Kusadasi, Turkey is a port where my daughter and grandson visited on a Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago but I was not able to book a tour of Ephesus because they were filled. By the way Kusadasi is pronounced Kushadasi. Ephesus is one of the best preserved BC cities and the Great Theater after being expanded by the Romans is one of the largest. The Celsus Library is the best-preserved structure of its kind. They recently found terrace houses and are in the process of piecing them together so we were able to see all this work being done on site Alex, our young archeologist , was again so excited with these ruins that as soon as he got to the ship he started to go through his photos.

We also went to the museum and this well preserved statue of Artemus was one of the most valuable pieces there.

Our guide in Israel probably would rate the House of the Virgin Mary as a B site. It is thought that John, who Christ entrusted his mother to as he was being crucified, brought her to this area and because he was being pursued by the Romans he built this house for Mary way up on a hill a bit away from Ephesus. No solid evidence but a lot of pointers toward that conclusion.

The second day we went to the Basillica of St. John where he was buried and the Isabey Mosque constructed in the 14th century. We then went to a little village up in the mountains called Sirince. We were able to do a little shopping.

We have had marvelous weather, not too cold and not too hot both in Turkey and Greece.