California road trip: Ventura to Palo Alto

Ok, it’s been over nine months since I’ve published a blog. I’ve done a bit of traveling in the meantime and sadly only three short bicycle tours, but I’ll start where I left off. Ferda and I had a direct flight from London to Los Angeles (21 hours from our hotel to my parents’ house; finding that inexpensive trans-Atlantic flight was the impetus for our UK trip) and started a road trip with my Dad a couple weeks later.

Our first stop was in Ventura at the San Buenaventura Mission, one of the California’s missions that perhaps even my Dad hadn’t been to before. It was the third that Ferda and I have visited together after Alcalá in San Diego and San Miguel Arcángel on another road trip with my Dad two years earlier.

IMG_20250702_143227 by bryandkeith on flickr
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A week in London

These are places we’ve heard about for years like Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and Westminster Abbey

IMG_20250619_115200 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Five days in Edinburgh

Since Ferda and I were in Glasgow heading to London, we had to stop by Edinburgh, right? It pops up on lists of travellers’ favorite cities in Europe, and maybe that was part of the problem. I think I had high expectations, imagining something like Cáceres on steroids. By the end of the first day I was pretty unimpressed. However, Edinburgh grew on me, and by the end of our visit I understood why people like it.

20250608_172445 by bryandkeith on flickr

On our first afternoon we happened upon the Mansfield Traquair Centre on the one day/month that they’re open to the public. It’s an old church now used for events.

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Two days in Glasgow

I don’t understand air fares. It’s over 3300km from Antalya to Glasgow, and we bought tickets on Coredon for US$92/person. Crazy. Our goal was to get to London, but when we saw that deal, we decided to visit Scotland for the first time.

In the immigration line at the Glasgow airport we ran into friends of friends, Cansu and Yiğit, another childless couple living in Antalya and traveling around. 🙂

Yiğit and Cansu -- friends of friends who also in Antalya by bryandkeith on flickr

I checked the internet and saw that if we hurried we’d make it to the Glasgow Cathedral before they closed that afternoon.

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Homonada Yolu walking: Kızılca to Seydişehir

Another walking tour in Konya where they take our bags from one camp to another and all we have to do is walk. Unlike the first two, this tour was organized by Seydişehir Belediyesi. Turns out the organizers at Konya Büyükşehir Belediyesi and Seydişehir Belediyesi have some sort of unpleasant rivalry/competition going on. I tried to avoid understanding the politics of municipality-sponsored walking tours.

I took a public bus to Seydişehir and got dropped off at a restaurant on the main highway just 2.5km from Kuğulu Park where some of us camped the first night. I set up my tent about 5pm (before the rain) and was surprised there were only about four tents already there. Most people arrived the following morning since they had to work on Wednesday.

IMG_20250528_154750 by bryandkeith on flickr
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