Ephesus
09 August 2011
We journeyed to Ephesus - touted to be the best preserved Roman ruins in the eastern Med, home to the Artemis temple - one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Driving over the hot, steep hills w/ Uncle Gary and Jessica, the mini van overheated - but we made it and spent two days near the town. What's left of the 2000 year old city was incredible and imagining life back then made us appreciate ours even more - e.g. take the toilets. We miss flush toilets on the boat, but they didn't care in the ancient days. In fact still preserved at Ephesus, are a long row of marble seats that were the social center for the men. The slaves got to be seat warmers so the guys didn't get cold when doing their business and fraternizing. Those were the days.
Even though Leo has made it clear that he as seen enough old rocks and famous places, he managed to entertain himself climbing around and finding secret caves and entrances. RJ, our resident expert on ancient history, admired the sites but found those at Pompeii more impressive. I was thankful we had an excellent guide to shuttle us around and provide informative descriptions of the various ruins. Currently we're back in Marmaris, enjoying being tourists at Uncle Gary's hotel. We'll be packing up the boat and in two days we all fly to Istanbul - the last stop for the boys and I before returning home!