Back in Marmaris after Tour d' Europe 2012

We arrived back on the boat last night around midnight.  I have to admit that I was not excited to go back to boat life.  We usually fenegeled stays in really nice, 4-starish hotels (thanks to Priceline) that were amazingly comfortable:  a couple of Marriotts, the Mercure, our unbelievable Parisian garden cottage (http://www.longitudehotels.com/en/press-a-reviews.html), a number of boutique hotels (the Jacquemart in Dijon(http://www.hotel-lejacquemart.fr/index.php?lang=fr&page=affiche_article&title_name=CONTACT&art_id=9)was especially nice), great rental apartments (thanks to Booking.com) , and a few unlucky nights in a dive or two (we don’t recommend ‘Mr. Bed’!!)).  We were able to find some amazing deals on line.  Thanks, Captain Kirk.   We usually ate out on the cheap, but in France, you can still eat well.  When we were in apartments, we always ate in – but again – going to the grocery is fun Europe as they all reflect the palates of the people.  I put on 4 pounds thanks to croissants, crepes, baguettes, pates, and wine.  Austria wasn’t much better for the waistline with beer, sausages, and schnitzel everywhere.

So, I wasn’t looking forward to coming back to cramped quarters, no personal space, the constant feeling of fighting disorder (put one thing out of place and the whole boat looks messy).  We flew all day, with a layover in Istanbul.  We got to the boat and it was cold and chilly.  We made our beds, did some basic unpacking, flipped on the switch for the electric blanket to dry off the dampness of ever-present condensation.  We crawled into crampy little beds and I have to say: I had the best sleep of my life.  Certainly, the best sleep in the last 5 ½ weeks. 

After all said and done, I guess there is really nothing like sleeping on the boat for a good nights rest.  Maybe it is the comfort of being in our familiar surroundings, even if it is in Turkey, that allows such a good rest.  It is also nice to have our stuff put away (in relative terms) on the boat.  Not having to lug them around in backpacks, unpacking and packing every day or so.  It is also great to be back to warm weather.  It was COLD (in the teens and below) in France and Austria, and while I was there, I loved it.  Now that we’re back in Marmaris, I have to say, warm is nice!  It is about 60F and we all have warm weather clothes on.  It is good to be back in sweatshirt weather.  Apparently, though, every 3-4 days a storm blows in as it feels like it is starting to bluster now and rain is expected from tonight through Wednesday night, but then it is back to 60 and sunny on Thursday. 

I keep thinking that if boat home is nice, then our real home will be nirvana.  What will it be like to have all that room?  I can hardly imagine.

If you break our trip down into segments, we are now 2/3 finished.  The first 4 months were sailing, then next 4 have been here in Turkey and will end mid-March, and then the last 4 will be sailing again.  It is looking like a little more of the Turkish coast, the Northern Aegean, then down around the Pellopanese through the Ionian, up the Adriatic coast along Croatia, then ending in Venice.   Then home.  Hard to believe that it is in our sights already!