Ephesus Turkey, Fıve Moloney's and Pictures

Today I had the cool of experience of seeing family in Turkey. My brother Glenn, sister inlaw Shelley, niece Maddy and nephew Max came in on a cruise ship to Kusadasi and we visited Ephesus together. It was awesome to see them all. I was able to find them easily as I was staying in a hotel right across from the pier and there was only one ship in at the time so they were easy to spot. We hired a taxi for the day to take us to Ephesus the second best Roman City remaining after Pompeii which we also have all visited. Ephesus was neat with a lot of marble remaining and it was hot. The heat must radiate off of it or in the valley or something, it was intense sun. The library at Ephesus was the coolest for me with it's great marble columns. The library was built over Celsus' tomb by his son. Max has been learning about this era at school so also found the site interesting and Maddy was all set to pose for photos at any opportunity and had some great shots there. Glenn too liked standing on a column that is the same style as on his business cards, Ionic period we have determined.

We visited the Virgin Mary's house lit prayer candles, wrote prayers and placed them on a prayer wall, blessed ourselves with holy water from a spring there and ended the visit with a beer at the Virgin Mary's house. It was for dad, Glenn said he would think it was funny us having one for him at the Virgin Mary's house.

The Virgin Mary's house was an interesting discovery in the 19th Century. An invalid nun who had never left Germany wrote a book describing the site that she said had been visions given to her. Her descriptions led to it's discovery. It is thought that she came here after Jesus' death with John [I think that is correct, don't quote that, I don't have my book in front of me.]

My hotel room in itself is an interesting story. It has a great view, pool, no elevator and I had seen it listed in a book. I went to check it out, climbed at least 6 sets of stairs with all my stuff to the reception. Again a reception with a view. I was shown some rooms, all the same and finally they told me the price. 40 Euro, I said wow, way too much for me. So they said ok 35, 30. I said sorry no I was interesting in paying about 20 TL which is about 10 Euro. Fine he said, showed me another room, all of them are the same. So I guess some money was better than no money in his eyes, which was good. The place is empty and it is a big spot, they must be hurting, again those economic times.

I was able to see the gang off at the pier. They are off to Egypt and the pyramids next. The hotel had binoculars and I am pretty sure I saw Glenn out on the balcony. I watched the ship take off from the pool, of the life. It was so good to hand out with them for the day. I am glad we were able to meet up.

Click on this link to see our pictures of Ephesus