Kusadasi, Turkey

This was a great port to stop in.  This was the only port where we did a ship excursion and we were very glad we did.  We did a ‘off the beaten path’ tour and they were not kidding.  In two of the places we went we were the only tour there  (as opposed to the 300+ buses from 3 cruise ships that went into the main town of Ephesus).  It was really neat to see these ruins without thousands of people around us (like in Athens).

Morgan loved the bugs at our first stop.  She wanted to bring the ants with us.  Here is one of her friends..

 

A local college theater class performed a little scene for us.  We were at a temple of Apollo and Artemis.

 

There was quite a bit of rain the days prior to our visit and I just loved looking at the ruins under water like this.

The next stop was the Metropolis – a theater and bath.  Amy's Blog will have more pictures of this visit.  This was another stop where we would be the only tour visiting.  There was a security guard with us that was opening the sites and allowing us in.  Very neat.

 

Final stop of the tour was a school that the government setup to teach women rug making.  We got a neat tour and demonstration on how they make the rugs (all by hand).  Some took 2 years to make.

 

I really like the Turkish flag.  These pictures don’t quite do it justice to how ‘strong’ in looked on a bright and sunny day.

 

There were statues to the first president (back in the 30’s) of Turkey throughout the city.  Our tour guide was telling us that the was the first to Western-ize Turkey and he brought along the modern era of Turkey.