travel | Around the World in 80 Trips (Or Less)

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Venice to Turkey 12

Day 12 Kusadasi, May 15

We’re up at 6 AM today for an off ship tour of Ephesus (pronounced effasus) in Kusadasi (pronounced koosh-ahdahsa). Upon finding our tour guide, we are pleased to find it is a small private tour with only 6 people. We had expected a full tour bus of 40-50 people. Our tour guide, Begu (pronounced beg-goo) is cheerful and funny. We are in the Izmir Province of Turkey today.

Today’s tour is to Ephesus, an ancient site of biblical notoriety. Begu gives us lots of historical data of the area and is very entertaining while he does it. We chat a lot in between historical bits and I tell Begu that I make Fruit Wine. “You make Fruit Wine?” He asked excitedly! So he told me he has a friend that has Fruit Wines and at the end of the day’s tour he leads me to a vendor booth and I am given a tasting of about a dozen fruit wines and I purchase a bottle of Black Mulberry Wine! How do you like how they spell the word ‘taxi’? Phonetically correct, I would say!

Here, in Ephesus, like in Rhodes, there is a building built over an important set of ruins under current excavation at the Temple of Hadrian. Temple rooms, living accommodations and important Frescoes and tile art on floors and walls help tell the story of living thousands of years ago! Several signs in the photos to come give more accurate info on the place.

Moving on out of the Temple of Hadrian, an interesting bug points its way down the 90 irregular steps towards the Library of Celsus. The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, located near the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

The Library of Celsus is considered an architectural marvel, and is one of the few remaining examples of great libraries of the ancient world located in the Roman Empire. It was the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world behind only those of Alexandria and Pergamum, and is believed to have held around 12,000 scrolls. Celsus is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The interior measured roughly 180 square meters (2,000 square feet).

The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire that resulted either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 CE and the façade by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century. It lay in ruins for centuries until the façade was re-erected by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978.

The Ichthys Wheel (or Christ Wheel) (last photo in this next group) is an ancient, cryptic Christian symbol from the 2nd to 4th centuries. It was created by superimposing the five Greek letters of Ichthys—the word for fish and an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”. When overlapped, these letters form an eight-spoked wheel.

The detail in the stone are extraordinary even in the ceilings!

Then we come to the Grand Theater of Ephesus. It is situated just a short walk up Marble Street from the Library of Celsus. Capable of holding up to 25,000 spectators, it was one of the largest in Asia Minor. Construction began in the Hellenistic period (around 250 BC) and it was vastly expanded by the Romans. Beyond theatrical performances and concerts, the space was used for gladiator games and political, social, and religious gatherings. It is the spring and Turkish Red Poppies grow everywhere!

Next we visit a rug factory where weavers spend eight to sixteen months weaving each rug. The colors and designs are fantastic and I’m sorry that photos were not one of my chosen things to do here. Pictured are silkworm cocoons being rolled onto spools. Each cocoon produces about a mile of thread each!

Back on the ship in time for trivia games in Penrose Bar. Tonight we have dinner at the Local Bar. Fish and chips and bar food fits the bill. Then to the theater to see ‘Showtime: Burn the Floor’, a dance cabaret. Now it’s off to bed.

Venice to Turkey 11

Day 11, The Island of Rhodes, May 14

Leisurely breakfast in the restaurant this morning. Not in any particular hurry. We have until 4:30 to get back to the ship. We get off at 8:45ish. About 50 meters away from the ship is the Hop On Hop Off Bus. We get on and there are no available seats.

So we get off at the next stop and walk around for an hour until the bus comes back. We walk around and find a farmer’s market next to the Old Town Wall. We walk in to Old Town and cars and bikes drive in and out on the same medieval road. We walk back to the bus stop and reboard. There are a couple seats up top where we like to sit. There is only one bus, and the bus schedule has precise arrival times for each stop. A couple stops later, we arrive at the Acropolis (remember, ‘Acropolis only means ‘Top of the City or Hill’) and a lot of people get off. So now we get to pick our preferred seats.

We ride the entire loop this time and get off at the Acropolis the next time. We walk around the Acropolis and check out the ruins of what appears to be Olympic arenas and the Temple of Apollo Pythios.

We walk down and find our way through the town to a bus stop. We stop in the heat for a couple glasses of cold white wine and some interesting snacks. The driver of the only bus recognizes us by this time and gives me a fist bump. We ride the bus to the entrance to Old Town and get off. We enter the walls of the old city and find it is filled with chatchkey vendors. We do walk around and find a couple of souvenirs to buy.

Now our legs and feet are really tired and we find our way out and back to the ship. Joannaline, our waitress in Hudson’s tonight, AKA ‘Sexy Anytime’ is quite the character! So we also get a few shots off the ship and kick back for the evening.

After dinner we turn in. See you again tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 10

Day 10, Santorini, May 13

The ship is anchored in Santorini harbor. We Tender to shore at the bottom of the cliffs and take a bus to the top. We walk up to the top of Pyrgos and get our first views of the island. The island is amazingly sparse of growing things. It is almost desert like.

Walking around Pyrgos is quite interesting. One thing for certain is you are always walking up or down. Donkeys are used here to get yourself and your goods around. One must develop great leg muscles living here! On the way up, there are small entrepreneurs everywhere! Want a deck of playing cards? We see the first blue dome of Santorini, but not the blue domes of postcard fame! And the entrance of Mary?

Different views from the top reveal a fairly stark landscape. We have been given limited time at this stop, so visiting the shops is not really possible. Our guides, in the last photo of this set, give us a lot of historical information but I choose to spend a lot of time looking for photographic vistas. Notice a couple of vineyards here. In Greece, it is very common to grow grapes on short vines low to the ground. Very little rainfall here so the grape leaves grow in tight clumps and collect the morning dew!

The lady guide is there to tell us about our next stop, an ongoing excavation of Akrotiri, Thera, that is so important they have built a building over it to protect it from the elements! It is common all around the world to have different guides that have different areas of expertise. Also, different places require their own guides to make an income.

The bus travels on along the island. Notice the vineyards all along the way. No grapevines grow taller than a foot or so as they are self watered by the morning dew! Unfortunately, Greece is no different than most of the world where ‘street artists’ and graffiti taggers leave their mark wherever they possibly can! And donkeys hold a specific place in the culture here!

Then the bus takes us to the top of the island, or in other words, to the north end where lies the city of Oia (pronounced Eee-ah). This is the place where the iconic postcards of Santorini are found. We are excited to take our own iconic photos of the famous blue domes and white buildings. Alas, it seems that Santorini is quite overrated. There are a few blue domes but only a few. The scenic vistas are interesting, but quite different from what we expected.

Santorini has desalination plants for it has no fresh water. The processed water can be drank but is not preferred. Therefore they import bottled water. We never hear stories of what they drank in ancient times, perhaps wine? Oh well, we take our pictures and find a rooftop restaurant where we try some local wines and moussaka. Even though the views were not what we expected, a good time is had by all!

Back on the bus, we travel back to the port where we take the local ferry to the ship. All in all, Santorini leaves us a bit disappointed. This is not an attractive island, but an interesting populated desert island. On the Tender back to the ship, we even spot an interesting landslide formation on shore that resembles a bird!

Back on the ship, we go to the Primrose Bar near our stateroom and get glasses of wine and participate in random trivia sessions. We go to Hudson’s for dinner, which happens to be the main dining room. Food is pretty good tonight. We spend the evening watching the Motown show in the theater and game shows in Penrose. Then to bed it is!

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 07

Day 07, Bar, Montenegro, Mother’s Day

So today, being the romantic that I am, I took Elee to the City Bar for Mother’s Day!

Today we sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We get off the ship at 9:30 AM. We take the mandatory shuttle out of the industrial port to the Promenade where we get a taxi. Our driver, Marco, speaks very good English. He takes us to the Old Town and we agree on a pick up time. We don’t have to pay him until the end so we feel comfortable that he will be back. On the way to Old Town, we have him take us to the oldest olive tree in Europe. Marco comments that he doesn’t understand why tourists are willing to pay €2 to see an old tree!

We walk into the quaint cobblestone streets of Old Town and it’s lined with small boutique shops. As we walk further, boutique shops turn into restaurants. We walk through and come across the entrance to the old ruins.

A slow climb up through the ruined streets reveals an ancient life of different buildings. Amazingly old structures mostly built of stone show a civilization from days of yore. Many vistas for our cameras entertainment present themselves.

We find rooms that were used as public baths and on of them even has natural lighting window in the ceilings!

Eventually we reach the top and it’s time to come down. We make it back to Old Town and stop for refreshment in the form of Pomegranate Beer!

Feeling a bit refreshed, we walk down further and find a restaurant for lunch. Here we have Cevapi, a rolled meat sausage, Dolmas and an eggplant dish. Top it off with Pomegranate Wine and life is good.

We then meander back through Old Town and stop for a t-shirt purchase and walk back to our taxi. Marco takes us back to the Promenade and we ride the shuttle bus to the ship.

In the afternoon we take walks around the ship, take part in trivia games and generally have fun on the ship. We even found the original “Rock, Paper, Scissors”! Off to dinner and then to a magic show before bed. When the ship departs, locals gather on the docks and piers and wave goodbye to us!

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 06

Day 06, May 09, Zadar, Croatia

This morning we wake up in Zadar, Croatia with clear skies. We feared rain for during the night we went through a fairly wet storm.

It’s going to be a short day in port as we hear the All Aboard will be 1:30 PM.

Breakfast at 7 AM, then to our room to gear up to get off the ship. Another couple that speculated traveling with us didn’t respond so we go off the ship around 8:30. It costs us €20 to get to Old Town via taxi and off we go.

Old Town is an interesting walk among buildings several thousand years old and streets, some in amazingly good condition.

We come across a tower, that for €5, you can climb! So up we go. Very interesting views from the top after 203 steps up one way steps. We take several breaks, primarily to let other tourists go the opposite direction.

Once back down, we head to the end of Old Town where we find Pozdrav Suncu, or the “Greeting to the Sun”, a modern circle of solar panels where we find young people doing cartwheels and headstands, for what purpose is not clear.

Then, next to that, we visit another modern structure, “Morske Ordulje”, the “Sea Organ”. These simple looking concrete steps at the sea’s edge are built such that when the waves crash against them, they produce deep notes that reverberate into tunes. Quite the unique place where we sit for a while and enjoy the different melodies as ships go by and create different rhythms.

After a while here, we stroll back into Old Town and meander back through the ancient streets. There are festive parties preparing for a marathon type street race to occur tomorrow. We stop at an outdoor cafe and enjoy some cold water and a couple glasses of local wines that we have never tasted before.

As we stroll again towards the gathering of taxis, we indulge our cameras a few more random photos. For some that have asked, we are traveling with cell phones only this trip after our successes a few months ago! Elee is using the Samsung Galaxy S23 Pro and I am using the newest iPhone 17 Pro. My images are better than hers but they are all good! We step inside a small church for a moment but don’t choose to pay the tithing to go all the way in. As I arrive at the taxi spot, I pull out the card our taxi driver, Tomaslav Toric, gave us, he is there and spots us just as I spot his car! So with no waiting, Tomas takes us back to the ship. He earns himself a tip for that!

We walk the final half mile to get on the ship and go to our stateroom. A bit of rest and we head out to find a bite to eat. We go to the “Local Bar” and have chili and salad. Then it’s off to explore more of the ship. Watching the cart racing, taking a stroll around the decks, the “Galaxy Pavilion”, a glowing arcade, the “Observation Deck”, and many other things on the ship. I even spot a set of umbrellas that you only get to use by paying approximately €400 Euros per day!

Then to kick back and relax in the “Penrose Atrium”, watching trivia shows. Before we know it, it’s time for dinner. Tonight we dine in the “Commodore Room”, another main restaurant. The food was just okay.

After dinner we secure seats for some music and a silly game show that Elee enters. She doesn’t win but everyone has fun!