Thursday 3/10 Kuşadası (Turkey) Sunny 21 deg - John here...An early start to the day, up at 6am - amazing, as it was still dark. After a quick breakfast, we left the ship and onto our bus to visit the House of Mary, we arrived around 9am, amazing, more buses here than the bus depot in Istanbul. Our guide Ayca was very good in giving background and context to the spirituality of this site. We then travelled to Ephesus which was a huge ancient site - the larg...

Day 38 Wednesday 18/09 Istanbul 26 deg Sunny - Judy here...After driving 3,265km in our discovery of Turkey, the return of our hire car turned into somewhat of an event. I realised I had left my diamond rings in our room, so jumped out to go back and collect them. "Shirl", our GPS, had a hissy fit and so navigation proved difficult for John and Enid, and we think our peak hour is tough, it took them an hour to do 6 odd kilometres! Our next stop was Topkapi Pa...

Day 37 Tuesday 17/09 Eceabat > Istanbul 26 deg Sunny 8km - John here...After a laid on breakfast in our hotel, saying goodbye to our Turkish/ex New York limo driver Zafer, we headed into the town where there was an overview of the Gallipoli Peninsula as well as a bronze cast landscape of the actual area where the ANZAC and Turkish trenches were literally metres apart. We decided we would visit the sites of Cape Helles, ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine and The Nek, w...

Day 36 Monday 16/09 Izmir > Eceabat 30 deg Sunny - Enid here...From my king-bed in the comfort of the Crowne Plaza Izmir I enjoyed the panorama of sunrise over Izmir Harbour. We headed to Bergama and took the funicular to the ancient city of Pergamum. We have visited several historic sites in Turkey and at each new site we are in awe at what unfolds. The heights and views from this city were 360 degrees, with lake, valleys and mountains. The theatre was s...

Day 35 Sunday 15/09 Bodrum > Izmir 33 deg Sunny - Judy here...After a rest for the driver in Bodrum we headed up the Mediterranean coast to Izmir, 3rd largest city in Turkey. En route we stopped at one of the most remarkable ancient sites we have visited, Priene a Greek city 300 B.C., the first city to be built on a grid plan which was on a port and is now surrounded by cotton fields. The Temple of Athena was at the top of the hill with commanding views o...