The Harvard group catch a very early flight south to Izmir. We are met by a bus and head to Selcuk. We visit the 'House of the Virgin Mary'. This is a Roman Cathlic and Muslim shrine located in the vicinity of Ephesus. The Catholic church has never pronounced the authenticity of the house due to lack of acceptable evidence, but it is a very tranquil, peaceful place with a beautiful small church. We transfer to the Selcuk 'The Black Sheep' carpet shop. We go thro...

We arrive at our very beautiful hotel 'Pera Palace' in the heart of modern Istanbul near Taksim square. It is nice to see some familiar faces from MB'S 2000- 2002 Harvard university days. We meet some new friends from Mexico and Canada, who have not been to previous reunions. We are greeted by our host 'Omer Senguler' who has organized a very busy week for us all. Our first excursion is to the 'Istiklal street' walking tour to the Galata tower. This tower offe...

We left Lemnos earlier than expected due to the threatening bad weather and a few of the guests had already experienced some seasickness. It was windy and rough when we left. We didn't realize how big Lemnos was, as it took hours to pass by it. Our first stop in Turkey is 'Canakkale', arriving about 3pm Captain Paul had to clear quarantine and customs, which seemed to take hours, but was better than expected. We had dinner on shore to celebrate our first Turkish...