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A "Dawn Parade" at Gallipoli on 25 April 1998

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During the first world war, the first ANZAC troop (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed to a small bay in Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey (ex Ottoman Empire) on 25 April 1915, at 04.30 o'clock in the morning. In memory of this historical event, many people from Australia and New Zealand came to Turkey every year on 25 April, since 1985, visit this Bay and realise a ceremony named "Dawn Parade".
This year, we also wanted to view this ceremony combining with our one of long weekend GoldWing tours which really become a way of life for us.
We planned to stay 2 nights at our friend Sinan's hotel named "Abide" (mean "Monument") in Seddülbahir area at the edge of Gallipoli Peninsula which is 100 meters to beach (Aegean Sea), 385 km away from Istanbul and 20 kms away from the above metioned Bay (What a chance !).
We, as 3 Goldwings, ( Paolo, Sinan - Maria, me and my wife Berrin ) and a BMW 1100 GS (Cemil) departed from Istanbul on 24 April 1998 about 14.00 o'clock. We passed through the Tekirdag city, which is very popular by its favorite local meal named "Tekirdag Meatball" (ofcourse we ate), Malkara Town, Kesan Town, and stopped in Gallipoli Town for shopping for our food supply for the weekend since the hotel is closed during the winter time and we had to prepare our meals by ourselves. After the shopping, we departed again and arrived to hotel about 20.00 o'clock.
The guard of the hotel was waiting for us, he already run the heating system and also has prepared the fireplace for the barbecue.
As an advantage of to be a friend of our l Italian fellow Paolo, we ate the most delicious spaghetti of our life with the seafood sauce and also ate a delicious salad prepared by Berrin. We went to bed about 24.00 o'clock and woke up 25 April about 03.30 o'clock in the morning to go the Dawn Parade.

It was really interesting event for us which there were about 3-4 thousand people over there including diplomatic delegations. The ceremony started on about 04.30 o'clock in the morning and continiued till the dawn. After the ceremony, we come back to the hotel had our lovely breakfast prepared by Maria and later had some sleep.
Afternoon , Maria and Berrin had a nice walking around the area, which was completely quite and fully green, more than two hours, Cemil and Sinan played highly serious chess game while I was repairing the small electrical and mechanical problems of Paolo's bike (as an usual electrician and mechanic of the group) with the usual kind assistance of Paolo. Later on, we also had a long walk in the magnificant nature of Gallipoli peninsula under the light rain and visited the war museum and huge "Canakkale Monument" which is located at the entrance of the Strait as a silent guardian giant who protects the Dardanelles as well as spirits of the soldiers who lost their lifes during the war from the both parties.
We also had another lovely dinner (of course spaghetti again) with the usual contribution of Paolo & Cemil and Berrin who is an expert for the different type of salads and special thanks to Sinan and Maria for the decoration of the table. (I just chopped the onions and tomatoes and opened the few tuna fish can, and prepared the fireplace creating dangerous moments to the others and helped to Berrin to wash the dishes!)
Sunday morning, we woke up about 09.00 o'clock, had our delicious breakfast prepared by Maria (fried egg and "Sucuk" which is a spicy Turkish Salami in a pan, white cheese, olive, fresh tomato and cuchumber, milk ,tea and coffe), cleaned everything in the kitchen and departed about 11.00 o'clock under the severe rain and later on started wind. All the way, we rode in a convoy and continuously communicated via our CB which was very helpful especially riding in this kind of horrible weather conditions.
Finally the rain stopped in Tekirdag city which is 230 kms from the departure point and we gave a break for a late lunch in a fish restaurant near the sea side and arrived to Istanbul about 18.30 o'clock. As it is important and essential, we immediately washed the bikes in order to be prepared for the next weeked trip.