Before you can really get started on a vacation far from home you have to get there. That was what today was all about. Then again, is it only today? I left home on Sunday evening and arrived in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon.

Sunday night was spent in a hotel near the airport, so maybe I can say that I started on Monday morning. Makes it sound not quite as long.

My first flight of the day was on a Boeing 757. I used miles for a First/Business award ticket, so got to fly in comfort. The first flight was just across the country from San Francisco to Washington Dulles airport.

Here I am on the Boeing 767 for the next leg of the trip from Washington Dulles to Munich. I had a nice comfortable seat that laid flat so I was able to get a bit of sleep.

I had a nice dinner on the flight to Munich. Here I have a nice piece of chicken with beans, greens and grilled onions. Very tasty.

Here is a picture of the map on the display close to the time we landed in Munich. It was a long flight, but pretty nice as I watched a couple of movies before sleeping for a couple of hours.

One of the flight attendants took a picture of me in my seat near the end of the flight. I have a bit of bed head, but am looking pretty relaxed.

After a couple hours layover in Munich where I got to meet most of the other tour members we board our flight to Ankara.

In Munich we went by bus to a remote boarding site. The airport in Munich is being expanded so that this will not be needed in the future. Business Class on the Lufthansa flight was not even worth taking a picture. The only physical difference from coach was that you didn’t have people sitting in the middle seat.

However, the food and service was much better. I had a nice lunch. A very German lunch :-).

I was in a window seat, so took a few pictures out the window of the plane as we flew toward Ankara. Here you can see the snow covered Alps as we headed south from Munich.

After landing in Ankara it was time to board our tour bus. We will be spending a lot of time on this bus in the next two weeks, and you will probably see a few more pictures of it. Can you see the WiFi symbol on the bus? We will be able to check our mail while on the bus.

We saw a lot of mosques on the way from the airport to the hotel. Many of them are very beautiful. We will be seeing a lot of them on the trip.

We finally made it to the hotel and after time for relaxation had a nice dinner. We had a beautiful dessert, but I will save that picture for the future.

Tomorrow we are off to central Turkey to visit ancient Hittite settlement areas. Should be a fun day going back in history.

Tomorrow the tour really begins.

Now for a good nights sleep. I hope what I wrote tonight makes sense, I am really tired.

Steven