28 October

Another early start and another very early wake-up – for me at 0430 again before I finally got up at 0530, packed everything up (the socks are now finally dry and I only have two or three more laundry evenings before I am home) and then after the usual preparations I was down for breakfast at 0615 – and here disaster struck. I had forgotten my Vegemite and was too tired to go back up for it, so I went WITHOUT! After, I went back to the room and was finally down at 0725 for us to leave the Ankara hotel at 0730. Today no-one was late and we set off for Gordian and arrived at Midas’ tomb in Gordian about 0920. After a little History lesson, we entered the tomb. The entrance was far more impressive than the actual tomb area, probably because we had to walk all the way in and then couldn’t enter the actual tomb area.
We returned outside to visit the museum at the site, then went to the café for some morning tea. Doingnothing makes one so hungry and thirsty. We left about 1010 and drove over until we hit the main road for Bursa – apparently a new four-lane divided road. We stopped for lunch at 1255 after seeing changes in the surrounding countryside. Where we stopped the town area was undergoing a lot of development and many new buildings were going up. It seems the buildings have four flats per floor, roughly about twelve hundred square feet. At eight floors, each accommodates around thirty-two families in reasonable conditions. After lunch we continued to Bursa, arriving there at around 1515. At the hotel we went to our rooms (and I got connected to the Internet) and we were back on the bus at 1540 to visit mosque (from AD1399) and the Han (from AD1491) which is now a major silk sales area. After a tour of the mosque (still in operation) and a quick explanation of the Han, we had time to look around. I walked back through the bazaar with an English couple from Burma, arriving back at the hotel at 1735. After that I did photo processing and organisation of things to post back home from Istanbul. I posted the photos and went down for dinner.
During dinner Margaret (from Manchester, one of the two deaf/dumb people on the tour) had a cake for her birthday and got presented with a ceramic plate (by Aran) for her birthday. Everyone sang happy birthday and she blew all the candles out. Soon after I returned to my room. I had written postcards out, but still have a letter to write to post from Turkey.
I had luck at posting my blogs tonight, and managed to catch up with writing them all up tonight. Then it was off to bed, as despite doing little I am tired (more tired than when I drive long distances, whether in the US, Europe or at home.