SEA OF MARMARA

Wednesday 25th July

One of our stops ın the Sea of Marmara on the East side of the Kapidag peninsula was at Bandirma. It’s an ugly industrial town, has a smelly harbour with some obscene urchins and a high speed ferry that send up a huge wash three times a day and bangs all the boats against the quays. Apart from that we rather liked it. To make things even better it started blowing Force 7 during the night so we had to stay on. In the morning we ran (including the main mole which turned out to be almost half a mile long) and found some rather splendid public works in progress to beautify the harbour and mosque areas. The next day the weather was not much better so we took an excellent coach East to the historic town of Bursa, famous for its mosques, silk market and bazaars. The mosques were intriguing as they are quite austere internally. As well as the faithful at prayer there were many (mostly Turkish) visitors who chatted away and took pictures in a very informal way. The bazaar was absolutely fascinating with a riot of colour everywhere. Birsa was well worth a visit and we didn’t return until midnight. We spent yet another day weather-bound at Bandirma on Saturday.