Day 69 - Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus)

As disappointing as Jerusalem was the other day, Ephesus was just what we needed. We had a WONDERFUL day. Our guide had a real heart for his country, his knowledge was comprehensive and pertinent, and he was such a nice man.

As soon as we were on the bus we headed for Ephesus. It took about 1 hour to get there from the port. We immediately began our tour of amazing Ephesus. Ephesus has been around since the Byzantine period. Ephesus was a seaport of Aegean Asia Minor. It is now six miles from the water. In the fourth century BC, one of the twelve generals of Alexander the Great, founded the “new” city of Ephesus. Ephesus was known in Antiquity for the cult of Artemis, since they had built a temple in honor of the goddess, which was considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Our guide said it is the heart of Turkey and everyone comes to Turkey to see this amazing place. I don’t know if that is true but it should be! We saw the Isis temple, the Maltese cross, public toilets, amphitheater, ad for the oldest profession, market area, and of course the big building which is the library. It was destroyed by an earthquake once but rebuilt to look the same. Many things are being rebuilt and excavated. There was so much to see, it is hard to remember it all!

From here we went to Șirince (pronounced as she-RIN-jay) for a small wine tasting. They offered us the fruit wines (berry, peach, cherry, and another I don’t recall). All were very sweet but they also offered a sample of their dry red wine in the back of the tasting area. It was very good and I bought a bottle of that to take back to the ship. I asked if they knew about California wines and the guy said, “Oh, Napa Valley” – yes and I asked him if he knew of Caymus wines and he was very excited to say he did! Caymus is known all over the world for sure!

After this delightful stop we went on to Pine Bay for our lunch. The food was nothing special to write about but we also had dancers, so that made the lunch very special.

Next a few minutes of site seeing from the bus that wasn’t even part of our itinerary. Then on to the Turkish Rug experience. Turkish coffee, Ouzo, and rugs. One was too lovely to pass up!








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