We need only drive 50 miles to hit the coast again, but just as we depart the Troodos Mountains, we find a brewery within an old village surrounding land that people have inhabited for around 5,000 years.

"Lofou is a village in the Limassol District of Cyprus.  Archaeological evidence indicates the area around the village has been inhabited since at least the early to middle Bronze Age (3300-2600 BC)."

https://allaboutlimassol.com/en/bes-beer-kyriakos-has-set-up-a-small-brewery-with-delightful-flavors-in-his-village

"In the cobbled alleys of Lofou, apart from beautiful traditional houses, you will find a small yet miraculous brewery.  Kyriakos, returning to his village years later, after working many years as an electrical engineer in the telecommunications industry, decided to set up a workshop amongst his family's old homes in order to produce delicious, craft beer.

At Kyriakos’ small brewery, you can see the beer going through all the stages of fermentation, mixing with the special aromas of hops.  In fact, you can see a young climbing hop plant at the entrance.

With the Bes Beer brand, an exquisite range of beers is on the Cyprian market that pleasantly surprise us with the variety and intensity of their aromas.  In the brewery range you will find light lager, wonderful IPA with active fermentation elements, but also a strong, dark beer."

We found Kyriakos to be quite welcoming as he gave us a short tour of his brewery and shared some of his insights into living and working in Cyprus.

​We continue our tour of Lofou - this little museum of agricultural history delights...

Many dwellings have been maintained through time, others restored, still many others are on their own decline.

Gerri hangs out at the "vanishing point"...

We arrive in Paphos...and find a decent Chinese restaurant...it was very satisfying.

We have a variety of sights and to-do's today, let's get started!

This is some twisty mountain driving - but it's all fairly close together.

First off - Kykkos Monastery...

"The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded around the end of the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118). The monastery lies at an altitude of 1318 meters (4325 feet) on the northwest face of the Troödos Mountains.  There are no remains of the original monastery as it was burned down many times. "​

"Throughout the centuries locals have revered the icon of the Virgin Mary and have attributed miracles to its presence. In 1760 a success in the struggle against locust devastation, a frequent problem of the time, was believed to be the work of the icon.  The icon has also served as a template for other paintings depicting the Madonna in eastern Orthodoxy.  The icon is never viewed, and its top half remains hidden behind a protective covering as legend has it whoever looks at it will be blinded.  The last person to have seen the icon is the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria Gerasimos, in 1669. The icon is rarely uncovered, although this happens on occasion. In recent years there had been a drought affecting Cyprus, in response to which the fathers took the icon to a throne, and read special supplications for rain, while looking away from the uncovered icon."

In the gift store, curiously we didn't have to exit through it (it's behind Gerri in below photo), is a copy of the icon, your's for only $14,000 - we stick with what we usually take away - the photos and the memories.

Here, just outside the monastery front door, we take away ice cream in our bellies...

Let's check out Pedoulas, here in a valley at 3,600 ft - the city name translates to "valley people".

We move on to Kakopetria sitting at 2200 feet, and find another waterfall in the middle of town...

Nearby we find Agios Nikolaos Tis Stegis...

​"The 'Church of St. Nicholas of the Roof'  is part of an 11th-century Byzantine monastery that flourished in Kakopetria. The church is the only surviving Middle Byzantine katholikon (monastery church) in Cyprus during the 11th century and is not mentioned until the 13th century in surviving texts.  St. Nicholas of the Roof prospered from the Middle Byzantine era until the beginning of Frankish rule, around the 12th century.  During  Frankish rule the church remained open, but served as a small village church and a pilgrimage site.  The church is one of the ten 'Painted Churches in the Troödos Region', which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 because of their outstanding frescoes and testimony to the history of Byzantine rule in Cyprus."

Tim found another handy bench...

At around 5,500 feet, we're getting nice views, even looking down upon some of the clouds...

On May 27 we drove westward, saw the sights of the previous chapter, and arrived in Pano Platres in the major mountains of Cyprus.

"Troodos is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island.  Its highest peak is Mount Olympus, at 1,952 metres (6,404 ft), which hosts the Sun Valley and North Face ski areas with their five ski lifts.  There are many mountain resorts, Byzantine monasteries, and churches on mountain peaks, and nestling in its valleys and mountains are villages clinging to terraced hills.  The area has been known since antiquity for its mines, which for centuries supplied copper to the entire Mediterranean."

28 May 2024
On this day we just hung out at our mountain "retreat".  Yeah, you thought Cyprus is just known for its turquoise beaches!

The actual hike begins...

The hike continues....

The trail seems to be ascending into clouds...

...yes, it's getting cloudier and cloudier.

At the high point of the loop, look at that view!?

The trail isn't much fun walking here, with all the rockiness.

Another view....of more mountain cloud...

Ah, the veil is starting to lift a bit...

Don't miss this turn, home is that way...

Heading westward today, and to the mountains of Cyprus, but first we see three sights along the way.

Our rental keeps us going - all rentals in Cyprus have this red colored plated - drive to the left and watch out!

Now in Limassol...

"Limassol is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and its second-largest urban area after the capital Nicosia.
Limassol was built between two ancient Greek cities, Amathus and Curium (also known as Kourion). Its historical center is located around its medieval Limassol Castle and the Old Port.  

In 2014, Limassol was ranked by TripAdvisor as the 3rd most up-and-coming destination in the world, in its Top 10 Traveler's Choice Destinations on the Rise list.  The city is also ranked 89th worldwide in Mercer's Quality of Living Survey (2017)."  (not sure where it stands now, maybe similar, Wikipedia needs some updating here)

"Archaeological investigation within the castle revealed that it was built over an Early Christian basilica (4–7th century CE) and a Middle Byzantine monument (10th–11th century CE).  The first official reference to the fort dates to 1228 CE, during the involvement of Frederic II of Germany in the affairs of Cyprus.  From its erection until the beginning of the 16th century, damages were caused by the continuous attacks of the town by the Genoese and the Mameluks as well as by earthquakes alternating with restorations and reconstructions."

Ayia Napa Church

Feeling a bit hungry...

Feeling a need to tour some ruins...​

"The archaeological remains of Kourion - which was one of the island’s most important city-kingdoms in antiquity, dating from around the 5th-4th centuries BC - are of the most impressive on the island, and excavations have unearthed many significant finds, which can be viewed at the site.

The city-kingdom was built on the hills of the area, and overlooked and controlled the fertile valley of the river Kouris.  According to archaeological finds, evidence suggests that Kourion was associated with the Greek legend of Argos of Peloponnese, and that  its inhabitants believed they were descendents of Argean immigrants. The once-flourishing kingdom was put in decline with a severe earthquake in 365 AD.
​
The magnificent Greco-Roman theater - the site’s centrepiece - was built in the 2nd century BC and extended in the 2nd century AD. The theater has been restored, and is now used for open-air musical and theatrical performances - mainly during the summer months."

The city certainly had some awesome views of the Med...and the coast of Cyprus.

Looking down on the coastal plains, farm fields right behind the day resorts, with undulating cliffs off into the distance...

Sea breezes push the branches toward the island's center...

The baths...

We see marble cladding still clinging to some walls...2,000 years later.

A 6-sided pool, adjacent to the spa baths...fancy.

Spaghetti is served by Chef Gerri in our near-mountaintop AirBnB - eggplant and mushroom.

May 25 - 26 2024

May 25, 2024
We plan to take it easy in Cyprus - seeing less sights day-to-day - and recover a bit from our Turkey month and pace ourselves since it's gonna be a long Summer of traveling.

Today our only quarry is seeing Larnaca.

"Larnaca is known for its palm-tree seafront as well as the Church of Saint Lazarus, Hala Sultan Tekke, Kamares Aqueduct, and Larnaca Castle. It is built on the ruins of ancient Citium, which was the birthplace of Stoic philosopher Zeno. Larnaca is home to the country's primary airport, Larnaca International Airport. It also has a seaport and a marina."

​This rally happened here 10 days ago - maybe next time.

Lunch is happening now...

​

The sand here is pretty compact and gritty, it's no Florida Emerald Coast, but, hey, it's sand versus rocks.

Anchored just off shore - it's a curious place for a cruise ship, not your typical port-of-call for such ships...

"The Church of Saint Lazarus is a late-9th century Greek Orthodox church.  It is named for New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, the subject of a miracle recounted in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus raises him from the dead. According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, sometime after the Resurrection of Jesus, Lazarus was forced to flee Judea because of rumored plots on his life and came to Cyprus. There he was appointed by Paul the Apostle and Barnabas as the first Bishop of Kition (now Larnaca).  He is said to have lived for thirty more years and on his death was buried there for the second and last time.  The Church of Agios Lazaros was built over the reputed second tomb of Lazarus."

They provide wraps so tourists like us may cover up our bare legs, while we visit the church.

"A fire in 1970 damaged much of the interior, including extensive damage to a section of the iconostasis together with the corresponding icons. The iconostasis has been partially restored and was re-plated with gold between 1972 and 1974. During the subsequent renovations of the church, on November 2, 1972, human remains were discovered in a marble sarcophagus under the altar, and were identified as part of the Saint Lazurus's relics (not all having been removed to Constantinople in 898 A.D., apparently)."

Back outside the church we find this relief carving - Tim thinks it's a cat, Gerri a horse, what do you think?

​Dami Kebir Mosque

There's that cruise ship again - Gerri's cruise ship tracker app says it's the "Brilliant Lady".

"Virgin Voyages, Sept 7 2023, announced its fourth ship of the class, the Brilliant Lady, will face a delayed introduction.  “Despite careful planning, we are facing unexpected construction, supply chain and staffing challenges that have delayed the introduction of Brilliant Lady,” the company said in a statement.

Originally set to launch later this year, the ship’s launch date will be determined soon, the company said."

​Apparently it's being "stashed" here for this year, with no sailings scheduled until sometime next year.

Today we finally do a beach, a half hour west of Larnaca - and the sand is fairly pleasant.  This is Landa Beach, one of the nicer beaches in Cyprus.  We were supposed to go to Nissi Beach, but there parking lot was full, so we continued down to the next beach.

The amenities are city run - and the prices are very nice.

Yeah, even Tim is enjoying the beach today.

Now at the supermarket to get some stuff that will have us avoid eating out tonight - shrimp pita's.

May 23, 2024
​Now to accomplish several things - first, it's still too early to head for Scandinavia as it's still a bit cool and certainly muddy up on the hikes; second, we need to go somewhere our Schengen Visa won't get used up; third, there's Cyprus, it's right there and won't burn that visa time, and we haven't been there before.

So in two flight hops, we arrive in Cyprus... 

"Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is geographically a part of West Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeast European, and they speak Greek. Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. The northeast portion of the island is de facto governed by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus."

After settling in yesterday, today we head out to get a feel for this part of Cyprus ("east end").  Like Turkey, the roads are fairly decent, however, thanks to the impact of the British a hundred years ago, they drive on the "wrong" side of the road for us.

We park the car and do a hike.  There's that turquoise water and rocky shoreline.

They provide some handy steps/railing here, if you want to swim out into the surf...

We pass on a swim and continue our coastal hike...

Tim says:  "here is the best part of the hike".

Ah there's our "Rent-A-Wreck", just where we left it.  We got a good deal, it's a bit beat up though, but it's a Honda, so we think it'll be reliable.

No more hiking today, but we drove to a couple more spots to see the scenery.

This is our last full day in Turkey - we close the loop of our 2,269 mile journey around the western half of the country.  We'll catch a few more sights as we head to our last night in a hotel adjacent to Istanbul Airport.

​We look out our hotel window - yep, looks like a nice day to travel.

We leave our hotel on the edge of Çanakkale, and drive to the center of the city.  The day before we had passed by the remains of the city of Troy, about 20 miles southwest of the hotel.

"In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse was a wooden horse used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's Iliad, with the poem ending before the war is concluded, and it is only briefly mentioned in the Odyssey. But in the Aeneid by Virgil, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse at the behest of Odysseus, and hid a select force of men inside, including Odysseus himself. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into the city as a victory trophy. That night, the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under the cover of darkness. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city, ending the war."

The spot on the map that was the ancient city of Troy is now just escavated foundations and ruble - a.k.a. "nothing to see here".  On the plaza adjacent to the marina in Çanakkale is this model of how Troy appeared back in the day - rock defensive walls with mud/brick/timber dwellings - it's easy to see how nothing really survived.

So instead, we're here in Çanakkale to see a Trojan Horse - it's Brad Pitt's from his 2004 movie "Troy" - right here next to the model of Troy.

Looking across the marina, and  the Dardanelles Strait, to the Gallipoli Peninsula , we saw this large installation:

"Traveller halt! The soil you tread, once witnessed the end of an era."

It's an homage to the events of the Gallipoli Campaign, where at great costs to both sides, the Turkish forces repelled allied efforts to defeat the Ottomans, and gain control of the seaways of the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

We then cross over the straits and onto the Gallipoli Peninsula over an unexpectedly big bridge - and we thought we would just be crossing a "bridge".  Turns out, it's the biggest suspension bridge in the world - a mile and a quarter of bridge span between the towers.

"The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge spans the Dardanelles, about 10 km (6.2 mi) south of the Sea of Marmara.  The bridge was officially opened on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction.   The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honors an important Ottoman victory against firstly a naval engagement followed by a land invasion on the Gallipoli peninsular by the forces of Australia, New Zealand (The ANZACS), France and The United Kingdom from 25th April 1915."
​
With a main span of 2,023 m (2.023 km; 1.257 mi), the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by 32 m (105 ft)."

Then we pay a quick visit to the town of Eceabat to see what there is to see.  We saw a loyal fisherman's dog patiently waiting for the return of its master.

Almost the last mosque minaret we may see for awhile...

"Eceabat is the nearest town to the World War I Gallipoli Campaign battlefield sites, as well as to the cemeteries and memorials to the more than 120,000 Turkish, British, French, Australia and New Zealand soldiers killed during the campaign. This has led to its becoming a major tourism center, especially around 18 March and 25 April (ANZAC Day), when the two different sides of the struggle commemorate their roles in what happened.."

​The obligatory "puzzle picture" shot...

​On the road to Istanbul Airport...it's been a packed 30 days of Turkish Touring, next stop Cyprus!

It's another long drive today, combined with two tour stops along the way.  The roads continue to be excellent, so the drive went by fairly easily.

"Pergamon was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern-day Bakırçay) and northwest of the modern city of Bergama, Turkey.

During the Hellenistic period, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281–133 BC under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centers of the Greek world. Pergamon was the northernmost of the seven churches of Asia cited in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

The city is centered on a 335-metre-high (1,100 ft) mesa, which formed its acropolis. This mesa falls away sharply on the north, west, and east sides, but three natural terraces on the south side provide a route up to the top. To the west of the acropolis, the Selinus River (modern Bergamaçay) flows through the city, while the Cetius river (modern Kestelçay) passes by to the east.
​
Pergamon was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014."

​Pergamon's oldest temple is a sanctuary of Athena from the 4th century BC. ​

​On the highest point of the citadel is the Temple of Trajan, the Traianeum or Trajaneum. The Temple is also called the Temple of Zeus Philios, as both Zeus and Trajan were worshiped in the Temple, the former sharing it with the latter.

The Theater of Pergamon, one of the steepest theaters in the world, has a capacity of 10,000 people and was constructed in the 3rd century BC.

Now we're able to go down into the theater to see it close up.

And then back out the top of the theater, and inside the Temple of Athena.

We're about finished with our tour of Pergamon...

One last spot to see - it's only a foundation now, but Gerri found an App on her phone which showed a graphic of the Pergamon Altar overlayed on what her phone camera was looking at (see photo below):

(From:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Altar    -- it's pretty interesting read for Wikipedia)

"The Pergamon Altar was a monumental construction built during the reign of the Ancient Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis.

The structure was 35.74 metres (116' 31/32") wide and 33.4 metres (109' 6 5/8") deep; the front stairway alone was almost 20 metres (65' 11/16") wide. The base was decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There was a second, smaller and less well-preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surrounded the actual fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. In a set of consecutive scenes, it depicts events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge, one of Tegean king Aleus's daughters.
​
In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann started official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, an effort that lasted until 1886. The relief panels from the Pergamon Altar were subsequently transferred to Berlin, where they were placed on display in the Pergamon Museum."


Gerri's captured image shows the backside - the front-side is shown below, as displayed in the Berlin Pergamon Museum.

We now move on to Assos - the lair of Aristotle,  Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, for 3 of his 62 years (384–322 BC).

The city was founded between 1000 to 900 BC by Aeolian colonists from Lesbos, a nearby Greek island.  The major ruined structures date from about 6th - 2nd century B.C.

At the highest point of the city is the Temple of Athena -  a model is provided of what archaeologists think what it looked like:

What remains today:

Then we walked down down down - a sign said it was about a kilometer, but felt much further with a lot of steps - to discover more ruins of additional structures.

"West of the acropolis stands the well preserved 4th century BC city wall and main gate with 14-meter-high (46 ft) towers. An ancient paved road leads northeast through the gate to the ruins of a large 2nd-century BC gymnasium, a 2nd-century BC agora (marketplace) and a bouleuterion (council hall). Further south toward the seashore is a 3rd-century BC theater built for 5,000 spectators."

And then we arrived at our lodging for the evening - we don't always stay in 5-Star hotels, but when we do it's under $100/night and comes with a $15 buffet of mostly food we recognize from home.  It was a nice, but brief stay.

Here's a photo we actually took of the mosque you see in the background - taken from our 5th floor elevator lobby.

The sun sets on our second to last full day in Turkey, on the Dardanelles Strait, no less.

May 19, 2024

Today we met Dan and Banu late morning, and walked around their neighborhood to a bakery, a fruit/veggie shop, a meat and cheese shop, another bakery, and then a dairy shop - then we headed to their spacious rooftop apartment and they prepped it all up for another many plated feast.  Then we hung out with them, along with Banu's mother, for the rest of the afternoon.  It was a good break from go-go-go touring.

Later in the evening, while Tim worked on the blog, Gerri headed to the neighborhood hang out area to check the vibe, and grab a small fish sandwich to get her through the night.

She found a lot of interested soccer fans watching their team play on the telly - actually it was one Istanbul team versus another.  The "home team" lost unfortunately.

​May 20, 2024

Today we crossed the bay a second time, but just with Dan (Banu is back to work) and without the car.  He has a Turkish language class M-F each week.  While he took his lessons, we checked out the old neighborhoods of the area across the bay.

We try out the elevator to avoid the steps to the higher up hood.

The view from just outside the elevator at the top...

Our view for breakfast...

Continuing our walk about...

These are the steps (they go on for about forever beyond this lower part) the elevator avoids.  There's supposed to be a peace-themed graphic here, but now it's been replaced with a children's health charity montage.

Izmir Clock Tower - a major landmark, and symbol of the city, completed in 1901.

The market came into existence with the filling between 1650–1670 A.D. of the shallowest parts of the inner bay. The process of gaining ground from the bay was further pursued in 1744 with the construction of Kızlarağası Han, an impressive caravanserai (and surviving to the present) that emerged as the nucleus of the market.

One or more of these bowls would have come back across the pond with us, if we didn't have to carry it for 4 1/2 months in a backpack.

We escape with no purchases - so many gold rings, carpets, refrigerator magnets, and bongo drums to choose from.

This is one extensive market district - there's twisting streets everywhere with shop after shop.

There's bolts of cloth, and bunches of dried lavender for about 30 cents each.

There's supposed to be 10 Jewish synagogues in the district - we found 4 of them - all locked up.

We catch up with Dan who takes us to his favorite dessert shop - a Turkish take on custard pie - he specifically asks for the pie tin to eat from and get the burnt extras.

On the way back we notice the MSC Divinia is in town - this was our first MSC ship, out of Port Canaveral that time, about 5-6 years ago.

We return to the ferry port on "our" side of the bay...

Some art installations in our neighborhood...

We end our Izmir visit with a bayside little picnic dinner at sunset on the bay - thanks to Banu and Dan for a great time!

Yes, we came to Izmir to see old friends (who live here) and get some relaxation.  We're about dead center on the western coast of Turkey.  

"İzmir is a metropolitan city on the west coast of Anatolia, and capital of İzmir Province. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara, and the largest urban center on the Aegean Sea.

In 2019, the city of İzmir had a population of 2,965,900, while İzmir Province had a total population of 4,367,251. 
İzmir has more than 3,000 years of recorded urban history, and up to 8,500 years of history as a human settlement since the Neolithic period. In classical antiquity the city was known as Smyrna – a name which remained in use in English and various other languages until around 1930, when it gradually phased out in favor of its Turkish counterpart İzmir."


On our first full day, Dan and Banu took us on a car tour that began with a car ferry across Izmir's bay and then westward about fifty miles.

Here are Banu and Dan (better photos to follow), as they lead us on a tour of Tokoğlu.  Gerri met them when they were all U.S. Air Force officers in Utah, and last seen them in 2003.  There was no real contact since then, save for maintaining  inactive contacts on Facebook - Banu noticed Gerri posting our future plans to visit Turkey and reached out to us.  Banu (who is from Turkey) and Dan have been living in Turkey for almost a year.  They provided advice for our planning, and we made plans to see them before leaving Turkey.

Here's a sensible way to deliver packages in an old village loaded with tourists.

Rick Steves:  "Considered the George Washington of the Turks, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk almost single-handedly created modern-day Turkey from the battle-torn, corrupt, demoralized remnants of the Ottoman Empire (he was the President from 1923-1938)"  -- we see his image all over Turkey.

We never really thought about it, but artichokes do bloom if left alone.  Hmmm, is glass cleaner involved?

An eye bead or naẓar (from Arabic  meaning 'sight', 'surveillance', 'attention') is an eye-shaped amulet believed by many to protect against the evil eye.  In Turkey, it is known by the name nazar boncuğu.

Do not drink tap water in Turkey - it's generally safe and clean, but purification processes might not agree with your tummy.

Brunch is served...

Ah, there's a better photo of Dan and Banu...and another one of those feast of many plates for the first meal of the day.

Mr. Turtle "Let's Ride!"

Cats on the prowl...

The mail never stops...

...hoping for a handout.

Bargains at the Saturday Market abound...

​Now at a winery in the hills - MMG Winery - thanks to Banu and Dan for the fantastic vino!

This is one of their favorites with the stunning views of the hills with vineyards...

Here, just past mid-May, the grapes are still very young...

Now we hit another quaint little old town - a part of the larger town of Urla...

Another public service message:
​
​The XEV Yoyo is an electric city car manufactured by Italian-Hong Kong-based startup XEV.  It has a replaceable battery pack, accessible from the rear bumper, that allows for rapid swapping of batteries that saves time compared to plug-in charging. It also has a front mounted charging port.

XEV designed this car using only 57 components. The only parts that are not 3D printed are the chassis, seats and glass components.  It has a top speed of 89 km/h (55 mph) and a maximum range of 150 km (93 mi).