Next Stop...Kusadasi, Turkey

After an evening of shows and gambling on the ship, we landed bright and early (7am) in Kusadasi, Turkey. We jumped on a tour bus and were off to see Ephesus, an ancient Roman City from approximately 2000 B.C.

Margo, Meredith and Sarah enjoying the walk through ancient Ephesus.

Nike, the Goddess of Victory holding a wreath of laurel leaves, a symbol of victory.

Bryce enjoyed another walk through ruin's on his Daddy's back.

Rich and Meredith in front of something ancient.

The library of Celsus was the most impressive building still standing. It was built around 135 A. D. by C. Julius in honor of his father, C. Celsus.

Here we are standing in front of the Great Theatre which held 25,000 people. Archiologists used it to estimate the size of the city so that they knew where to excavate. They calculated that a theatre that fits 25,000 people was typically built in a city 10 times that size giving them an idea of how large the entire city must have been.

After leaving Ephesus, we headed to a Nomad Weaving School where young nomad women go for 6 months to learn how to create amazing Turkish rugs. After they graduate, they return to their families and the government provides them with the materials to make the rugs in return for selling them to the government to be sold to the tourists. All of the material is hand made at the school and they use these all natural dies for the colors.

This man was collecting the silk from silk worms to use in the silk rugs. After it dried, they would die it and then the students would weave it.

This is one of the teachers who has been working on this rug for several months.

After our tour, they showed us all of the different types of rugs, different materials and how to tell a high quality rug from a low quality rug. Then, they of course got us each to buy one or two!

By noon we were back on the ship and sailing to Patmos.