Turkey:Ephesus, Magnesia, Miletus, Didyma,

In Turkey, we visited 4 historic sites and a carpet weaving demonstration in the port of Kusadasi. It was our longest day--8 1/2 hours. We got to sit on the bus and ride to the next location, so there was a rest in between. Thank goodness!

We saw this sign on a booth in Ephesus. Not sure if they were being brutally honest, or if something was lost in translation...

One of the most interesting things about Ephesus is to keep in mind it was a port that sat directly on the sea. Now, the sea is like 3 miles away.
I can't remember what the tour guide said these were. It was right next to the bath house.

This was a smaller arena used more for the arts. It was located across from the Agora.

Me in the arena.

The Library.












The Ancient Road. Pretty cool to be where John, Mary and other early Christians tread.

Our tour guide and a well, I think.











Thought this was pretty.

A Maltese cross. After the "fish" was found out, early christians began using this sign to identify one another. In a Maltese Cross, each letter of the word "ichthus" (fish) can be seen.











Trajan Fountain. (Reconstructed on a reduced scale)

The market place. The booths are different "stores".










The Temple of Hadrian. The pictures don't do the the ornamentation on these buildings justice. Even as ruins they are breathtaking.

Mike in the Latriana; public toilets. There was a trough of running water about 3 feet or more below the holes (not anymore though).















The Library. It was built as a mausoleum/memorial/library. Amazing isn't it? Another shot where you may be able to see some of the detailing.















The entrance to the giant outdoor market.

Mike and I in the giant arena. And another view from farther away.












Some actors did a short recreation of a show in the arena--complete with dancers, a juggler, and gladitorial games. Obviously, some of the more grusesome sports were left out--such as christians being fed to the lions.



Some stationary actors. A leather worker, basket weaver, and sculpter.

Then we drove just 5 or 10 min down the road to Magnesia. It is a very recently discovered site that is still being excavated.











This was the inside of a temple. Mike and I in the doorway of the temple.

Mike and I in another random doorway.










The next stop was Miletus. There was a super huge, incredibly preserved arena there.
















Another part of Miletus.


We stopped for lunch, (which was interesting)then went on to our last site: The Temple of Apollo.
This temple served mostly as an oracle, so worshipers when summoned, would come stand where the picture was taken and inquire of the priests. The priests would emerge through these doorways and with the sun behind them (there was no roof), and impressed worshipers with their "holy" aura.













This is inside the holy chamber. There was a well (upper left corner of the pic) said to give holy water which the priests would consume to recieve diving insight. Also, there was deep hole in the ground--said to be a shaft directly to the underworld (center of pic behind the rocks). It's filled in now of course.

Tunnel from the holy chamber out to the common area.












Fallen column. The temple had the tallest columns in Greece.











Our carpet weaving demonstration and the carpet we bought. It's small, but silk, high quality and not cheap! I'm glad we got it though. It's really the only valuable souvenir we purchased.
















Mike and our towel bunny. A picture from our other formal night.

Athens, Greece

Our third stop was Piraeus; the port for Athens, Greece. We had booked an excursion for the day, but unfortunately, due to a "demonstration/memorial" march kind of thing, our drive through downtown had to be re-routed because of closed roads in the center of the city. I'm not sure what we missed by not going that way, but at least we got to see the main attraction.

This is a view of the Acropolis on our walk back to the bus. Acropolis means "top of the city". Greece was built on 7 hills (not unlike Rome). The hill that is the Acropolis is the second tallest. So not exactly the tippity top of the city, but the tallest hill was not flat enough to make a temple of Parthenon's proportions.



This is Mar's Hill where Paul preached from in Athens. It's just down the hill from the Acropolis.











This is the Temple of Hephaestus or Theseion. It is the best preserved ancient Greek temple. It's in the Agora (down the hill from the Acropolis)--the area which was the place of assembly of Athenian male citizens.

Mike and I standing down the hill from the Roman gate of entry to the Acropolis.














In front of the Parthenon.

This is the Erechtheum.

Mike in front of the Erechtheum. Sometimes he gets tired of simply smiling for pictures. Can you tell? This is a temple that is assiciated with many of Athens most sacred relics. In myths, Poseidon and Athena were feuding for the city. Supposedly Poseidon stuck his trident in the ground and made a salt water well, and Athena made an olive tree grow when she stuck her spear in the ground. Both are said to have happened on this spot. That, along with mythical kings buried here and so forth make this a special place.










This is the "porch" on the temple. The Porch of the Caryatids or Maidens. They were built to support the weight of the porch roof while still having a slender neck and remaining feminine. I liked them. These are all fabrications though. :( There were originally six. I liked this story: One of the caryatids was removed by Lord Elgin in order to decorate his Scottish mansion, and was later sold to the British Museum (along with the pedimental and frieze sculpture taken from the Parthenon). Athenian legend had it that at night the remaining five Caryatids could be heard wailing for their lost sister.
I am standing in the back (?) of the temple--the side facting away from the Parthenon, toward the city.

The field with the columns I think had something to do with the Olympics.












The Parthenon.







This is a theater--you pass on the walk up the hill to the top. Many recent artists have played here, including Elton John.












A towel seal. :)

Corfu, Greece and shipmates

The second stop on our cruise was Corfu, Greece. I was a little disappointed because I had heard from a couple people that Corfu was their favorite stop on their cruise. I'm sure there are some really beautiful parts of Corfu, but we didn't really see them. We took the shuttle to the other side of
town.
It dropped us off in front of the Old Fort. We wandered around a bit and climbed to the top for some good views of the city, but it was kind of unremarkable.
We had cappuccinos and croissants at a little cafe. There were tons of teenagers hanging out on the outdoor patio. I asked the waitress if it was a holiday. She said no. Then I asked why all those kids weren't in school. She just shrugged like it was no big deal. Funny...I guess--the diffence in the emphasis on education.


We began our trek back through the city to our ship. We wanted to walk to this building because on the map it looked like it was the Old Palace. However, after taking this picture, Mike noticed a sign that said "Asian Culture Museum". Another disappointment.







We walked aaalllll the way back to the ship. This picture was taken from the top of the Old Fort. That's our ship in the port. Yeah. That's how far we walked.










So back on the ship, we found our first towel animal, which I was REALLY excited about.







This was the view of Corfu on the way out of the port. You can see the Old Fort in the upper left.












A towel elephant. Maybe my favorite towel animal.





Mike and me on our first formal night.



The guys from table 72.

All the couples from our table.









The girls from our table.

Venice and Dubrovnik, Croatia

This is the first of several blogs from our vacation. So many pictures! We are on a cruise without the boys and are having fun. I miss the kids though. I think of so many things each day that I know they would really enjoy. I know they wouldn't remember, but I think they would have fun. The logistics of travel are infinitely easier with out them however.

The first is of Mike and I on our balcony in our Royal Carribbean bath robes before we departed from Venice. Disappointingly, not only was it hazy in Venice (thank goodness it wasn't actually raining), but it was dark as our ship sailed out. We had been told that leaving Venice was really cool because you have a unique view of the city being so high up in the ship. But, it was dark, and we were on the opposite side of the ship from San Marco square (we didn't realize until we had passed it), so that was a little bit of a let down. This is the only picture we took on the way out. You can see--it's dark. It was still fun to finally be "off" on our cruise though.











We ate lunch on the ship and I loved this floral display and the carved watermelons. Mike thought I was silly for taking pictures of the food, but they're pretty cool right? :)











Dinner was fun. We have a good table with all young couples. One on their honeymoon, 3 that left kids at home, and 1 other couple. We went to the "Welcome" show afterward and saw a couple of acts.

We woke up to the Croatian coastline going by. So pretty. We had breakfast in the front of the ship and watched the scenery. The picture below was the view from our balcony when we docked. After breakfast though, things kind of began to go downhill. Mike had been up the night to use the restroom several times, and then was unable to keep his breakfast down. He saw the Dr, and they gave him Pepto and something else. They were really nice and let him go, but she said normally, the policy was to have people who were sick with GI issues stay in their room for 2 days. Yikes!






He was a trooper though, and we got off the boat and walked around the Old Town in Dubrovnik which was a walled/fortified city. The big church was in built in honor of the patron saint of the city.






Just a small chapel on a side street. Mike and his silly face at the gate to the city where we entered.











This was just inside one of the old palaces.


We came back on the ship to eat and after, Mike was sick again. So, we are praying that he starts to feel better, and that I don't catch it if it's a virus! I told Mike it wouldn't be a vacation unless someone got sick or hurt, but hopefully he'll be over it by tomorrow and will be able to enjoy the rest of our trip!