Ski en Engadine

La Suisse est certainement le pays le plus emblèmatique des alpes.  Plus de 60% de sa superficie est située en territoire alpin (tout juste derrière l'Autriche) et plus de la moitié des sommets à 4000 se trouvent ici.   Nous en profitons régulièrement avec les sorties de ski du weekend, par contre nous n'avions jamais fait un voyage exclusivement dédié au plaisir de la montagne avec les enfants.  Cette année, nous avons donc choisi de passer une semaine dans la région d'Engadine, vaste et longue vallée avec de nombreuses stations de ski.  Cette région est aussi connue pour, à la fois son manteau neigeux et ... son ensoleillement!

La région a le climat le plus froid de la Suisse et offre donc les meilleures conditions de neige ... pas trop de soucis à se faire contrairement à d'autres sites alpins comme en France. 

Pour se rendre il faut pratiquement traverser tout le pays d'ouest en est, ... ce qui nécessiterait de franchir plus de 4 cols!!  Donc, il est plus simple de faire simplement le tour des montagnes en passant par Zurich!

La première montée se fait dans la vallée creusée par la rivière Julia qui est située dans le canton de Grisons.  Se trouve le long de la route le barrage du lac de Marmorera qui fut construit en 1954 tout en nécessitant le déplacement de toute la commune du même nom!!
    

Site du barrage de Marmorera

Les enfants qui profitent d'une pause pour se dégourdir et surtout oublier leurs maux de coeur...!

Ensuite on franchit le col de Julier à plus 2200m, qui reste ouvert toute l'année.   La descente se fait par la suite jusqu'à la ville de St.Moritz.


Une fois sur place, et bien il ne reste qu'à profiter du ski et des sports hivernals car toute la région est bien enneigée et ce jusqu'en bas de la vallée, somme toute assez haute en altitude.    Voici quelques clichées pris depuis les 2 domaines les plus importants du coin, soient Corvatsch et Corviglia.

Vue plongeante vers St-Moritz depuis Corviglia

Autre vue du domaine Corviglia qui culmine au "Piz Nair"

Magnifique vue sur le Bernina, point culminant à 4049m.

L'autre versant est le domaine Corvatsch, qui permet de monter plus haut
et skier sur  le glacier du même nom.

Martin

Thesis

One of the reason why I'm holding this blog is to archive things I consider important enough to be kept in a longterm platform as I hope this one to be? A while back, I wanted to put online the thesis I wrote in the mid-90's... wow that sounds old! Being optimistic I though this would be a simple matter... it is not as if I wrote this with a typewriter requiring me to scan the entire document!  Word processor existed back then and I even used what was considered at the time the top of word processor: WordPerfect.

Well this wishful thinking was ignoring limitation of technology and its rapid obsolescence. When I consider what I ended up using to archive this important piece of work> not USB Flash drive, not CD , not DVD, not even Zip drive.. yes on those 3.5inch floppy disk: there was simply no chance of getting it back. I did manage to restore one diskette, but was less successful in reading and converting its format (of course I kept the files on their original WP 5.2 format ! ).

I bet nowadays most modern Universities preserve all post-grad work in their original digital content.

Anyway, enough allusion to my age, and here is the main content of this post> A full scan in pdf of my thesis dated back from 1994:

• [pdf] Part-1
• [pdf] Part-2
• [pdf] Part-3
• [pdf] Part-4
• [pdf] Part-5
• [pdf] Part-6
• [pdf] Annex & Biblio

Martin

p.s. Note that the paper copy I could get a hold on to still contains some minor editing to be done, so for the real final copy I'll need to get to McGill University.

PALO MOLAP SERVER and Excel Add-in

 
What is Palo MOLAP Server:

• Palo is cell-related
• Palo is an in-memory database
• Palo is multi-dimensional
• Support Hierarchies in Dimension
• Support Attributes for Dimension member (e.g. to allow for localization, provide longer name … ) in addition to Element names. Note that these Attributes are stored in separate tables.

 
A local server is installed on your computer when you install the Palo client. You can log into the local servers of other computers in a network. In practice, this makes each local server public. You can create users and groups and also assign passwords to manage necessary access rights to your server. But you can't add another server on the same computer.
 
A Server can host many different Databases which contain one or more Data Cubes. Dimensions can be shared among different Cubes. A server can be installed and run privately (Localhost, by default: http://127.0.0.1:7777) or on a shared server for concurrent multi-users access.
 
Palo OLAP Server with Excel Add-In is open source designed to help working with large data quantities represented multidimensionally. Palo server can host multiple end-users on a network and thus eliminate the need to distribute all Excel tables with all well known problems associated to that.
 
Although its main focus is to work on top of Excel, it seemed to be supporting the OpenOffice Calc equivalent as well, although I did not try it.
 
 
My observations done on the Palo BI Server 3.0 & Excel Add-in:
 
Very robust and well designed with a full integration with Excel. So if you are a big Excel fan and don’t like the mess that this lead too in big organization this can help mitigate the often disastrous Excel over-used in today’s large enterprise.

Who has not suffered from Excel hell where merely all managers start their own mini Reporting app initiative within Excel…another illustration of the Peter Principle applied to software application ;-)!!!

So if you are very good with Excel, then you can basically create Cube right-off the bath without merely leaving your comfort zone. Even all Cube management and Administration is done through a dedicated Menu Palo added in Excel.

Ok, at one point you will need to import data from external source, but even then you can easily use Excel built-in function to load a cube from a simple CSV file and leverage Palo provided Excel function to generate your hierarchies levels, your calculated metrics, your ragged dimensions (for example you could easily create a time dimension from a simple date format by deriving the quarter, week, months and year data using normal Excel functions).
…It is quite cool you actually see these import in real-time with cells being refreshed in front of you (ok yes not so good for performance but you have the option to stop the refresh).
Concerning the dimension, I’ve encountered a few limitations concerning its dimensions structure and Elements. Besides the documented naming restrictions concerning Elements (see below), consolidated Elements cannot have the same names (case insensitive, in contradiction with user-doc) as one of its sub-elements (i.e. parent can’t have the same name as children). It seems to be applicable throughout all the dimension hierarchy, no duplicates can exist at any level! (I remember Essbase having similar constraints?)
Also, complex dimension structure having multiple independent hierarchies in parallel tends to degrade performance considerably.
 
Documented limitation and rules about Characters allowed in element-names:
Characters allowed in element name:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789_-.
Rules to follow for name of an element:
- The length cannot be 0.
- It cannot begin with a blank.
- It cannot end with a blank.
- Names in Palo are case sensitive!
 
 
The most commons functions you would use within Excel are:
 
--- PALO.DATA()

This is used to represent data of a cube inside Excel (work in both read/write mode ) based on the arguments listed. The arguments are used to identify the host, database and the cube. Obviously we must include the dimension/measures elements in order to address the cube cell precisely.
Other similar function exist to represent data (PALO.DATAC and .DATAV) but these differ only by how the data is fetched: each sheet cell individually (PALO.DATA being the slowest), all sheet cells having PALO.DATAC formulas will be calculated in one-pass, whereas the PALO.DATAV is even faster because it leverages Excel array formula (not always possible).

---PALO.EADD()

This is used to Add Elements within existing Dimension. We have also arguments to provide server/database as well one to provide the Dimension name. Other argument is to give the Type (‘n’ : base element, ‘c’: consolidated) specify the type of elements. The use of type "n” can always be used since it will anyway be converted to ‘c’ later on during import when sub elements are assigned to parent element.
We need obviously to provide the Element name, the Parent name (optional since top parent may not have any) and Weight (number used to describe the consolidation factor). A final important argument is Clear : this decides if the dimension should be cleared for all elements before importing, so when this parameter is set to TRUE all elements are deleted before importing and when it is set to FALSE it just updates old and inserts new elements.
So you should change this parameter in all your PALO.EADD functions from TRUE to FALSE to avoid clearing the dimensions.
Possible parameters values are 0 (or FALSE), 1 (or TRUE) and 2
0: Removes before importing no elements of the dimension.
1: Removes before importing all elements of the existing dimension.
2: Removes before importing all existing elements of the C-dimension, basic
elements are not deleted.

Attention with Problem of removing Dimension element with PALO.EADD:
I had this problem until I realised that PALO imports work in the entire workbook (not only the active worksheet)! So when you are importing using the PALO.SETDATA function in one worksheet any PALO.EADD function in other open workbook will also be run. But since new rows are only imported in the active sheet, only the currently displayed (last) row in inactive sheets are imported again using PALO.EADD.

---PALO.EADD()

And obviously you also have a function to load fact data into the Cube: PALO.SETDATA. This function works similarly as PALO.EADD (must specify server/database/cube), as well as all the coordinates elements (for which dimension member the value is loaded) and obviously the cell value (the value of the measure specify in the coordinate). It has also a Splash (a funny terminology ?!!) argument which indicates whether we can write to a consolidated element (and distribute data evenly among children afterwards..).

 
 
Important Design PALO features:
 
1.  Attributes

Attributes are used to provide additional element properties (e.g. other languages, elements description like Product description, code and other attributes, and also special number like Product Unit Prices, etc..).
A very Palo-specific way to manage these Attributes is done through a dedicated special Cube (Attribute-type) stored independently of the Cubes having the fact data. These independencies between Attributes and Elements data is flexible, but force you to switch back and forth between different Cubes during normal Reporting….

 
2.  Hierarchies

Palo support Hierarchy inside a Dimension, and these hierarchies can be Balance or Unbalanced and even Ragged,. You can even have multiple hierarchies within the same dimension (same elements can belong to different consolidations element, i.e. different Parent).

3.  Comments

You can add Comment elements (defined as normal elements in Dimension but important to set in String format and not Numeric format typically used for normal Elements).

4.  Calculated Elements

To create calculated Elements (typically Calculated measures), we have two options:
1) set up so-called server Enterprise rules in the database where computations are done within the database… these Enterprise rules may involve complex models and large data volumes impacting potentially the speed as a great deal of computing may be required to calculate the entire cube).
2) a simpler approach and sometimes good alternative is the use of Push Rules, i.e. operations, which are performed in Excel and the results of which are then written back into the cube, so no need for Server-processing. This is done through the use of PALO.SETDATA function to upload into the cube any elements cells and then leverage all Excel functions used to calculate the Elements.

5.  Consolidation Factors

With hierarchical structures you may factor elements differently among all children of a Parent. Typically you normally have an equal factor (=1), but you may need to weight the elements differently: negative weightings for Measure-type element for which you would derive a consolidated Parent (e.g., when consolidating expenditures and revenue to have a Profit-type consolidated member).

 
How-tos:
- Creating new cubes

The following sequences are normally necessary to Create a complete new Cube:
I. Create a new database
II. Create dimensions
III. Create a cube with the dimensions
IV. Importing elements into the dimensions
V. Import data cells
Important: Dimensions are created independently of Cube (they are stored at the Database-level), so that we can delete complete Cube without loosing any Dimension data. On the other hand, updating a Dimension structure/data will impact all associated Cubes.

- Importing External Data

Although it is quite simple to populate Dimension and Cube directly doing data entry Excel, it is certainly not practical with large volume of data. So other options exist.
Import options (through special Excel built-in functions) from different source:
- text files
- other Palo cubes
- database through ODBC driver
- from direct excel Worksheet
- some external ETL standard tools (including PALO ETL Server application)
Final option is through Database back-up: although Palo is memory-based, it obviously keeps a copy of each database into dedicated directory. Each Database-directory has three different files types (1-, 2- and 3- ) directly stored within the server file system.
It is convenient to do backup copies of database by simply copying the full directory content (after having stopped the PaloServerService)…that you can also use to transfer full Database (with all their cubes/dimensions) into a different host.

- Working with Snapshot

Also convenient is to work on a normal Excel Worksheet without being connected to the Palo server. This is possible on any worksheet tied to a PaloServer with the options Save as Snapshot… this will change all Palo-specific formulas in cells by normal data values… as any standard Excel sheet.
Similarly but not quite the same, you can also work on an offline mode (so the cells keep their Palo-specific formulas) to be able to see data without any connection to the Palo MOLAP Server (this requires to activate the Use client Cache in the Database settings).

 
Martin

La région du bassin du Souss-Massa

Les dernières vacances m’ont permis de voir pour la première fois un pays du Maghreb, le Maroc.

Premières impressions depuis l’avion:  c’est beaucoup plus vert que ce que j’aurais cru étant donné la proximité du désert… mais peut-être que la conjonction de l’océan et des chaînes de montagne Atlas fait en sorte que la saison des pluies arrosent tout de même un peu une partie de ce grand pays ?

Après vérification, la région du bassin du Souss-Massa où l’on se trouvait est plutôt caractérisée par un climat subdésertique handicapant sérieusement les cultures céréalières. Par contre, grâce à l’exploitation des nappes phréatiques, la culture arboricole est très présente ce qui explique la présence de grandes étendus de champs de verdure correspondant à exploitation d’arbres agrumes (oranger, clémentine, citronnier,..). On comprend mieux l’omniprésence de tous les fruits marocains dans nos marchés. L’agriculture est très importante pour l’économie du pays et est apparemment très conditionnée aux quantités de pluie reçu…

Paysage pris des collines tout près d'Agadir.

Aussi typique de ce pays sont les épices que l’on retrouvent partout exposés et frais dans les souks … entre la coriandre, le safran (épice les plus chers au monde extrait à partir d’une fleur au pétale mauves), le cumin, le gingembre, la cannelle, le clou de girofle, la noix de muscade, ou encore les mélanges préparés pour les tajines et couscous comme le Ras el hanout (composé traditionnellement de plus d'une vingtaine d'ingrédients!). Le choix est vraiment impressionnant comme en témoigne la photo pris du marché berbère de Taroudant. La cuisine marocaine en est bien imprégnée surtout dans ses couscous et autres tajines apprêtés avec plusieurs épices raffinées.

L'épice la plus mythique est sans aucun doute le safran cultivé et exporté principalement du creux de l’anti-Atlas entre Taroudant et Ouarzazate.  Y'a aussi le piment doux, la coriandre en grains et bien-sûr la menthe douce qui demeure un symbole fort grâce au thé à la menthe sucrés tradition importante de la vie sociale dans tout le Maghreb. La menthe du Maroc serait considérée comme une des meilleures du monde !

Tous ces épices se retrouvent en abondance dans le souk et autres marchés.  Un exemple de marché authentique est celui de la petite ville de Taroudant très recommandée avec ses 2 souk berbères et arabes. On a un meilleur ratio qualité/prix qu’à Agadir, donc conseil aux touristes il faut se déplacer des villes les plus touristiques pour trouver de bonnes affaires.







Dans le souk on trouve presque de tout... des céréales, des meubles artisanaux jusqu'aux animaux de la ferme!

C'est assez impressionnant sur cette photo du souk, comment les femmes s'empressent à se cacher le visage: dans la culture musulmane les gens refusent souvent de se faire photographier et ce plus particulièrement les femmes ... ce serait pour éviter toute idôlatrie de reproduction d'être vivant!  J'ai pris réellement connaissance de ce comportement une fois retourné à la maison ...et oui j'ai été digne du parfait touriste.

Autre particularité du monde végétale du coin est l'Arganier, petit arbre endémique du Maroc. Son amande a des belles qualités et se transforme en huile soit de cuisine ou de produit de soins pour le corps. D'ailleurs on voit de plus en plus cette huile dans nos magasins...

Me voici avec Mathias explorant les champs de l'Arganier dans un bolide de son choix !  Plus tard, il m'avouera qu'il s'était caché les yeux par peur... peur qu'il combattait en se répétant inlassablement que son papa était un bon conducteur !!

Une autre photo de l'arganeraie où les plus fins observateurs apercevront les fameuses chèvres grimpeuses d'Arganier:

From Maroc_2010

une fois le fruit recueilli de cet arbre, on peut en extraire l'huile à partir de son amande:

Autre attrait à voir de Taroudant est la synagogue qui a été convertie en lieu de trésor aux plaisirs pour les yeux depuis le départ de toute la population juive de cet endroit (la communauté juive du Maroc est aujourd'hui seulement présente dans les grandes villes).

Vue de l'intérieur de la synagogue avec toutes ces décorations ostentatoires (par ailleurs tous à vendre, à condition d'y mettre le prix )

Y'a une autre facette du pays qui nous moins plu: cette culture de marchandage et cette pression commerciale très présente dans les rues... surtout dans les villes plus touristiques où tout touriste est assurément racolé à peu près à chaque coin de rue.

Ok il faut savoir composer avec cela et c’est pas trop agressif non plus. Bon il est vrai qu’on va trouvé de beaucoup meilleur prix sur la rue (la voiture louée à 5fois moins cher que celle trouvé via les agences touristiques normales ), mais certains voudront éviter d’avoir à gérer ces négociations et le pourboire une fois le service fourni !

Parlant de marchandage, on ne pourra passer sous silence le fameux marchand de tapis. On a eu une agréable surprise d'ailleurs avec cette rencontre d'un marchand des plus typique qui a fait toute une mise en scène pour expliquer les différences entre Berbère, nomades et bédouins, la signification des dessins et style des tapis et leur origine. Ok, y’a beaucoup de mise en scène pour augmenter les chances de vente, mais les enfants ont été conquis... et les parents ont finalement plié suite aux milliers de tapis déroulés!

Ce fut aussi accompagné de cette pratique de convivialité et d’hospitalité avec thé à la menthe.   On a eu plusieurs occasions d'y goûter et même les enfants se sont mis au thé.

On a aussi parcouru le littoral entre Agadir et Essaouira via une route très agréable longeant plus ou moins la rive.  Attention aux flics cachés derrière les panneaux de limite 60 souvent précédés d'une distance d'à peine 200m par d'autres panneaux indiquant plutôt 80.  Je ne sais pas si c'est une attrape touriste, mais je me suis bien fait avoir.


Ce littoral est parfois bien découpé, et on a pu constater la force impressionnante de l’océan de ce côté de l'Atlantique!!

Le long de la route, on voit aussi les avancés du désert qui semble se jeter littérallement dans l'océan!

Aussi plusieurs dromadaires nous apparurent dans ces parcs tout près de la route... sont-ils à l'état sauvages, je ne crois pas?

On a fini l'excursion de la journée à la ville fortifiée d’Essaouira.  Cette ville apparemment très venteuse (confirmée lors de notre séjour) fut fondée au 18e siècle par MohammedIII et construit par des architectes européens.  Elle comporta un port marchand de grande importance mais qui est maintenant qu'un port dédié à la pêche.

From Maroc_2010

Voici quelques autres photos prises aux alentours et à l'intérieur de la ville fortifiée :

Les enfants toujours aussi sérieux:

Finalement mes enfants m'en voudraient vraiment si ja passait sous silence le charmeur de serpent (c'est ce qu'ils ont le plus apprécié du voyage... dit avec toute l'honnêteté et la candeur propres aux enfants)

Mathias n'en revient toujours pas de sa rencontre avec le cobra argenté!

Le dernière anecdote du voyage est la chute de Mathias ...qui a atterri sur la tête pendant une escapade avec Laurie.   Laurie, soeur attentive et toujours aux petits soins avec son frère benjamin, donna les premiers soins et ensuite se précipita vers sa mère avec cette phrase assassine:   ... pendant que toi tu étais en train de te prélasser au bar Mathias se fendait le crâne!

Martin

Pentaho platform introduction

A few weeks ago, I've done a presentation to introduce the Java/J2EE world to some BI consultant at Sword. During this presentation, I also covered a little bit the Pentaho platform as it is a good illustration of the challenges and issues one face when trying to integrate various open source heterogeneous components.

Here is a slideshow on this second part which introduces the Pentaho platform ....






I'm hoping to investigate the ROLAP engine (Mondrian) soon ...

Martin

Kas, Turkey

Last October we headed to Turkey for vacations. Having a couple of Turkish friends, I had been warned by its natural beauty and cultural richness, but it did surprise me anyway! It is a bit surprising that we do not hear much coming from Turkey compared to similar Mediterranean places (do you know anyone not having been to either Greece, Italy, Spain or France?).

Landing on Istanbul, we are quickly reminded that it is a Muslim world by seeing the number of Minaret breaking through the skyline of the city. One of the first sound we heard the next morning outside our hotel (at the airport), was the Adhan (call to prayers in Islamic religion) coming out from the speakers installed onto the Minaret. It was our first pleasant change of culture but a bit of stress as we were expected to catch another flight transiting to Antalya but had to wait in the small bus for, what I suspect, the driver to complete his Salah (muslim prayers). Traditionally, the prayers are the obligatory rites of the religion, and are to be performed five times a day. However, we found the religious fever in Turkey to be quite moderate ... and apparently the Salah is now spoken in Arabic language which most Turkish do not even understand!

So that will be it for the religious signs since the religion is mostly left outside the public affair in this officially "laïque" society (secular). For the more curious, you can refer to Atatürk (founder of the Republic of Turkey) revolution and modernization of the society just after the Ottoman empire fall down... BTW, Turkish women received rights to vote before most westerner countries: 1930 (ref. http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm).

The place we chose in Turkey was the Mediterranean region just south west of Antalia as this area offers quite a lot of variety in terms of natural and cultural attractions.

Our kids enjoying the view from the house rented from the french tenant. BTW, quite a lot of retired Europeans are staying over here and enjoy the nice climate at low price¨.. rent can average around 300€!

Ok a little bit of history ( Turkey's history is anything but little ;-)) . I remember not being very good at it during my young age , because I've never been motivated in learning stuff simply for what they were without involving some kind of logical thinking and reasoning..... (it could be related to how history was taught as it seemed to me that the goal was to cram and memorize as many events as possible without much hindsight on the relations and intricacies between these).

Having said that, my country history was limited to about 400 years! I can help but have .. a small thought for turkish kids having to learn their country history at school!

Referring to my Guide Bleu de Turquie (Blue guides are probably the oldest and best of tourism guide.. ), the long history of Turkey has been characterized by many different change of reigns and regime overruled which evolved in time almost from the Bronze age up to now!! A very brief summary would need to at least give these over-lapping periods :

1. pre-historic Bronze (XI to 1200 BC) with the first establishment, the Hittites empire taking control of Babylon, until the fall of Troy and of the empire.
   
2. Greek (XII to I) civilization from the conquest of Alexander the Great to his death and the later control by Roman.
3. Roman empire (300 to 565 AD) with the change of Byzance to Constantinople (new Roma) done by Constantin.
4. Byzantine (726 to X AD, the Roman empire continuation into the middle age) from the iconoclasm (ban of religious icons) to the schism seperating the Orthodox and the Roman church.
5. Seljuq dynasty (1055 to 1303) originating from the Turcoman tribal around Bagdad and going into a long westerner migration to the fall following the invasion of Mongol
   
6. Ottoman empire (1326 to 1923) emerging from the Turco-Persian Seljuq in northern Antolia, the Ottomans will remain in control of the region for a few centuries and developping a brillant civilization reaching passed the Balkans, the middle-east and north Africa. Unable to modernize they will succomb to the europeans and russians and finally collapse after the end of WW1.
   
7. Modern Turkish (1923-) from the recognition of a reduced territory sovereignty (compared to Ottoman period) and the establishment of a laic and parlementary-based republic. It is during this period that a massive exchange of people occured (1.3 million) between Greece and Turkey.
   

This evolution has left many traces that can still be witnessed in various part of this region. The evolution of the city of Kas is a perfect illustration of this long history....see next.

Kas and vicinity:

The archaeological search done in and around Kas, revealed the city of Antiphellus. Originally this ancient town of Antiphellus, was the harbour of the town of Phellus which stood in front of it. Alexander the Great (Alexander III from Macedon) annexed this region into his kingdom to make it part of Greek empire. During Roman empire Antiphellus gained importance and became an episcopal centre during the Byzantine period. After, it was conquered by the Arab who rename it Andifli (there are turkish companies with this name nowadays), and later ruled by the Tekeogullan Principality (I'm confused here...it is probably the first time it happens: I like to grab info from touristic pamphplet/guide while travelling and later get back home and google these ... I obviously get other info, nice photos, people comments, etc.. ! Now nothing came out with this principality name !!! I guess the Tekeogullan had had very limited historical & geographical impact ... I should ask for the Turkish equivalence and look for it in Turkish).

Obviously, the region passed under the control of the Ottoman, where the peninsula became important as sea trade increases. Now Kas county has become a predominant touristic region admired for its natural & cultural richness settled in between the handsome Taurus mountains and the crystal clear water of the Mediterranean.

The area around Kas is called Teke peninsula located just beneath the Taurus mountains. The larger region between the bays Antalya and Fethiye corresponds to, what was known in the ancient time, as Lycia which regroup different cities considered the first federation in the world with democratic principles (according to wikipedia, the US constitution would have been influenced by the Lycian). It later became part of the roman empire.

Typical views seen around Kas with the sea, mountain and vegetation..

That is Laurie standing on the uphill just above Kas with its bay and peninsula (the island further away into the sea is actually the most estearn's Greek island Mesogeios... basically located a few kilometers from Kas)

Again some nice view of the bay at sunset.

Small creek commonly seen on the coast from Kas to Fethiye.

The familiy just outside the small port of Kas.

Also in Kas, you can find a very impressive sarcophagus (Kral Mezan or King's tomb) carved from a single block with scripting in the Lycian language (dating from the 4^th century BC), see photos:

We finally visited during the week a few other sites: ...Patara (with the longest sandy beach in the rergion..), Kekova (the underwater anciant city), Xanthos (a protected Unesco site), the gorge of Saklikent, Myra and Olympos.

Patara:

Patara integrated Lucian union in the 2^nd century AD as one of its six cities (we have visited 3 of these 6: Patara, Xanthos and Myra). It was also the birthplace of St. Nicholas (born c.260-280 AD) which later lead to the legend of Santa Claus (see Myra below).

The site is quite impressive and very well located. Near the Victory Monument (see photos below of the three arches), excavation 100 meters ahead revealed the world's oldest detailed road map which shows distances between Lycian cities. Here I presume the map has been moved to a museum since after walking around and checking all the place out (not much help available on-site ), no sign of the map could be seen. This turned out a bit of disappointment for a former GIS analyst!... Actually, checking later on the web, there is neither trace nor any image of the map ...just a description! So this is difficult to verify.

The famous Victory monument

The amphitheatre of Patara.

Also exceptionally in Patara is that they also have found what is possibly the world's oldest Lighthouse ...that could have been destroyed following a Tsunami (http://www.lycianturkey.com/lycian_sites/patara-lighthouse.htm).

The ongoing effort of restauration, excavation and clearing the sand have allowed to show the main street with its re-erected columns ...

Some monument with Lycian-language writing

Kekova:

This region characterized by the eponym island is quite incredible as a lot of its ruins are completely under the sea surface level. An earthquake is believed to have sunken partly the region during the 2^nd century. Being quite touristic, we were not too wary on our way to the site and actually hitchhiked one guy who apparently needed a ride to the village (yes that was quite naive). Ok we finally got free parking but had to deal with an overpriced boat trip with a local fisherman... anyway we made a good trip and had our own personal boat for the visit...and that the kids could steer for free!

Various ruins in and above sea level

The famous well preserved sarcophagus

Laurie steering the boat with our friendly fisherman

Xanthos:

This place is somewhat more valued and better serviced with touristic information (there are gov. people working at the site), probably due to its Unesco inscription as a world heritage site. Based on findings on the acropolis, the city dates back to the 8^th century BC but had mostly grew during the Roman empire who practically re-build the entire city after its destruction caused by Brutus!

The place offered a large variety of ruins for the .. and for kids nice collection of turtles spread out here and there ... our kids were obviously more motivated by searching turtles than anything else.

Here are some pics taken there:

Unfortunatly, the initial excavation carried out in mid-1800 by the english have moved many valuable piece of art to the British museum. This is one example where we only see the relief re-created by clay:

and... yes Mathias did find one turtle

Also not too far from Xanthos are the gorge of Saklikent the second largest in Europe with its 20km long (after Samera in Crete, so it is the longest and deepest in Turkey). When most of the snow has felt (after april), we can walk about 4km into the gorge.

Myra:

Another beautiful place belonging to Lycian league is Myra located at the current town called Kale (or Demre, apparently its new name). It features a necropolis with the tombs scultured directly onto this mountain.

Also, Myra is where St. Nicolas was bishop, so we can find his church and tomb which had been partly renovated by the russian when the Tsar Alexander II bought the church in 1863. The place has been obviously turned into a touristic shopping stop...what else to expect from Santa Claus ancestor!! The place is full of small shops of Byzantine art.

Olympos

Not much to say here, as my intention was to stop by on our way back to Antalya. I was mostly curious about the eternal flames to be found there and known as the Chimaera (see mythical link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(mythology) ) and which is fueled naturally by methane liberated from the earth cracks. However, again we underestimated the time to reach the place and finally only reached a very strange place filled with funny looking tree houses and mud everywhere (I guess the place was under major restauration? ..and the family was not so inspired by the place! ):

But this gave us the opportinuty to check out the Olympos mountain, which gave its name to the city. In turkish, it is called the Tahtalı Dağı (or Timber Mountain) and alsmots reaches 2400m.

We finsihed the trip to Antalia where we have stayed for a night in the old city district (Kaleici) strictly reserved for pedestrians. It has a lot of Ottoman-type architectural buildinds...

the famous, Kesik Minare (litterally the broken Minaret) going through all sort of transformation from various periods and finally partly destroyed during a fire in 1896!

The view of the Taurus mountain from Antalya

Finally some generic comments about our trip, that could be useful to anyone planning a first-time trip to this place:

+the food: great and healthy. Very much appreciated the Mezeler (starters) which serve very similar purpose as Tapas in Spain and typically very heathly. A must is the Hummus probably the best I ever had!

+Roads : travelling around the region is not so simple as it is quite remote and isolated by mountain and sea ....the mountain litterally reaches the sea making any road construction quite expansive and a more direct roads with tunnel makes it proably much more expansive than a longer roads avoiding the most predominant obstacles. For example, Kas – Kaleucagiz à vol d'oiseau is 20km ... but when we got there by roads to see Kekova, it took us about 1 hour 30min from our rented house!? It seems as if the place is more accessible by boats, as confirmed by te number europenan boats at the port, and some having sailed as far away as Norway (actually one couple we met reached Turkey from the east after a complete trip around the world!!).

+ the accessibility of the ruins & vestige. We can litterally use these sites as a playground...this caused some problem as people can easily bring rocks or other artefacts with them which is obviously illegal. It is just very different from Italy where they are understandably obsessed by security and preservation issues.

+ trees blossom amid the very dryness soil (however it is surely high in nutrient.. and we often witness what was probably Terra Nossa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Rossa) with its reddish color! (reminded me of a trip to Prince Edward Island with its famous red beach ...). A lot of Grenada Pomegranate apple, Orange and Lime trees grow about anywhere ... sometimes amazingly out of concrete and dry soil in dense cities!

- On the negative side: the continuous buying pressure when walking around touristic and commercial district and neighborhood (ok that is also very culture-related, and for them that is also a way of communicating but it is not something I'm comfortable with). Also there is often confusion with price, as most of the time price not shown and sometimes after negociating we just realized that they were talking in euros, or yet that there is a sur-tax with some plate since they were apparently over-sized... this infamous touristic price versus local .. . and some nice picture at a friend price : (this photo was worth 2.50 euros !)

Ok that is about it for what I can remember... overall it is a place higly recommeded and we will surely go back to visit other regions in the future ... Cappadocia (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/) looks like a very good candidate!.

Martin