Day 102 - Sunday April 9 - Kusadasi, Turkey

Kusadasi photos
position at 8am: N37 51.50 latitude E27 15.15 longitude
(Kusadasi, Turkey)
temperature: 56F, 100% humidity, mostly cloudy
distance since FLL: 32,855 miles
Here is the description of the tour we are taking today.
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PRIENE, MILETUS AND DIDYMA - ANCIENT SITES
Duration: 6 1/2 Hours Price: $82.00 pp
Departing early from the pier, your first stop will be the ancient harbor city of Priene. Priene was laid out at the foot of a spectacular cliff on Mount Mycale, and contains many famous examples of Hellenistic art and architecture. In addition, its streets intersect at right angles.
Next visit Miletus. As one of the largest and most important cities in Anatolia, Miletus was the most active member of the 12 cities of the Ionian Confederation. From the 7th century B.C., the Persians, Romans and Seijuk Turks have controlled the city.
The last visit in the tour will be Didyma, the place where, according to Greek mythology, Zeus and Leto bore their twins Apollo and Artemis. Didyma was famed as a prophecy center dedicated to Apollo, and served a similar purpose as the Delphi of Anatolia. It was not a city, but a sanctuary linked to Miletus by Milesians by a 12-mile sacred road. A lunch consisting of simple but delicious Turkish specialties will be served at a local restaurant. At the end of the tour you will return to Kusadasi, where, time permitting, you can stop in town to explore the shops or return to the ship.
Please note: This tour involves an uphill walk in Priene, and many steps in both Priene and
Miletus. Since pathways contain loose gravel and rubble, good walking shoes are suggested.
Total walking required is about 2 miles over 2 hours. This tour is not suitable for those with
walking difficulties.
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Clay slept in with Debbie and did not walk this morning. It was very chilly this morning and the forecast high for the day was 74 degrees F. It did reach exactly that temperature in the afternoon, but it was a cool start. LaVeranda opened at 7am and we were there for a quick breakfast before the bus boarding time of 8:15am. Debbie had oatmeal with a banana. (Don't know if we noted the return of oatmeal. It was only gone for about 4-5 days at the beginning of this segment.)
We arrived at Kusadasi on time at 8am. There was another cruise ship, Emerald, already docked. Kusadasi hasreally built up and cleaned up since we docked here in 1999. There are new cruise terminal buildings and a bus parking lot. The salespeople along the pedestrian shopping streets right near the port have ratcheted down the aggression by about 50%. We were very pleasantly surprised by the positive changes and beautification that had taken place.
We visited Ephesus in 1999 when we were here before and while it was an awesome site the tours here were for only 3 hours and that included transit time. While we believe Ephesus would be worth a return visit, we feel it warrants more time. We decided to take the tour described above and we were well pleased with it. It was pretty much exactly as described and we saw some beautiful countryside and views from the cliffside city of Priene. None of these sites was as extensive as Ephesus but they were all impressive in their own way. The lunch was served at a restaurant that overlooked the Apollo Temple in Didyma. They had an amazing selection of cold appetizers and salads, a good selection of hot appetizers and pastas, rice, vegetables and a meat dish in gravy. The main course was served at the table and was described as sea bass. They served each person 2 fried fish, one was smaller than the "sea bass" that they had displayed and did not have much taste. The "sea bass" one was white fleshed and flakier and moist and very tasty. Debbie did not want fish, so after she declined it, they came back and offered her a "meat" kabob. She accepted it. The plate had 2 sort of meatballs and several chunks of a meat that may have been goat and a big scoop of rice. The "meat" chunks were very chewy, but the "meatballs" were very nicely flavored. She ate most of it. Clay got 2 Efes Pilsner beers and like them. For dessert, they served a very lightly nutted and very honeyed baklava. It was delicious too. It was a very nice lunch. The only down side here was that an hour was shaved off the back end of our stop and instead of the originally scheduled 6pm, it was all aboard at 4:30pm and we sailed at 5pm. It turned out to still be enough time for us though. We got back to Kusadasi and parked the bus outside the dock area at about 3:10pm. Debbie finally found a new gold bracelet. Actually, she found 2 at 2 different stores and had only about a 20-minute window to decide and purchase. If you have ever purchased as much as a T-shirt from a Turk before, you know what an amazing feat this was. Plus, somehow the store owners still thought we were leaving at 6pm and acted like our short time argument was just a bargaining ploy. No, we really did sail at 5pm and not 6pm. For some reason, all the shop keepers kept speaking French to Debbie and seemed surprised when she replied in English. We don't know why they all thought Debbie was French. She was wearing a blue cableknit cotton sweater with blue Lee jeans and black Ecco shoes. Maybe it was the black shoes but Clay was with her with his big white New Balance. It is a mystery. Clay made a last purchase in the Cruise Terminal building's duty free shop of an Efes beer in a can. Debbie was standing outside the shop waiting when Capt. Dag came by and stopped and took her shoulder and followed where she was looking. He boomed out that Clay should get a case, it is good beer. We gave Laurens some grief 2 days ago about not stocking Stella beer from Egypt or Efes beer in Kusadasi. He seemed not to know that these were the local beers and had no plans to stock them. Clay said if the Captain wanted a case of Efes onboard that he needed to talk to Laurens. We only have 18 days left!
Tonight is Country Club Casual. We may go up to LaVeranda tonight. Jamie said on Voyager Today on TV that the past week or so has been very low attendance in the Constellation Theater for the shows. We can imagine. People have been working too hard during some long port days and with overnights away from the ship. Jamie said that 150 people went to Cairo for the overnight and skipped the Suez Canal transit. We are very happy that we had chosen to skip this even without knowing that Debbie would not have the energy for it. We found the Suez Canal transit one of the most fascinating days of the cruise.
We did eat in LaVeranda, and were finished before the sun set. During dinner, we sailed by the island of Samos. After dinner, we went up on deck 12 to watch the sun, but it was too chilly. So, we stopped by our cabin to get the camera and a jacket and went out on deck 5 to watch the sun set. The seas were rough and we saw many high waves as we watch the sun set.
Kusadasi photos