Hey there! Hope you’re well?!
Did you miss my Sunday newsletters for the past 2 weeks?
I’m just back from a Greece Intensive cruise with Azamara, and back in the grove of the weekly newsletter.
My husband and I were the Virtuoso Voyage hosts, and we escorted a group of 20 clients on a great 7 night cruise around the Greek islands.
And yes – it was hot!
But we had an amazing time in our moving hotel room, onboard the small ship, Azamara Quest.
What a terrific and unique shore excursion I was able to escort as a Virtuoso Voyages host. We visited the famous ruins of the ancient City of Ephesus in Turkey.
Ephesus is definitely worth seeing.
We visited one of the best Archaeological collections of the Aegean Region, Ephesus Archaeological Museum, where we found the Artemis statues (the Mother Goddess that has been worshipped by people for thousands of years under different names). The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was in Ephesus.
A highlight of the visit was a tour inside the “Terrace Houses”, homes to wealthy Romans that afford a rare look into everyday life of a family during the Roman period.
We walked over marble streets of Ephesus, adorned on both sides with temples, theaters, fountains, and baths, among other ancient structures, and had the opportunity to visit the Grand Theater (mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles) that had accommodated over 24,000 people, the ancient marble public toilets, and the first advertisement – carved on the side the marble street – giving directions to the “house of ill-repute”!
And we were transported past the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, which is connected to a very interesting story, mentioned both in the Bible and in the Quran.
We had a memorable lunch in the town of Selcuk at the Seven Sages Winery, which names its wines after the Seven Sages of ancient Greece.
After lunch and the “Sage Wine”, we were brought back to the Port of Kusadasi.
Let me know if you’d like to go to Ephesus, Turkey!