Hotel Proteas Bay Sámos

... He spoke all through the tour about the extensive history of the place with pride and passion.<br><br>The ruins are buried under layers of earth and this process whereby a thriving community gets lost over centuries by being interred is a mystery to us really. The quality of the stonework at Ephesus mirrored that we had seen in Greece and the expertise of the stone workers astonished us. Also the extent of the complex with its way down to what used to be the Aegean Sea until ...

... both sides and marble pavements made a dazzling first impression. The Temples of Hadrian, Library of Celsus and the Great Theater were some of my favorites. We also saw the Temple of Artemis...one lonely column remains there. While there we also strolled a street on which Cleopatra and Mark Anthony spent their honeymoon!! As with the other ruins..feral cats everywhere. People actually brought cat food ...

... of the earthquake, many buildings fell and dirt buried a lot of the city, which, actually helped to preserve it. In order to reveal the main walkway, archaeologists had to dig down 10 metres. The library that has been built as they think it looked is built with about 50% of the original materials. It is believed that when the earthquake happened, those that survived moved to another area nearby and when they needed materials, they simply ...

... eastern neighbor are the cradle of humanity, Here there are artifacts and sites that date back to 5000 BC. We visted ancient Ephesus<br>which is one of the greatist archeological excavations in the world. This is the home to the Great Theater where St. Paul preached. All of this has been really fasinating. Kusadasi is in southwestern turkey and is islamic, but as the interperter said yesterday the people here are "open" while ...

... coffee with creamy milk. Feeling a little out of sorts today bit tired after all the travelling and miss everyone back home including dan dan lots and lots. <br><br>Going to go out and have something to eat this evening and then up very early for the ferry to Paros but tomorrow we have booked a 4 star hotel with swimming pool on my fave Greek place Paros its so cool so excited about going there tomorrow.<br><br>

... to watch the match in glorious sunshine this is the life its great here and so pretty I could stay forever and chill out. <br><br>After we popped back to get changed and then went for some meze it was amazing first meze of the trip and we ate loads after a walk along the beach off we went to bed again we are moving on tomorrow into the town as we need to get up for the 7am ferry so need to be closer to the harbour.

... than anywhere. But apart from this no issues with such a lovely place. To prove this we met a lovely girl on the ferry from Turkey who had lived in England for 12 years working had a brill conversation with her about the differences between Turkish and English men!<br><br>Got the local bus to a place called Kokkari with no accomodation again and asked where the toursit office was in a little jewelery shop they said that it was down the road but it ...

... in the car. So we were happy to buy a small onyx vase from this man - besides it was very interesting! Then we headed down the road to Miletus, which in Hellanistic times (remember - 2,500 years ago) was an even more important city than Priene. Again,, it was a city sited on a great harbour, which hs since silted up, so now it stands in the middle of a flat plain a bout 1 km from the present day ocean. It has a magnificent theatre in very good repair - you can still walk though ...

... had a lot to offer with many sites to see. Also, the weather was great, sunny and warmer than the inside of the hotel. The first site we visited was the Basilica of St John the Evangelist. This disciple actually was based in the Roman city of Ephesus. He was buried here after he died, they marked the spot outside the city. When the Roman Empire went Christian, the emperor ordered a huge Basilica to be built at the site. It was so big, in ...

... Only a little later I came across the real thing, more shrine than cave today and though it wired shut it was unsecure. As there was no-one about I gave myself a tour. Not a very safe place to be clambering about. Here there were several trees and bushes with their little 'wish/prayer' bits of paper, cloth or plactic tied to them. I took a shortcut back to Selçuk by way of a peach orchard and an Islamic cemetry. Met a couple of dogs along the way but they were friendly. Back to ...