclusive food.  The kids went to the kids club activities some of the days, and William even joined in on Wednesday to be in the kids play for all the adults in the evening (Elise and Nathan didn't want to do it, so William went to the rehearsals on his own Wednesday morning and afternoon, then performed in the play that evening).

Dave and I played some tennis and joined in some of the fitness classes at the outdoor pavilion.  We played mini-golf and played badminton, and we all had a great time on the giant waterslides and at the beach.  It was still April, so it wasn't summer weather, but it was nice many of the days with some isolated rain showers. The beach was beautiful with nice golden sand, tons of beach chairs and a shaded play structure for Meredith.  There was a restaurant at the beach too (part of the all-inclusive) where we at lunch sometimes, and we loved the Turkish pancakes that were made every afternoon just near the beach.  Our kids (and indeed or whole family) lined up to watch the woman making them, then get the beef variety (they had cheese, potato, and spinach too).  So much of the food here was great - including the Turkish pizza that was really special, and the desserts that were quite different.

We had a special dinner one night at the Turkish restaurant, where they cooked in the traditional way using a special wood oven.  They roasted a goat, which was pretty impressive!  Another night we ate at the Austrian restaurant where they had the traditional Tafelspitz, and of course apple strudel!  They also had a Kinderdisco every night, where the kids sang and danced!  We were there over Easter, so they even had an Easter egg hunt for the kids!

One day we went on a tour to Alanya and the River Dim.  This was great!  We first went to the fortress above the town of Alanya, which was absolutely beautiful and offered a tour of the sea and the city.  Then we went down to the harbor and had a ride on a real pirate ship!  We went out along the cliffs and saw lots of the caves in the cliffs.  We then went for lunch along the River Dim, where we had some traditional Turkish barbecue and salads.  Then we went on to the Dim cave that was only discovered in 1986 and opened to the public in 1999.  It was 400 meters long and absolutely incredible with stalactites and stalagmites throughout! What an amazing place, and to think that it was just discovered so recently.  At the end of the day we went to the market in Alanya, which had fruits and vegetables as well as lots of shops selling every name-brand item you could imagine.  How did they get all of these things for such a good deal?!  Of course, they can't be authentic, but we did get some Abercrombie sweatshirts for a good price, and also some Turkish delight treats.

We have had some great vacations here in Europe, but by the end of the week I usually feel like I'm ready to go home.  Here, however, I definitely could have stayed another week.  It was a great place with something for everyone!

One thing that made the week even more fun was the fact that the hotel was basically all in German.  It is partially owned by TUI, a German/Swiss travel agent, which is where we booked the trip.  Because we booked through TUI from Switzerland, of course most of the other guests were also from Germany or Switzerland.  So, we got to practice our high German in Turkey!