We looked out of the porthole shortly after 7 this
morning to see land close by and we were on time to dock at 8 a.m. We had breakfast in the dining room, with two
couples from Blackburn, England, Bill from Malta and the Irishman that we met
several days ago. During breakfast the captain’s announcement was broadcast to
advise that the passengers were cleared to leave the ship. Again today, the ship is the largest one to ever
dock in the Sinop, Turkey, harbour.
Later we were told, by our guide, that a photographer from the local
paper was taking pictures of passengers as they strolled the streets of the
city of 30,000, for a feature in tomorrow’s local paper. This morning, the sky
has blue patches and white fluffy clouds, with a forecast for sunny skies, the
morning temperature was 18 C. There were shallow swells on the sea.
The hills of Sinop were more gently sloped than the hills
of Trabzon. The ship was too long (290 feet) for the pier, (135 feet), so the forward
port anchor was needed to stabilize the dock position for safe disembarkation.
During breakfast, we learned that you can ask Guest Relations for a map of the town
for each port, so we got map and a short guide to the town, in case we decide
to explore on our own after our walking tour.
Our group of 40 met our guide, Murat, at the pier for the
walking tour by 9:30. The city is named after Sinope, who was a Greek river
goddess with an association with Zeus in Greek mythology. Our first stop was the
Ethnography Museum, a preserved three storey wooden house built in the 1850s
and is about 4,000 square feet. In it
were domestic scenes of the traditional lifestyle of a wealthy Turkish three
generation family home at the end of the 19th century, including a
sewing machine and a loom, as well as jewellery replicas and swords, armour and
rifles. A ten minute walk away was the Sinop
Archaeological Museum. The Museum is a modern museum, which contains various
artifacts and art works belonging to the rich cultural heritage of Sinop. The
ancient philosopher, Diogenes, was born in Sinop. They have a collection of
religious icons. The icons are religious pictures painted on wooden panels
which are equivalent to frescoes on the walls of eastern Christian churches.
The Sinop icons are painted on chestnut wood. During an excavation for a
construction project, a small horde of gold coins was found and is displayed in
the museum. The marble and stone remnants found lying in the outside courtyard,
come from various excavations near the city centre. These pieces cover Greek,
Roman and later civilizations. It was explained that on the carrot shaped
vessels of all sizes (called amphorae) had distinctive marks on their handles
stamped there by the vessels manufacturers. The vessels were made for
transporting or storing olive oil and wine and were traded all over the Black
Sea shores. Sinop was on the ancient Silk Road and Royal Road trade routes. Many
were camel routes, in ancient times, with a day’s travel estimated at about 26
kilometers. Most camel stops had inns or
some accommodation and food. Just beside the museum grounds are the ruins of
the Temple of Serapis. Sarapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in
Antiquity. Under Greek Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian
religion with that of their Hellenic rulers. After another short walk, we
entered the courtyard of the Aladdin Mosque, built by Aladdin Keykubat, the
most renowned of the Seljuk Sultans. The mosque was badly damaged during the
raid by the Byzantine Greeks, but restored in 1268 by Suleyman Pervane, a Seljuk
Turk leader. Aladdin Mosque has had several restorations, one in 1322-1325 and another
in 1850 to repair a pulpit collapse. In
the courtyard in front of the mosque entrance, is a fountain with taps near the
bottom. Here the faithful must wash
their feet, hands, behind their ears, their neck, plus wash out their nose and
mouth three times, each time they enter the mosque for prayers. To enter the mosque, everyone must to remove
their shoes. The whole interior main floor was carpeted, and the times for
prayers posted on a neon sign by the entrance.
At prayer time, the men pray on the main floor and the women are praying
up in the balconies. Across from the
mosque was a market place that is in a former madressa, one of the 13th
century schools. It is the official
handicraft market, selling clothing, spices, Turkish Delight, jewellery, coffee
and tea.
As we continued the walk, it was explained that the
Russian navy attacked Sinop on November 30, 1850 in a blizzard. The attack surprised Sinop and most of its
ships were destroyed, but one escaped to Istanbul and the Ottoman rules asked
England and France for help which led to the Crimean War a few years later on
the western shores of the Black Sea.
Last venue of the
tour was to the Ancient City Walls and some areas date back to 600 BC. Sinop
has been occupied by Greeks, Pontus, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. The tour
ended here so, we climbed to 70 stairs to the top for a view of the harbour and
city. Some of the steps were twice as
high as a modern step and when we walked down our thigh muscles ached a bit
from the large steps taken to ascend the steps. We had a leisurely five minute
walk back to the ship for lunch. The
pedometer count when we got back to the ship was 8721 steps.
After lunch we sat by the pool and updated the blog and
read until dinner time.
The Nightcaps were the pre-dinner band in the Rendez-vous
and we were the only ones dancing before going to dinner. Part way through
dinner the captain made an announcement throughout the ship that the itinerary
for the following four days would be changed due to predicted weather
conditions for Mykonos of 62 knot winds and 4 meter waves. The stops at Kusadasi and Mykonos will be
reversed in order to try for better weather for the Mykonos tendered port two days
later that was originally scheduled. Dinner appetizers were the Seafood Salad containing
squid, mussels, scallops and shrimp, followed by either Squash Soup or Cobb
Salad and the entrée choices were beef Prime Rib and mashed potatoes or Chicken
stuffed with banana and ham with rice. The
dessert choice was Sticky Toffee cake on a pineapple slice.
Tonight’s show presented Kate Dowman, who regularly
performs Operas and Oratorio roles. It
was early to bed since the White Night Party with top 40 tunes did not appeal
to us. The Martini Bar was decorated in “icy”
white with accents of purple for the occasion.
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