Ephesus, Turkey

After a wonderful two days at sea, our next stop was Ephesus, Turkey.  Brent and I had no idea what to expect from Turkey, but we absolutely LOVED IT!  We chose to take an excursion with our cruise ship to the Ephesus ruins.  Our tour guide did a wonderful job of explaining the sites and history of the city. It was pretty incredible to know that we were visiting the ancient city of the Ephesian church that Paul wrote to!  Being able to walk the streets and take in the sites really brought the ancient culture to life.

Amphitheater

Ephesian Street

Ancient Toilets

After our stroller adventures in Rome, we decided to use the backpack carrier that our wonderful friends the McGuires let us borrow.  We had been wary about using it for fear that Savannah would hate being in it, but to our wonderful surprise, she LOVED riding around on her daddy's back!  :)  Unfortunately we forgot to attach the sun shade to it, and managed to leave it on the bus.  Savy borrowed her daddy's hat for the day and we were set to go.  She even took a nap in it!

Hitching a ride

Conked out!

Part of the excursion we chose included a tour of the terrace houses in Ephesus.  These houses were on the Ephesian hill and belonged to the nobility. They were quite incredible with the most beautiful floor mosaics and frescoes on the walls.  The Turkish government has erected a massive covering to shield the houses from the elements.  Did I mention that only 20% of Ephesus is excavated. It is incredible to think that so much more remains uncovered; in fact, they have discovered a whole other set of terrace houses that are waiting to be unearthed.  

You can see all of the different rooms and the frescoes on the walls.

Floor Mosaics 

Someone woke up- with hat hair!

Hi Mommy!

Proof I was there!

The most grandiose sites to see in Ephesus were the Celsius Library and the amphitheater.  The amphitheater is one of the places that Paul preached!

Celsius Library

Brent and Savannah (look for the red backpack) are standing
on the floor of the amphitheater where Paul preached.

After our tour of Ephesus, we were given a carpet demonstration.  The carpets were gorgeous, and it was very interesting to see the differences between the Turkish carpets and the Iranian carpets that we get in Saudi.  We thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration!  After going back to the ship for a quick lunch, we set back out into the port city of Kusadasi and went shopping in the grand bazaar.  It was very similar to some of the souqs and open air markets that we have been to in Bahrain and Saudi.  We really enjoyed it!  They were ready to sell us everything from hundred thousand dollar carpets, trinkets, to fake watches and purses.  Brent and I got quite a kick out of this particular sign that was all over the bazaar.

Next stop- Athens, Greece!