I believe we left off after our last visit to Turkey with Paul and Cheryl. Well, since we still had time left on our three month visa, we decided to fit some more in. Our prime goal was to visit Dale's nephew Curtis, his wife Itir and their daughter Isabel in Istanbul. Our secondary goal was to visit Ephesus and environs, which we did on our way.We landed in Izmir and drove south to Kusadasi where we stayed at the Liman Hotel (Mr. Happy was the proprietor). We walked around town and poked our nose in at the Caravanserail,
which was a fort to house the traders and their camels and livestock on the ground floor, while they carried out their trading on the second floor. It is now a hotel and the stalls are now carpet, leather, pottery, jewellery and souvenir shops. We also visited the Bazaar which was also endless streets of more shops. It is a lovely harbour town and a stopping point for cruise ships as well.On Monday we started our sight-seeing in earnest. Ephesus was established in the 9th century BC, and is also famous for its part in the rise of Christianity due to St. Paul visiting and speaking to the Ephesians.
It was a very large settlement, an
d we were glad to have taken the audio 
tour.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EphesusIn and around Ephesus we visited the site of the Seven Sleepers -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepersand the house of the Virgin Mary -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Virgin_Mary More about all the above -
http://www.allaboutturkey.com/efes.htm
Lunch was an excellent Turkish pizza in the town of Selcuk.We stopped for a quick peek at the Isa Bey Mosque, which is unusual in its asymmetry -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0sa_Bey_Mosqueon our way to St. John's Basilica -
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/ephesus-basilica-of-st-john.htm
Tuesday we headed out to Pamukkale which was about three hours from Kusadasi. To get there one must pass through Hieropolis which was a very large settlement and necropolis -
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/hierapolis-pamukkale.htm
Pamukkale means 'cotton castle' in Turkish, which you can see why from the photos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamukkale
This was another phenomenal site/sight. It was certainly worth the drive and even 
the (very expensive) soak in the ancient pool was something that had to be done since we were there.
As you may have noticed from the photos, the weather was variable; some rain, some sun, some clouds, some wind, sometimes all the above. Thankfully by the time we got to the pools we had some sun, since the change rooms were chilly and set away from the pool. The reason it is called the ancient pool is that you are swimming and soaking among ruined columns and blocks from Hierapolis. The water was lovely and warm, but it didn't quite erase all the aches and pains of travel (especially since it is supposed to cure everything!).
Wednesday we managed one more archaeological site on the way to the airport. Priene -
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/priene.htm
Then on our way back to Izmir to continue on our journey to Istanbul.
To be continued . . .
the (very expensive) soak in the ancient pool was something that had to be done since we were there.As you may have noticed from the photos, the weather was variable; some rain, some sun, some clouds, some wind, sometimes all the above. Thankfully by the time we got to the pools we had some sun, since the change rooms were chilly and set away from the pool. The reason it is called the ancient pool is that you are swimming and soaking among ruined columns and blocks from Hierapolis. The water was lovely and warm, but it didn't quite erase all the aches and pains of travel (especially since it is supposed to cure everything!).
Wednesday we managed one more archaeological site on the way to the airport. Priene -
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/priene.htm
Then on our way back to Izmir to continue on our journey to Istanbul.
To be continued . . .
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