Month: March 2012

Sun at last. Mal and I went for a long walk where the shops are. The usual trying to drag you in. We found the answer and just told them things were far cheaper in Istanbul, a fraction of the price in this built up touristy part of Antalya. That was interesting too, if you look at the picture of “Brad Pit’s”, as I say this is a really over priced area and guess what “Doner and Ayran” here are CHEAPER than in North Cyprus. Doesn’t that tell you something about North Cyprus?

The hotel with the spires is yet another new Delphin Hotel. They already have two along Lara Beach. This new one, still being finished is the Delphin Imperial.

You can see from the photos, there is still snow on the mountains. The exercise did us good, we returned, had lunch and then spent the afternoon on the beach. We had to laugh as the guy in charge of the sunbeds took us to two beds, where they are all nicely in lines and uniform, not really our idea of fun but we layed there and read our books.

In for dinner and we are still trying to work out, when they had Sushi, why they put it on a table at the far end of the restaurant, after the deserts! This meant when people went looking for their deserts, that was the first time they set eyes on it!

I have to say the entertainments team have changed and are nowhere near as good as last year and so we spent the night in the bar instead of watching the show!

A Bargain here – 25% off everything at Laura Ashley!!

 

 

Thought for the Day – “ I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.”  ~ Sara Teasdale, “The Philosopher”

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAL!!!!

It was freezing! We did attempt the beach but nearly got blown away. The wind chill factor was horrific. I really can’t get my head around “global warming”. It must have been a good 10 degrees lower than last year. Southern Turkey in March and such cold weather.

After our attempt at the beach, we used the facilities indoors, the pool and sauna! Many people were sitting outside sunning their faces with their coats on! It was so windy that every time you opened an outisde door, you risked losing your fingers.

This was all made worse by no internet from mid morning which meant Mal couldn’t pick up his online birthday greetings.

Yet another bowl of fruit and bottle of wine were delivered to our room in our absence. There is only so much fruit you can eat and wine you can drink in your room when food and drink are on tap in the hotel 24/7!! I tell a lie, Mal did find a one hour gap when all the restaurants were closed!

The showtime in the evening was the comedy.

Mal enjoyed his birthday in spite of the  weather.

 

 

Thought for the Day -“ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.”  ~ Chili Davis

Baby equipment bargains – there seem to be a lot around at the moment!

What a difference a day makes. It was nice and sunny and so we went for a long walk along the beach and then Mal decided to sit and make sandcastles with his coffee cup!! He must be making the most of his last day being 63! I keep singing him the well known Beatles song. We both commented that in 1966 when it came out how we both thought 64 was ancient! Now he has arrived!

We tried a few of the cocktails in the afternoon. Early evening as we were changing, our chamber maid came and hammered on the door and held her hand out and asked for change. In other words she wanted her tip! We leave our tips at the end of the week, depending on the service, so Mal told her “yok” in no uncertain terms. I seem to remember this happening last year when we were here and we mentioned it on the satisfaction survey, well , nothing has changed!

There is so much choice for every meal. For dinner Mal missed the best dish. They often serve speciality dishes away from the central stations. Mal had already loaded his plate by the time I found it. It was “court kebab”, well that is what they called it, sometimes something is lost in translation on their labels! It was an enormous round loaf, with the centre scooped out and inside geat chunks of what tasted like kelftico, mixed with rice and herbs. It was so delicious. In fact I told the chef on the way out and he seemed really pleased.

A band in the bar in the evening. During the night it must have been so windy as we heard the chairs banging backwards and forwards on our balcony!

 

Thought for the Day – “Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.  It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.”  ~ Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It was River’s 15th Birthday and Mal and I were reminiscing over 15 years ago when he was born and ten minutes into this world we were both cuddling him. It doesn’t seem 5 minutes ago!  Bless him, our first grand child. Of course we rang him in the morning to wish him Happy Birtrhday.

Another wet and windy day but there was plenty to do, eat and drink indoors!! The amount of food and choice, which changed every meal time is crazy!

We did go for a walk around the grounds but then it started raining again. We went back to our room later in the afternoon and there was a knock at the door and “Room service”   again. Mal opened the door and we were given another bowl of fruit nicely cellophaned up and another bottle of wine, More glasses, more plates!  Neither of us know why we keep getting these deliveries! Next a house maid came to the door with new ‘Sherwood Breezes’ bath robes! We only went back to have a shower and get changed.

There seem to be more Brits arriving, up until now there have been mainly Germans and Dutch staying here.

It was Italian night in the restaurant and the beef was the best I have tasted in years. You can see the choice of deserts. There are  4 central reservations full of food  and down behind them chefs are cooking other foods fresh! The waiter has now got the hang of us and instead of giving us a glass of wine each, he now brings the bottle and an ice bucket!

There was a band in the bar and also entertainment in the theatre. We opted for the bar, where they were making a really nice “fruity” cocktail of the day. It may have been fruity but there was plenty of alcohol in it!

 

 

 

We were up at 3.15am!

Our flight left at 6.35 from Ercan to Antalya and we were actually in the hotel by about 8.30am. Our transfer (Shuttle Direct)  was waiting for us, in the rain!

We checked in and were told that our room wasn’t ready. We weren’t surprised as it was so early and official check in time is 2.00pm. They said that is fine, go and have some breakfast and come back later. Meanwhile one of the porters gave me a lovely red flower.

We have stayed at Sherwood Breezes before and the selection of breakfast hasn’t changed one bit. Masses of cereals, cooked, salad, cold meats, cheeses and everything you could ever want. The hotel is all inclusive, 24 hour food and drink and excellent entertainment.

By about 10, the sun came out and sand bags taken away from the doors! We were in our room by 11.00am and then had a knock on the door, “room service”. We hadn’t ordered anything but Mal opened the door and they brought in a bowl of fresh fruit and a bottle of wine and two glasses…. a nice touch!

The rain started again!

Much later we went in the restaurant for lunch only to discover that the lights were out and one of the serving buffets had been moved and chefs were out with mops and buckets. It seems water was pouring through the ceiling. We were impressed how quickly they dealt with the situation and Mal went to take a photo. He was standing talking to the Guest Relations lady and it wasn’t until he returned to the table I heard the full story. She told him to delete the photos from the camera. Of course Mal refused but she wasn’t giving in. Mal explained he took the photos because we were impressed with the speed the emergency was dealt with. She was having none of it and called the Manager. Mal then explained to him and he told the guest relations lady to “go away” and said it was fine!

Good lunch and also a very good dinner and then music in the bar but we went to bed fairly early after our 3.00am start! Storms and rain during the night!

During the day we met some people who were here this time last year and they remembered us.

 

 

Thought for the Day – “ A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”  ~ Robert Orben

A bargain for coach travellers  in the UK and money off at BHS.

We took Rosie into the mountains and the wild flowers up there are amazing.

More gardening and then early evening we packed as we were off to Antalya for Mal’s birthday. An early night as we had to be up at 3.00am!

 

 

Thought for the Day – “Flowers don’t worry about how the’re going to bloom.  They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.”  ~ Jim Carrey

Here is a bargain holiday in North Cyprus.

Not so warm and quite windy and when we took Rosie to the beach, the sea was quite rough. Rosie found a friend on the beach but she wasn’t too impressed when he took her ball.

In spite of the weather we did a lot in the garden and also had lunch outside.

We watched the Man City game as it was the match they were showing on ‘dodgy turk’ but also had the text running on the Man U game! Well, a shock there, Swansea beat Man City and so Man U are back at the top! I think it will be a happy house in Cardiff!

 

 

 

Thought for the day – “The reason women don’t play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public.”  ~ Phyllis Diller