Day 25 Kusadasi Turkey tour of Ephesus, Virgin Mary's home, Saint John's tomb

What we signed up for:

A guided walking tour of Ephesus and its major sights celebrates the historical significance of this ancient city.

  

Visit The House of the Virgin Mary,

considered by the Vatican to be a Holy Place. Set in the Solmissos Mountains, the shrine is nestled among lush foliage; a curative steam flows through the grounds. Walk among the ruins of the Basilica of St. John,

 

built over the tomb of St. John,

 

where frescos and mosaics still remain and graceful columns hint at the structure's former grandeur. Next pass through the arched Magnesian Gate at Ephesus and begin a slow, downhill walk to the ruins of the Roman provincial capital, where your guide will highlight such pivotal sights as the Temple of Hadrian, the magnificent Trajan Fountain, the Odeon Theater

, the beautiful Celsus Library

 

and the dramatic Great Theater. Back at port, shop for souvenirs and view a Turkish carpet-weaving exhibition.

Here is our version...We met our bus, brown 10, and went for a speedy trip to Ephesus. Our driver seemed to want to overtake other buses. We were first at the start of the walk down the city. We like the reconstruction of the library of Celsus.

I think Pompeii would have been better if they had more reconstructions. The city was fascinating though. There were cats and dogs all over, and they feed and care for them.

And we went thru a public toilet with multiple holes for people to sit side by side.

They said their were musicians playing to cover all the defecation noises, and absolutely no privacy. We were warned our restrooms would be holes in the floor, but they had nice, clean regular restrooms.

Then we went to Mary's house.

There was a long line to get into it. It was very small, they did not allow pictures inside. There was an alter set up in the fireplace we think, and someone praying inside. We bought Mary a medallion because I think she would appreciate it. The bus driver locked himself out of the bus and was finally able to get in with the help of another driver.

Next stop is Saint John's tomb. Now I understand why our driver wanted us to be the first one here. We were and we got to wander around for about 5 minutes without any other people around. Then maybe 8 or 10 buses showed up full of people, making the site really crowded and hectic. The parking lot was a madhouse. There are two cruise ships in port and everybody has tours at the exact same time. They really should stagger them like three buses every 30 minutes or something. It was nuts.

Our last stop will be the rug factory. This was a high pressure sales job. They gave us apple tea and spread out the rugs, one on top of the other, using a slick, throwing motion. We thought we were going to get information about how they get the silk off of the silkworm or how the rugs are actually created, but we got no information. A little 3x5 rug was $5,000 and a room size rug was $50,000. Needless to say we didn't buy any. But Paul already has 2 rugs, so we really don't need another one.

After the demo, we walked around a little bit and watched a lady actually making a rug. She said we could take her picture.

Then we wndered our way back over to the ship and had to run the gauntlet of high pressure people trying to sell us stuff. Then back to our home away from home and have lunch.

We spent some time trying to download the tickets for our Meteora tour, but couldn't. So we ended up calling Greece to confirm our ship pick up and tour on the 10th and confirm our train tickets for the 11th. Who knows how much that'll be, but we feel better about it. We got our tickets printed. It looked like our tour in Mykonos that is supposed to be a full day tour doesn't start until noon and ends at 7:00 p.m. That didn't make sense but we found out we don't dock until noon, so it is the whole time we're there. Mellow relaxing afternoon. I think we've decided what we want to get to take home. At the Grand Bazaar tomorrow in Istanbul we're going to buy some saffron for us and for Chris and Misty.

We played some game shows, heard some music in the Irish bar, then watched a juggler balancing guy.