Sunday, October 9, 2022

Day 7

We arrived in the port of Kusadasi, Turkey which is the gateway to Ephesus.

Ephesus is a World Heritage site that is one of the world’s oldest ancient cities an once home to over 250,000 people.

Excavations have been underway for 150 years and only 20 percent of the city has been uncovered.

They have excavated the Great Theater, the Temple of Hadrian and the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  We traveled on the main street of the city walking for about an hour marveling of how this city was built.

One of the most amazing things was that everything was built out of marble, from the streets to the tall columns.

They we went up the mountain to the site of the last days of Mary.  The stone house is very tiny but the religious site is beautiful.  This is the home that Mary and the Apostle John lived out their last days.  When Crist was being crucified, he asked John to take care of Mary and this is where they lived.

We had a wonderful guide and driver.  What was supposed to be a 3 ½ hour tour turned into a 5 ½ hour tour. 

Along the tour, it is expected that you will visit either a gold jewelry store, a carpet store, a fashion store or a leather store.  We chose a fashion store and a leather store and words cannot describe the experience of Turkish sales people and the pressure they can put on you.  If you realize that’s what is going to happen, it is easy to deal with. 

At the fashion store, we were ushered into our own private area, the lights dimmed and we were treated to a runway fashion show.  The video only shows part of it.  Then of course they pushed and pushed to sell us something.  Guess what we didn’t buy anything at any of these stores.

Back on ship, we dressed for dinner, which was good and then went to the show.  Tonight the show was 4 males singers recreating the quartets of the past and they were pretty good.

Finally we went to the casino where Barb lost a little as did Ed.

Tomorrow is a sea day and we are looking forward to just relaxing all day.

Night



Ready to go out for the day's tour


                                                    The Temple of Hadrian


                                                            The theater - seating 25,000


                                                                The leather store


                                                                All alone is this big van


                                                                Mary's House


                                                                In a pottery store.


                                    A castle, a basillica and a mosque all on the same hillside


                                               A hallway on the ship leading to the restaurant


                                                            At Blu - Our restaurant







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