Arrived in Alanya at about 8am this morning after a turbulent night at sea.

From where I'm lying in bed, most mornings when we arrive in a port, I tend to flick the TV on and see what the view from the bridge is. This morning, the view made me jump out of bed and peer through the porthole, and I couldn't get dressed and up on deck fast enough. For the scene was spectacular. Alanya is spectacular. I like Turkey, I decided very quickly. Mountains! At last - some REAL MOUNTAINS!!

With a tour this afternoon to Bedevet Plateau, I had just a couple of hours to get out and explore old Alanya, which consists of many old buildings, protected by the remains of an old city wall and topped by a castle.

I knew that reaching the castle might be a little ambitious considering the time I'd got, but by gum I wasn't going to pass up the chance of having a go. And I might just have done it if I hadn't bumped into a very kindly old gentleman some way up, who insisted upon inviting me into his house and meeting his dear old wife. From their living room the view was stunning, and as they both told me all about themselves and their family, with the use of photographs old and new, in a language of which a single word I didn't understand, I soon realised any hope of reaching the castle had just been dashed.

Now anyone who knows me will know that I cannot abide fancy teas - if I'm having a drink of tea, it generally has to be traditional tea, Red Label, Ty-phoo, Tetley (or similar) or not at all. So, when the old lady brought me a hot drink of Apple tea, I knew I was going to have to drink it, or I would be offending them - I still don't like fruit teas - but I was brave!

So, for about 30 minutes or more, I tried to communicate as best I could. What turned out to be rather brill was that he did carving and when he finally showed me his handiwork and told me how many euros he sold them for, I knew I couldn't resist spending money - after all, I'd been a little worried up until now that I hadn't had much of a chance yet of buying any gifts to take home with me, and here was the ideal opportunity. Not only did I purchase a couple of carvings from him (which I'm not going to describe because the people I'm buying them for are almost certainly going to be reading this), but his wife threw in a couple of other jewellery-type things that she also hand-made, and both were happy for me to then take a photograph of them to complete the souvenir.

As I say, hopes of reaching the Citadel were no longer viable, and when I finally left the old couple 20 euros better off, I climbed only a little further through the maze of old ancient walkways, until I found an old ruined chapel, beyond which I made a quick sketch (cos that was what I was supposed to be there for after all). I was high enough to get some stunning views across the bay, towards the mountains, which is where I'll be going this afternoon. I'm now off for a quick lunch.