Wine Tasting at Barrel. Proud hometown boy, Barkın Akın took his family winery, Barel and turned it into the hotspot in Tekirdağ. In the summer visitors to the onsite restaurant can enjoy outdoor seating under huge shady trees and in the winter the indoor, windowed restaurant is made cozy with a huge fire place. Like the folks at Vino Dessera, Akın believes that wine should not be priced out of reach and that anyone should be able to afford a decent bottle. Barel wines cover several price categories but all of them reasonable and all the wine quaffable.

Arcadia was one of the very first wineries to offer not only a restaurant but a hotel. The restaurant, which has only one dinner seating per day, offers ever changing dishes created from locally sourced foods and wine pairing suggestions. Arcadia is worth a visit just for its sparkling wine alone. The winery recently debuted Nareen, a traditional method sparking wine made from the Turkish grape Narince. Produced in tiny tiny quantities the wine is available only at the winery. It is stunning.

Edirne, previously Adrionople, is famous in Turkey for its oil wresting, the Selimiye Mosque built by architect Mimar Sinan, and its liver. Oil wresting happens in July only but the ethnographic museum there has a wonderful 3-D presentation on it. The mosque is lovely (as are some of the smaller ones in the city). We will visit the Selimiye Mosque, the Traditional Bazaar, The Grand Syngague and vernacular architecture in Edirne Old Town.