Troy- Gallipoli Peninsula

After Pamukkale we drove to the sea again, the Aegean Coast. We made the decision not to go to Istanbul but to Troy instead. By that time we received an e-mail from Frits, Helma's brother who planned to camp at the Como lake in Italy with the question if we could drop by. The boys were very excited, because from Istanbul to Frits was "only"2000 km.

So we choose to skip Istanbul and went to Troy. Troy famous for Homer's Iliad is a nice historic place. Not too big because 6 cities were built on top of it. You can understand that it must have been a tremendous job to identify which city were the found ruins from. Of course is the horse of Troy the most important thing. You also had a nice view on the Dardanelles. The water was very blue and in the distance we also saw the ships heading for the black sea.

After Troy we took the ferry to the Gallipoli Peninsula. This is a very famous historical place. It was visited by many people. During WWI the allied troops fought against the Turkish army led by Ataturk. At that time the Russian were "our" allies and to ensure an entry to the black sea the allied troops wanted to control the entrance to the black sea. In 1915 many soldiers were sent to this place, from India, Australia, New Zealand, UK and so on. The allied forces lost. The casualties were horrendous so they were withdrawn. In the end more than 20,000 soldiers were unidentified. In 1918 after the war the allied forces came back to bury their soldiers. Most of them are now burried in huge graveyards, but there is a impressive memorial for all these young boys.

Of course many Turkish soldiers died as well. So now it is now a place to visit all the cemeteries, swim in the sea, visit the battlefields. We thought it was an overwhelming experience.