There's a deal to see at Gallipoli - both in the Anzac Cove area and Cape
Hermes. If your time is limited - as yours is then a guided tour will be
best. Be sure you link up with a company which will tour the area of
interest to you. Essentially there are Australian and NZ 'hot' spots;
British interest points, and the Turkish memorials in both areas. Personally
I found the Quinn's Post area (near the Sergeant Mehmet memorial) the most
interesting. There are reconstructed trenches on the original lines here
too.

In the Cannakale Naval Base there is a smallish Turkish military nuseum (not
far from the Fort) - it has excellent computer driven (in at least 3
languages) interpretative 'posts' which explain just what lay behind the
whole Gallopoli campaign, and how the Turks won. Winston Churchill, First
Lord of the Admiralty at the time, took a long time to 'live down' the
disaster he inspired.

You can - of course - also get easily to Troy from Cannakale.

We spent 3 nights at Gelibolu (the Turkish town near the Battlefields
National Park) and rented a car - so we moved at our own pace to just what
we wanted to see - but still took 4 full days to see everything we wanted to
in the area. The ferry from Cannakale to the battlefield is frequent and
fairly quick.





"grusl" wrote in message
...
I'm off to Istanbul for a few days this month. First visit to Turkey and
basically a spur-of-the-moment idea while my wife is visiting her mother.

I'm flying BLR-IST with GF (two four-hour hops with a two hour layover in
BAH and, being GF, will no doubt be late), which cost INR40,000 - about
USD1000 - and staying at the Turing Ayasofya Konaklari in Sogukçesme
sokagi in the Sultanahmet district at EUR120 per night. (No doubt those
diacritics won't come out).

In the middle of the stay I'm planning for an overnight trip to Gallipoli
via Canakkale. The hotel says it does group tours, which I don't
especially mind in an unfamiliar country (and especially if there are
knowledgable veterans on the tour ... not from the original 1915 conflict
of course), but if anyone knows a more interesting way to see the
battlefield sites and memorials I'm listening. I'm OK with bus, train or
car options.

I have the LP guide to Istanbul and I'm basically interested in the city's
history, architecture, art, museums, walking, and eating and drinking
(restaurant and raki bar recommendations welcome; I'm completely
omnivorous). I'm not a shopper. I take photos but not well. My brief
research into Canakkale gives the general impression it's a swinging
university town but I may have to adjust that for local sentiments.

Cheers,

George W Russell

Bangalore