Beautiful day for sailing into the port of Kusadasi which is
the closest a ship can get to the ancient city of Ephesus. That city is still being excavated and just
this last year they have uncovered even more houses. It’s also the place where they have an
amphitheater that seats 25,000 and is where St. Paul preached to the
Ephesians! It’s pretty humbling to stand
in that same place. Having said that, we
also stood in the brothel and the public toilets! We saw an ancient backgammon board and terra
cotta pipes for hot and cold running water!
It’s an incredibly amazing place and we are lucky to have had this
second chance to experience it.
I’m kind of working backwards here since that was our last
stop but the first one was a visit to the house where Mary lived out her
life. It’s a very remote house (to keep
her safe) in a beautiful pine forest that radiates peace and a tranquil
atmosphere. Visitors are remarkably
quiet and respectful as they enter and exit the house. I felt the same peacefulness as the last time
I was here.
We also had enough time for a visit to another rug company
and this time it was our friends who needed the retail therapy! Michele, who wasn’t able to join us
yesterday, felt well enough today to be blown away by the beautiful carpets we
were shown. Everyone felt like they got
a good price and their homes will look beautiful with the new acquisitions!
Our guide today, Taz, was a real great guy and made our
whole day so enjoyable. He knew his stuff
and we are all much better informed! We
loved his sense of humor and we got his jokes and he got ours!
On our way back to the ship we had to run the gauntlet of
pier-side shops and some of us got away clean!
The ship season is coming to an end in Turkey so things will be closed
up till they come back next May. There
was a slight scent of desperation in the air!
We only had a few minutes to get ready for dinner but enough
time to open a bottle of wine!! Luis and
Robert, again, made dinner an event!
Time for bed!
Tomorrow is Athens and Michele and Tom are gone all day seeing the
sights in the city. The rest of us will
take a half day tour to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon which is in the
“countryside”.
Adios for now!
XOXOXOXO
M
Sounds beautiful and reverant! Our neighbors, the Ir's, are in Turkey as well right now, and were just asking about you two last week, the night before they departed. That would be a kick if you ran into them. I know, it's a big country, but stranger things have happened.
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