Bodrum - 37° 1 '44" N 27° 29' 26" E

A work in progress.  That is our accommodation, the Akkan Beach Hotel.  As the tourist shoulder season opens today, they are hurriedly trying to finish a big renovation.  Wires hang from ceilings; the pool is 7/8 filled (and sitting unfiltered); the dining area is stacked with boxes of glasses, plates, potted plants in plastic cartons, fridges; paint fumes permeate the hallways, drips of black paint adorn the freshly-laid white marble (!!!) on the stairways.  Our room, which is finished, is gorgeous and overlooks the pool and the harbour and the scrambling workmen. The place *will* be beautiful, but right now it is a construction zone. The Turkish-speaking staff are trying to understand their English- and German-speaking guests.  This, too, will be resolved.  We are the dinner guests who have arrived a half-hour before the invitation stated it would ... only, we are the ones on time.  The thing that was ready is the weather.

everything fits into 22 litres

Our hotel is not alone. Half of Bodrum is in final preparations for the season - setting up umbrellas, painting patio furniture. Potting flowers, lining up the banana lounges and stringing the buoys for swimming areas. Last night we went for a walk and ended up at a season opening of a restaurant. Free wine and food certainly makes up for a bit of last minute construction work!

Azure, clear water under equally blue skies makes for a marvellous breakfast backdrop.  Bodrum is a busy port, with many, many small boats and ships coming and going.  It is a starting point for many dive and cruise trips.  Diving, sailing, kayaking, motoring, party-booze-cruise-faux-pirate ships ... all coming and going from the docks around this old town.

Today, we join a sailing cruise for a week and escape the bustle of this place.  There will be NO internet, so expect a quiet few weeks whilst we unplug and have some experiences to write about.