Today half our your group returned to Istanbul and thirteen of us headed for Kusadasi, it was a drive of 500 km but we saw lots of the countryside and had plenty of stops for refreshments. The highlight was a visit to the Acropolis of Pergamum and the Temple of Trajan at Bergama. It had been a Greek and also a Roman city originally founded about 301BC. The ruins have been restored in places using the original marble and stone. We were able to get to the site by catching cable cars to the top of the hill. This site was much more impressive than Troy where we visited the day before. Troy looked overgrown and neglected although they have excavated up to nine different cities built on top of each other. Originally Troy was a seaside port but the site is four kilometres from the sea now. It is thought it was established around
3000 - 2600 BC which is very old.
Our hotel at Kusadasi is a resort hotel right on the Aegean Sea on the side of a very steep hill. You catch a lift down to a platform anchored away from the edge of the cliffs. It was too rough to swim by the time we returned from Ephesus today so had to be satisfied with a swim in the pool. The pool deck is very crowded and people line up waiting for it to open to take up a position on a deck chair. It has been around 29 to 34 degrees every day, our guide Gizon said it normally would be about 24 at this time of year. I regret taking my shorts out of the suitcase at the last moment.