Ladee's Travels

Our bus returned to the ship after an adventurous afternoon exploring the area around Kusadasi.  I found my "local Starbucks". There were a few cafes on the pier.  This is looking back towards the main part of Kusadasi. We saw this little shop and went crazy buying Turkish products.  We bought several boxes of Turkish Delight in fruity flavors. This was a smart idea.  The passengers were dropped off and could walk through this little shopping area for some "one more thing" shopping before boarding.  Can you see the Starbucks sign at the end of the walkway? A lot of the items that we had seen during our tours were available. A very pretty backgammon board, plus those lamps that I liked so much. Very pretty and colorful. There was quite a variety of items to buy, but we were able to walk past these. Only to get caught in another Food store. I bought one of the baskets with apricots, nuts and other fruits. Everything tasted very good...

5/20/2012 There were several nests throughout the town.  I am going to put all of the nest photos in one blog post.  This nest had two little white heads peeping up.  Baby Storks!  So cute. Everyone on the bus moved to the one side to be able to see this nest.  "There are many more," said the tour guide. The birds found nests throughout the city, on top of a variety of high places.  The storks are the messengers for the beginning of summer.  This one is standing on an ancient ruin.  One story mentions that remaining parts of the aquaduct that ran through town provide high platforms that the storks love for nests.  A closer look at these structures make me think that these are the aquaduct remains. We all continued to move from one side of the bus to the other trying to see the birds.  It was fun to see them. This map is for reference and shows the location of Kusadasi, Turkey.  Selcuk is in this general area. ...

5/20/2012 We continued on our way through Selcuk and the surrounding area.  This man was out for a walk and stopped to take a rest.  Very nice wall, fields and flowers lining the pedestrian walkway.

5/20/2012 We walked outside and around the school. There were several students working on carpets.

5/20/2012 Our tour bus returned to the main road and we headed towards Selcuk, a major city in this area.

5/20/2012 We drove past our view of Ephesus and up the mountain road.  The driver pulled over so that we could take photos of the statue of Mary.  Mary spent the end of her life in Ephesus (Efes). This is a close-up view of the head.  Her hands.  The folds of her gown.  This is the full view of the statue on the pedestal.  This is the dedication plaque for the statue.  The organization "The American Society of Ephesus" is based in Lima, Ohio.   Click for their website.  Mary gazes out at the valley below. I don't know if her view or orientation is significant, but this is what she "sees".  We were able to spend a few minutes at the statue and then the bus turned around and went back down the hill.  I saw these stores at the bottom.  Normal souvenirs were sold here.  I thought that the sign was funny.  Truth in advertising...you can buy advertised Fake Watches here! We continue our driv...

5/20/2012 We headed east away from the coast through an area that used to be an inlet.  The tour guide said that Ephesus was a coastal city. The sea has been filled in long ago by silt.  But that is not the only story... This map will help you to see where we are. We are following the yellow arrows. One story for Ephesus is that it was a coastal city. You can see from the map that it is not a coastal city today.  I researched this topic and found some interesting maps on a website. The writers had the same questions and did a very nice job presenting an answer.  Thank you to AOI.COM The website is here...click here.    I've borrowed a few of the map illustrations. This map shows the layout of the town today. Ephesus is just left of the red balloon at Selcuk. The blue area shows the water if the sea level was 4 meters higher.  This puts Ephesus on the coast. Another story is that a river flowed through the valley, and tha...