On this leg of our trip we book a five day tour through local travel company near our hotel. Our time is limited so three popular towns to visit are suggested: Ephesus, Pamukkale and Cappadocia. The tour involves getting from town to town with tour buses that are pre-booked and travel through the night. The concept is that while travelling through the night we could sleep on the bus and when the bus arrives in the early morning we could freshen up and then be ready to visit each town. It is a good idea if sleep comes easily while travelling along and constantly being woken up for rest stops. Regardless we are happy with our choices which allow us to see a little more of Turkey (a large country to begin with for European standards). We leave Istanbul at . . .
ten at night and finally arrive in Ephesus at 7:30 in the morning. We manage to get some sleep and a tour guide is scheduled to meet us at our hotel at 9:30. We get our room freshen up and get breakfast. Soon enough our tour guide arrives in a van with one other visitor and we are on our way. Ephesus is UNBELIEVABLE! It was once a thriving Greek city and many ruins have been unearthed and on display. A main road is uncovered along with an amphitheatre, library, homes with mosaic floors, columns, arches, old clay pipes and the list goes on and on. Before we arrive at the actual ruins we visit the home of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that when Jesus died and asked a disciple John to be her "son" they moved to this region where she spent her last days. It is a popular pilgrimage site for many Christians and the house has been re-built from the original foundation / footprint that was unearthed years ago. This was quite interesting for us to learn. Enough words . . .
 A prayer wall along the path to Mother Mary's house | |
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