Hello Everyone, yesterday was a very busy day, and I collapsed for a short rest before dinner, and then we saw the show in the theater and hit the sack! We docked at Kusadasi for our tour into the hills to see Ephesus, and the final resting place for the Virgin Mary. That was all part of the tour with the cruiseship, and had little walking involved, which was good since Janice and I both have sore knees. The overview of Ephesus, a barely exposed archeological site was interesting. It was a huge city at one time and a big seaport. After many earthquakes it was damaged, the sea receded, rivers flooded and a malaria outbreak caused it to collapse as a city, several times over many centuries. It had the largest library outside Alexandria at one time, all removed by Alexander and taken to Egypt. Anyway, the Turks are very nice people and seem squeezed between many more seriously Muslim countries when they have a secular gov't. The guide says that creates some tensions when their borders are invaded by refugees from other neighbors. Also, they are continuously ravaged by earthquakes. After she told us how many and how serious they are, I was glad to leave there. Our last stop on the day tour was at the carpet factory where they showed us how they gather the silk to make rugs. They also grow their own cotton in
turkey for rugs and other products. The carpets were amazing, amazing, and Jim bought a runner for the hallway and a small rug for his den. Of course, he did it at my prompting. It was quite an experience to get the full on sales pitch of the men at the carpet place. Deals and more deals were offered. We had an audience! Hope our kids want to inherit real rugs because they are real rugs! We'll wait and see if they get delivered in six weeks or so. The Princess Cruise lines guarantees the company, so I felt pretty good about it.
Today we did Mykonos. Wow! It lives up to all the hype. There are winding lanes, going up and around, all white washed buildings and blue doors. There are small chapels on every other corner. There is blue, blue water on sand beaches and boats painted bright orange and bright blue. We saw the windmills, no longer used but so interesting. The weather has been perfect, 60-65 degrees and sun. The winds are blowing about 25 today, so it is breezy. We have had gyros twice now and enjoyed them very much. Today we had them and they came in separate peices so we had to put them together. The french fries inside the roll is unique. Best of all, and a surprise for my children, we rented an ATV, and Jim and I went charging around the island up steep hills and down to find the out of the way places we wanted to see. (Charging may be an exaggeration since sometimes were were chugging!) I consider it a red letter day that Jim got me on an ATV. I had doubts it would carry us, but the nice Greek man told me it would carry him and he was much bigger than me!!
This is really the bucket list trip. Tomorrow is Athens, and another tour. Wish you could all be here with us. The Whidbey Wagners
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