We began with a bus ride down to the city of Selsus (sp) and a welcome narration by our tour guide whose nick name was Ike. Our first stop was a visit to the House of the Virgin Mary. we drove up a long windy raod to near the top of a mountain. The site is in a lovely and large and well landscaped grove of trees and we were blessed to have gotten there early. After entering the site, we followed our guide up to the shrine, where we entered the chapel that had been built over the site. We stopped for afew moments for prayer whil people from several cruise ships filed by. Following the visit to the shrine, we had some free time to use the WC, shop or have coffee. The men's WC was unique in that it provided a wide open window above the urinals for a panoramic view of the mountains and valleys. By the time we left, there were even more tour buses... the parking lot was overflowing and buses were backed up on the access road. That is what happens when there are 5 cruise ships in port!
Back on the bus, we drove for about 15 minutes or so down to the site of the ruins of Ephesus. We entered the gate at the top of the hill and worked our way down to the lower gate... when I say gate, I mean both modern and ancient. We spent about 2 hours in this amazing place which has not been excavated fully. some highlights were the ancient library, the Terrace Houses with intact mosaic floors and frescoes, and the theatre. Walking in the footsteps of St. Paul!
One of the Terrace Houses (private residence)
Me,too
The Theatre
Ephesus was certainly the highlight of the day, but we then visited the nearby ruins of the St. John's Basilica which is a 2nd century church buid over what is believed to be the tomb of St. John. This site was impressive to say the least. Even though the church was in ruins, you could see how massive it once was. our guide said it was once the 2nd (or 3rd largest Christian basilica after Hagia Sofia in Istanbul.
Today's tour included lunch at one of the resort hotels overlooking the harbor and the sea. And it was a delicious 4 course lunch consisting of traditional Turkish dishes. Here's the menu.
This is the hotel where we had lunch:
our last stop was a rug dealer in the port city of Kusadasi where we had a very interesting talk by the owner about the various kinds and qualities of rugs. and we were treated to our choice of beverage and I chose Turkish coffee which is strong and sweet. We considered the possibility of buying a rug, and the sales person and owner really wanted us to buy a rug.... really, really wanted us to buy a rug with free shipping to the states. But, we held our ground and walked out with no rug. But, they were exquisite.
Back on the QE, I anpped and Susan tackled the laundry. There are 4 self service laundrettes on board, all located forward (we are aft) and each one has 3 Maytag apartment style washer dryer combinations. So there are 12 machines in all.... on the ship.... of 2000 passengers. And they appear to be the most popular rooms on the ship at this the half way point in our cruise. The other option for laundry is is to send the laundry out and have the ship' main laundery do it... Expensive! I reminded Susan, who was grousing a bit about the laundry situation and understandably that some cruise lines dont have the free laundry rooms at all! She noted that it was hard to communicate with the Japanese patrons of the laundrette... easier with the Brits.
Because of the very big lunch this afternoon, we will probably just head up to the Lido Restaurant for the dinner buffet.
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