On the bus to Kusadasi today.
6 hours driving but will be mainly broken up after 3 hours at ruins.
More about that after we have been there.

Up at 6.30 for 7.45am onto the bus.
Another magnificent buffet breakfast.
Scrambled eggs with cheese.
Cheese rolls ... remember Mel's famous Spring Rolls?
Just like that but with cheese.
Delicious!
Nutella not so prevalent after leaving London.
Lots of fresh fruit, salads, rolls, cakes ....

Just had the first stop, just for a quick break.
Lovely friendly lady owns the Service Station.
You should see the 'Ladies' .... I took a picture.
Also a young girl offered Olive Oil Hand cream as I walked in.
I was a bit hesitant, but it is great.
Went back.
Bought two.
It's great.
( And I am not the least affected by salesmanship!)

About an hour and a half away, we visit the ancient Acropolis of Pergamon
There is the Temple of Trajan here.

After heading through the very narrow streets of old Bergama City... The bus barely seemed to scrape past the buildings through the narrow streets.... we could see the ruins high up above us.
We pulled into the parking space and caught the cable car to the top.
Fulia is frightened of heights and we were going up very, very high.
We tried to keep her busy by asking her lots of questions.
The views from the cable car were incredible but nothing compared to the view from the top.
We were told that 300 buses pull in here each day and 500 carloads of visitors as well.
But, honestly, you felt like you were the only one there.

Pergamon originally consisted of a Library, with 200,000 books in 400BC.
These books were given to Cleopatra by Marc Antony as a Wedding present and taken to Egypt.
It housed a Sculpture School and a very famous hospital of antiquity.
Doctor Claudius Galenus ( Galen ) 129 - 199AD was the 2nd most famous Doctor of the 1st Century after Hippocrates ( Hippocratic Oath )
Galen treated the gladiators who fought in the arena here..
This city was a home of the Gods.
Asclepius was the God of Healing and he had a staff with a serpent entwined around it.
That image is still used as a medical sign today.
He was the son of Apollo and he was killed by the Gods because he found the recipe to Immortality.
As he died, he dropped the recipe and it fell on a plant.
The garlic plant.
Hence the healing properties of garlic.

The Pergamon Kingdom had one of the seven churches that are mentioned in The Book of Revelations.
The Altar to Zeus was also mentioned in The Book of Revelations.
This sight was originally excavated by Germany and the Altar of Zeus is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, along with many other artefacts from the site.
Turkey has tried unsuccessfully to get them back from Germany as they feel they were taken
Illegally.

This was a magnificent site to visit.
The views through the ancient white columns are spectacular and we visited on a day of 34 degrees with not a cloud in the sky.
It was amazing to watch Emily.
These were her first ever Roman Ruins.
Her eyes could not look everywhere at once.
Lovely to watch.
( Mum, take my picture!)
We stood and gazed through the enormous pure white columns at the magnificent view stretched out in front of us.
It was amazing.
Emily and Betty shot off from the group once they heard they had 10 minutes till the next cable car down... and raced up the hill and then shot their way down all the steps to the base of the magnificent amphitheatre to try a seat or two and gaze back up in wonder.
Emily said the view back up was breathtaking!
And then they climbed all those steps up to the top again!
And met us by the little souvenir stalls.

Down in the cable car again...
It is a very long way down.
Would not have like to haul all that rock to the top of that hill!
The precision cuts and placement of the stones and archways were beautiful.

Emily and I seemed to have spent all our ready cash at the bar last night.
( It was a fascinating view.)
And meant to go to an ATM.
Haven't found one yet so, while Emily and Betty were racing down all the steps in the Amphitheatre, I busied myself looking at things for sale. Just looking mind. Remember, absolutely no cash. ( who travels like that?) there was a very nice man trying to sell me a magnet but he wouldn't actually believe that I didn't have any cash until I showed him an empty purse.
" One magnet for one kiss, " he said.
Bargain!
And it was such a nice magnet, I kissed him again!
Very funny.

On the bus.
Ten minutes, then lamb skewers and salad to eat.




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