September 21, 2022

September 21, 2022

This morning we took an orientation driving tour of the Lower Town of Zagreb, Croatia. It was quick because this working heart of Zagreb is very compact. Zagreb has one million people and makes up a quarter of the population of Croatia. The main thing we learned is that in March 2020 Zagreb was hit with a devastating earthquake that damaged many older buildings. This explains the historical buildings undergoing renovation. The news got lost in a world overwhelmed with the onset of the Covid pandemic.

Our driver let us off in Old Town for a walking tour. The government buildings of Croatia straddle the colorful St Marks Church. Apparently the fencing in place is brand new and a reaction to protests against vaccine mandates. Aimee and I had to laugh because it mirrors the fencing our government likewise installed in DC. It seems elitist governments everywhere can’t abide citizens not accepting their ideas. Coercion always seems to be the liberal response.

We then passed the Cathedral of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. These are the two missionary brothers who brought Christianity to the Slavs. Unfortunately they also gave them the Cyrillic alphabet to confuse things.

After the walking tour Aimee and I did some more exploration on our own. We walked down a long tunnel under the old city that was built during WWII as a bomb shelter.

We then visited the very unique Museum of Broken Relationships. It started with some donated items each representing some story of loss. Giving away the personal item symbolized the grieving process. It has grown considerably from crowd-sourced collections and now has a traveling exhibit in the US. Reading about the lost relationship with each artifact is right up Aimee’s alley. She read everything. I mostly skimmed through it. It has all kinds of quirky items, from a boyfriend’s cell phone (given to the girlfriend so she couldn't call him anymore), to loved ones lost to accident, and even body parts lost to cancer.

Aimee is hungry so we walk around looking for a good restaurant. Outdoor street options seem everywhere, but almost nobody seems to be eating food. Croatians are really into drinking coffee and socializing without eating. So we return to ‘restaurant row’ and have curry dishes at a Sri Lankan cafe. Aimee had Lentil soup while I had some fried fish balls. They are made from Tuna which Croatians have caught for a millennia. Tuna has been so important to the economy it is featured on the 2 Kuna coin.

We then strolled through the market before finding a department store to buy snacks and yarn. We spent the rest of the afternoon at our hotel room resting. We went out for dinner intending to satisfy my urge for some authentic goulash. We didn't make it far; instead we stopped at a Nepalese restaurant with great Indian-style cuisine.

September 20, 2022

September 20, 2022

Aimee and I both had a fitful sleep last night. We were jetlagged and the hotel room was much colder than we are used to. After a slow start we headed out for a walk with all the layers of clothing we brought. Our first stop was at the ATM to get some of the local currency, the Kuna. It is named after the weasel pelts that were the medium of exchange here in Medieval times. Kunas are about to become a collector's item because Croatia is scheduled to adopt the Euro in three months.

Cash in hand, we set out to explore Zagreb, Capital of the Republic of Croatia. We strolled down one leg of its horseshoe-shaped municipal park. It begins with a statue of Kralj Tomislav, the first king of Croatia in the 10th century. This green space is dotted with an opera house and several museums, all in a yellow Neo-Baroque architecture.

Down a cafe-lined street we ran across a statue of Nikola Tesla, reminding us that he was a Serb born in Croatia. We then walked southwest to visit the Tesla Technical Museum. It is mostly a two story warehouse filled with a hodgepodge of antiques loosely related to technology. Aimee is bored but I like the amusing walk through history. Where else can you see old steam engines, early typewriters and a Soviet moon lander in the same spot.

I really came to this museum for the small room devoted to Nikola Tesla. Aimee likes learning about his life story. I like the lab demos. We watch half of a taped English version until a large group of Croat students interrupt the film. We then listen to a live Croatian lecture with the students participating in the demos. Tesla is famous for the development of Alternating Current displacing Thomas Edison and Direct Current. So the demos start with electromagnets and their use in motors. But the highlight is always Tesla’s forays into high frequency. The Tesla Coil and the million volt sparks coming out your fingertips predictably generate excitement.

Back at our hotel, we checked out and walked around the corner to our Tour Group hotel. After a short rest, we walked north uphill to the Old Town. Actually there were two old hilltop towns sitting next to each other across a small river. We approach the east one, Kaptol, from an adjoining park but find it inaccessible because of a defensive wall. This park must have been the old moat. We walk well north before finding a road access that leads us to the Zagreb Cathedral. It is almost completely enclosed within castle walls. Like so many European sites, it is covered in scaffolding for renovation.

We walked west toward the river that separated the two towns. It has now been paved over and lined with dozens of outdoor cafes. We are hungry so we quickly choose the pub food option. Aimee and I both have delicious tomato soup. I wash it down with a dark beer named after the first Croat King.

After lunch we explored the western old town of Gradec. It is also known as Gornji Grad or Upper Town. We passed a statue of St George slaying a dragon, the second today. I guess that is symbolic of Christianity overcoming paganism. In the main square sits St Marks with a very colorful tile roof reminiscent of Vienna’s Cathedral.

Nearby is the Museum of Naive Art. Rick Steves gives it rave reviews. It is nice but very tiny and crowded, containing some homegrown art works. The style is similar to the 16th century Dutchman Pieter Bruegel known for painting peasant landscapes. I really like the pieces painted in layers on glass giving them an almost 3-D look.

On the way back to our hotel, we passed through Ban Jelacic Square with its statue to this famous Croat freedom fighter. The Lower Town is the commercial and business center of Zagreb. Most of the architecture is Art Nouveau built in the century before WWI when the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled the region. It apparently was wealthy. That all changed when Vienna lost the war and the Empire broke up. We have seen this throughout eastern Europe. Many of the buildings have been restored to their former glory. We pass one of the most beautiful examples known as the Oktagon. This is a turn of the century urban passageway of an old bank building that is topped with a nice eight-sided glass atrium.

Back at the hotel we rested up before meeting our tour group for introductions and dinner. We have almost thirty fellow travellers. A lot.

September 18-19, 2022

September 18-19, 2022

Aimee and I took Uber to the airport with a very talkative old lady. After a puddle jumper to Phoenix, we catch our long overnight flight to London Heathrow. The flight was delayed and we just missed the funeral for Queen Elizabeth. Surprisingly, Aimee and I both slept enough that we are not totally zonked out. We maneuver a very unorganized Heathrow airport to another terminal where we find our last leg has a 3+hour delay. Or so we thought. By accident I look at the Departure board and find our rescheduled 6:25PM flight has a last call for boarding two hours early! We make it aboard okay but we hope American Airlines would find a better European partner.

Our third flight over a cloudy Europe takes us to Zagreb, Croatia. Our driver meets us in Arrivals and ferries us to our hotel downtown. This driver is also very talkative and regales us with his former jobs working cruise lines around the world.

August 18, 2022

August 18, 2022

We awoke to chilly 55F weather in Alpine, AZ. Instead of following the Coronado Trail south along Arizona’s very windy Rte 191, we took the New Mexico version downhill out of the mountains. About halfway we stopped to stretch our legs at Whitewater Canyon to hike the Catwalk National Recreation Trail. This was the site of an old silver mill. The miners built a suspended pipeline down the gorge to supply the mill’s water needs. During the depression, the CCC replaced it with a metal grating.

The trail is short but scenic. The beginning is lined with enormous Aspens, but the canyon quickly narrows and deepens.  The upper part of the suspended catwalk is damaged and closed. Aimee and I try to follow the trail further along the swollen stream. It involves tiptoeing over rocks and downed logs in the rushing stream. Balance is not Aimee’s forte, so she nixes us going very far.

From Catwalk we continue downhill through absolutely beautiful country. It is mostly very remote mountains and canyons, but at one point we find ourselves in extensive high plains. The recent monsoons have turned it very green and lush. All too soon we reach the desert floor and continue home to Tucson. I got the biggest compliment when Aimee said I planned this trip well. She liked everything we did.

August 17, 2022

August 17, 2022

From Monument Valley we drove southeast across the huge Navajo Nation. By necessity it was another zigzag route because of tall sandstone cliffs everywhere. It is mostly rangeland. After almost three hours we reached the capital at Window Rock. It sits at higher elevation on a pine forested plateau.

We first visited the Navajo Nation Museum which is mostly about the Treaty of 1868. On display is an original signed copy. The treaty allowed the Navajos to return to this area from their forced exile in New Mexico. Not mentioned is the main criterion that the Navajos had to agree; to stop terrorizing their Hopi and Zuni Pueblo Indian neighbors. On leaving the museum, we were amused by the stop sign in their native language.

We visited the Window Rock Tribal Park just a mile north. There we see the city's namesake Rock Window with a memorial to the Navajo Code Talkers in the foreground. It is quite scenic.

From Window Rock we popped across the border to New Mexico and drove south past Gallup to the Zuni Pueblo stopping first at their Visitor Center. We then moved across town to the A:shiwi A:wan Museum. The colon in the name represents a pronunciation pause. The museum mostly covers their contact with the outside world with special emphasis on the Coronado Expedition’s 1540 attack on the main settlement of Hawikuh. Coronado thought it was the fabled Cibola, City of Gold. There are many artifacts from Hawikuh, especially a nice variety of colorful clay pottery. Because of the remote location (even today), the Zuni Pueblo had limited contact throughout history, and they seem to like that. The Zuni-Cibola Complex was approved as a National Historical Park by Congress, but the Zuni people reconsidered the idea and backed out.

From the Zuni Pueblo we drove back into Arizona and continued south following Coronado's Expedition trail. We stopped for the night in the town of Alpine. The village deserves its name sitting at 8000 feet in the pine forested White Mountains. We have dinner at a local bar while being serenaded by live music. During our meal it begins to pour, and the temperature drops to 60F. This cannot be Arizona!

August 16, 2022

August 16, 2022

After a leisurely morning, we left Kanab, UT retracing our route back to Page, AZ. From there we zigzagged east deep into Navajo land. The landscape is full of sandstone cliffs and small canyons. After several hours we reach Monument Valley Tribal Park on the Arizona-Utah border. We had trouble finding any availability in the two hotels near the park. Aimee and I were making plans to sleep in a tent when I accidentally noticed the campground had a cabin available.

The cabin hasn’t been cleaned yet so we head over to the lodge that has a museum about this Goulding property. A hundred years ago Harry Goulding opened a trading post here to service the needs of the local Navajo. During the Depression, he went to Hollywood to sell the locale for Western movies. His photos convinced director John Ford to film Stagecoach here in 1939 and the rest is history. Monument Valley is now the iconic western film backdrop. The museum is inside the Goulding home. For some reason he willed the property to Knox College in Galesburg, IL who to this day has a scholarship for Navajo students.

We return to the campground to find the cabin still isn't available. I tell Aimee this is par for the course for the Indians. We change clothes in the car and head to the campground office to meet the late-afternoon tour we booked. On an early RV trip, we just visited the Monument Valley entrance. We always intended to return with a jeep to explore its backcountry. That never happened. At the lodge, another dozen tourists, all from Europe, board our open tour truck. Apparently, Americans are all traveling in Europe.

The truck takes us deep into Monument Valley along a very rough and dusty road. We stop at several viewpoints, the most famous known as John Ford Point. But the crush of tourists makes taking photos difficult. I have to say neither Aimee nor I are particularly impressed with the scenery. These Navajo Sandstone cliff walls can be seen everywhere on the Colorado Plateau without having to share it with hundreds of your closest friends. Its appeal at least to me is its relationship to the Western movie industry.

One of the benefits of the tour is that it goes deeper into Monument Valley than public vehicles are allowed. We stop at several spots where arches and windows have developed in the sandstone cliff. At one stop three Navajo guides entertain us with some traditional drum and flute music. This was actually a highlight of the trip. Being the only Americans, Aimee and I developed a good rapport with our excellent Navajo guide. We also stop to see a Hogan house and a tiny Sweat Lodge.

Our last stop was at a viewpoint of the iconic ‘Mittens’ of Monument Valley. The sun is starting to set and they are beginning to glow. A nice end to an enjoyable tour.

Back at the campground, we are finally able to get our cabin key. We have a wine and picnic dinner on our deck with very pleasant weather. Our cabin is a little rustic but has everything we need. It reminds us very much of our RV. While not luxurious, it is the best tent we have ever slept in.

August 15, 2022

August 15, 2022

The Utah/Arizona border region has no end of interesting geologic formations to discover. Our first visit with the RV was a month long and we have been back many times. I have always dreamed of buying a jeep so we could explore the more remote areas. We have never done it since neither Aimee nor I relish the idea of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere (which eventually happens to all off-roaders.) So today we are pursuing an alternative that probably works better for us. We hired a guide to drive us in his vehicle. We met him here in Kanab, UT and loaded into his vintage Chevy Suburban. He is an ex-geologist. Most of the geologists I have met went into the field because of their love of the outdoors.

We are going to explore a remote section of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument today. During our travels we have often driven past these beautiful red cliffs that lie just north of the Grand Canyon. Only once have we explored the Paria Plateau above the cliffs. That was when we hiked to the Wave.

We made our way east up the Kaibab Plateau where we pick up two more hikers, retired Chicago teachers now living outside Phoenix. After a dozen more miles we turn north on the unpaved House Rock Road. We make a brief stop at a Condor viewing area but none are to be seen. After some ten miles we turn onto an even smaller and rougher back road. The area is mostly pinyon pine and juniper scabland that is leased to free-range cattle ranchers. After many more miles the track turns into deep red sand. Fortunately with the heavy monsoons the sand is somewhat compact. Our guide makes driving it look easy. But even he goes off road when confronted with deep wet spots. After two and a half hours we reach the White Pocket Recreation Area.

Like the Wave this isolated pocket of Navajo Sandstone outcropping is otherworldly. In the White Pocket, much of the normally red sandstone is almost completely covered with a layer of bleached-white sandstone that has shrunk and cracked into cauliflower-shaped tiles. To me they look like the scales on the back of an enormous prehistoric crocodile. There are sections bigger than football fields.

In some areas the White Pocket has been eroded exposing the underlying red sandstone. Some swirls look very similar to the Wave. These undulations are probably the petrification of the prehistoric sand dune shapes that once covered the Colorado Plateau. In other areas the layers are all jumbled up in ways geologists struggle to explain.

Aimee and I have some fun climbing one of the red sandstone formations but almost get ourselves into trouble when we slip off the ledge. Aimee luckily grabbed my foot at the last minute. We have our sack lunch in a sheltered spot on this sandstone.

The roar of Chocolate Falls is not the only unexpected benefit of the heavy monsoons. Many of the depressions in the rocks here are filled with water giving me many opportunities to photograph reflections.

Our circular hike eventually brings us back to the car where we begin the long drive back to Kanab. At the House Rock turnoff, we run into another tour vehicle with a failed transmission. We give one of the passengers, an Italian visitor, a lift into town. If I needed more encouragement to hire a guide instead of buying a jeep, I just got it.

After resting for an hour at our Kanab hotel room, we go to a local cafe, where Aimee and I share an entree of Pistachio-encrusted Chicken in a Poblano Cream Sauce. It is superb and another unexpected treat to match our exploration today. Aimee spends some time on the Internet trying to find a recipe that copies it.

August 14, 2022

August 14, 2022

After a late breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and drove an hour northeast of Flagstaff onto the Navajo Reservation. The landscape is filled with volcanic cinder cone mountains. Eventually we leave the pavement behind and travel eight plus miles along a very dusty washboard dirt road. We stop when we reach the Little Colorado River. One of the many lava flows in the distant past blocked the river here. The river breached the dam forming Grand Falls of Arizona. The Little Colorado River is very seasonal so it is not always so grand.

When we arrive, Aimee is surprised to see dozens of cars in the parking lot. As I open the door I hear a rushing sound. I think our timing is good. The heavy monsoon we are having is powering the waterfall. We are in awe. It is an extraordinary sight for the desert. Grand Falls is a series of cascades ending in several large plunges taller than Niagara. The water is thick with brown sediment giving it the well-deserved nickname of Chocolate Falls. Aimee and I hike around checking out the various vantage points.

From Grand Falls we backtrack towards Flagstaff and then turn north. In two hours we reach Page. After a leisurely lunch, we cross the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam. We stop at the Wahweap Overlook to check out Lake Powell, or at least where it once was. Aimee asked where is the Lake. The water level has dropped so much it is almost back to being just the Colorado River again.

We continue west into Utah stopping briefly at the Grand Staircase National Monument Visitor Center in Big Water. While Aimee shops for a new backpack, I check out the latest dinosaur fossils found in this forbidding and remote landscape. Surprisingly the new Triceratops relatives sport horns that look amazingly like Buffalo. Paleontologists also think the 'skull frill' may have been very colorful.

We continue on to Kanab, UT. We are stuck in the car for awhile until the afternoon monsoon (and hail) subsides long enough I can dash inside the hotel.

August 13, 2022

August 13, 2022

Aimee and I decided we needed to build up our hiking muscles. So that meant getting out there again. Our first stop was just east of Flagstaff at Walnut Canyon National Monument, one of our favorites. This meandering canyon is cut deep into the Kaibab Limestone formation and is filled with junipers and pinyon pines. By itself it is very picturesque; but a thousand years ago the local Indians took refuge here building pueblos in the limestone overhangs. They must have feared some other tribe to have built their homes in such inaccessible spots on the cliff faces. Aimee and I got our exercise on the 240 steps to reach the level of the Indians' hovels. Our thighs are burning.

Our next stop was Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve. This city park is adjacent to the municipal wastewater plant. Reclaimed water feeds the little stream that has carved a small but steep canyon into the volcanic basalt. Flagstaff is built atop former volcanoes. This is clear during our loop hike through the area as most of the path is atop volcanic cinders. We had to speed through the last few hundred yards when the afternoon rain started.

It is now pouring. On our drive back to the hotel, we spot the local movie theater and decide this would be a good spot to wait out the rain. We dash inside just in time to watch Top Gun: Maverick. It is very entertaining with almost non-stop action.

After resting in the hotel for an hour we head to the historic section of Flagstaff. Route 66 went right past downtown. When I was a child my family drove this road on the way to and from California. We spent the night at the Holiday Inn here in Flagstaff. I would love to know if the building still exists. We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. Afterwards we window shopped the area with its many historic buildings.

August 12, 2022

August 12, 2022

Our last trip is now a distant memory so Aimee acquiesced to a short getaway. We quickly packed our bags and left town mid-morning heading north. Aimee timed our departure so we would arrive at a Phoenix fabric wholesaler. I read a magazine while Aimee shopped for her next several projects.

We continued north on I-17 until we reached the Sedona exit. Sedona, with its red rock cliffs, is hands down the most scenic spot in the state. Hungry, our first stop was a burger joint in Oak Creek Canyon. We split a massive burger festooned with sauteed onions, peppers, jalapenos, guacamole, and bacon. Aimee thought it the best she ever had.

After lunch we didn't make it far. Just north of the restaurant, we parked at the Courthouse Butte Trailhead and hiked up the distinctive butte of Bell Rock. It is mostly scrambling up red slick rock which Aimee is not fond of. The views of the surrounding red rocks and ominous storm clouds are outstanding.

Back in the car, the rain finally begins but doesn't last long. We continue north making our way through Sedona to the Mescal Trailhead. We hike east for a couple miles till we reach a cliff face. We climb a series of stone steps to the rim where we discover Devil's Bridge. This is a very cool place to take a photograph. I have to coax Aimee really hard to open her eyes so she can take the picture. She can't wait to get back down the cliff.

Back at the car we follow Oak Creek upstream before climbing the Colorado Plateau and reaching Flagstaff. It is rainy and overcast and almost chilly. We check into our hotel and eat at the neighboring Outback Restaurant.

June 11, 2022

June 11, 2022

Aimee and I became Screech Owl fanatics after seeing one nesting last year inside a Saguaro on our golf course. So it didn’t take much urging from Aimee to keep our latest adventure short and focused just on Turkey. We both wanted to be back quickly to see our Screech Owl family emerge from the nesting box we set up outside our bathroom window.

The life of these Screech Owls is a big mystery to us. To this day we have yet to see any adult fully outside the box; only peeking their heads out and usually with eyes closed sleeping. We assume all their activity is at night when we are fast asleep. There are fewer ground squirrels this year, so rodents must be on the diet. But like most of the wildlife in Tucson, they are small and camouflaged and could be sitting silently right in front of us. Our lone excitement was watching an adult choke down a colorful finch. We are hoping the owlets will be more active.

Finally last week, a juvenile popped its head out. It has been a long time coming. Since Screech Owls can have up to a half dozen chicks it has got to be crowded in that nest. And hot! With June, our hottest month, now here.

Two days later we saw two heads at the same time. With all the photos I have taken I should be able to differentiate and count the owlets but most shots have been blurry. Only too late did I discover that the cheap polarizing filter I leave on the camera has been the culprit. I thought I needed to invest in an expensive telephoto lens.

Our owl observing quickly came to a climax. After seeing lots of different heads poking out, we woke to find one of the owlets actually outside the box. He didn’t look ready to leave and he floundered a little moving around the tree. The next morning he was gone, and all activity ceased; a little too fast for us. We thought the fledging process would take longer.

And then today Aimee noticed two dead birds under our Lime Tree. Sadly it is two of the owlets. We are at a loss to explain it. We are hoping that the parents and oldest owlets are still alive and healthy. With birds it is not uncommon for the oldest chicks to monopolize the food and grow faster at the expense of the youngest. Or perhaps this family got started too late and the owlets didn’t learn to fly and hunt before the summer heat kicked in. Sadly we probably will never know.

May 19-20, 2022

May 19-20, 2022

We woke early intending to have breakfast again on the rooftop deck of the hotel. Today it is cool, blustery, with rain coming. Our first. So far, we have had perfect weather. I guess Mother Nature is telling us it is time to go home.

While the rest of the world has eliminated Covid testing, our ridiculous country still requires vaccinated citizens to test negative. So we pay to have a supervised test performed. With fingers crossed, we passed!

Our tour bus drops us at the Izmir Airport an hour away. That is almost prophetic because today is a Holiday celebrating Ataturk's return to Anatolia one hundred years ago starting the Turkish War of Independence. It ended with Ataturk marching into Izmir, taking this last Greek stronghold. Back then the city went by the Greek name of Smyrna. It would take the Turks another year to write a constitution establishing the secular Republic of Turkey in 1923.

At the airport, we boarded our Turkish Airlines flight. Humorously Morgan Freeman is the narrator of a pre-flight commercial. I wonder why they picked him. We traded my window seat for an interior one on a flight two hours earlier. I regretted that, as the sky was clear as we approached Istanbul. The one-hour flight is quickly over. Unfortunately our next flight is not until tonight. We spend all day in the airport.

At 8:30pm we catch our British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Once again our business seat is just economy with a guaranteed empty middle seat. Our flight approaches along the Thames River with the Tower Bridge and London Eye Ferris Wheel both lit up. 

We arranged to overnight in London to break up the long trip. Little did I know that Heathrow of all airports shuts down early. We had to roust up the inter-terminal bus driver to get a transfer across the airport to our next terminal. After what seems miles of walking and asking directions we find the airport Hilton inside the parking lot of Terminal 2. We have nixed Heathrow airport off our list. On the plus side, Aimee and I both get a great nights sleep. We wish we could stay longer.

We are up early to make our way back through Heathrow security (a US passport is the ultimate VIP card) and have breakfast at the business class lounge. At 9:30 am we board our ten-hour flight to Phoenix. It is cloudy almost the entire route. It finally clears over Arizona as we cross over the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately we have another three-hour layover till we can catch our puddle jumper to Tucson. We are glad to be home.

Turkey is a wonderful country to visit. It is scenic, colorful, and full of interesting historical and natural sites. The Turkish people are nice and friendly and apparently very industrious and hard working. It is one of the cleanest countries we have visited. I don't know why it is off the radar on American’s bucket travel lists. The only downside of the trip was Rick Steves. Disappointingly, his travel company was inferior to all the others we have used.

May 18, 2022

May 18, 2022

We left bright and early this morning to tour the ancient Roman city of Ephesus. In Turkish the name is Efes. I didn't realize I have been drinking Ephesus beer throughout Turkey.

The World Heritage city of Ephesus is huge. In classical times it was the second largest city after Rome. We arrived just after opening. The city was built on a sloping valley. Most of the ruins lie on both sides of the main road that descends down the center. We start at the top entrance and work our way downhill. Our first stop is the Bouleuterion Theater (City Council Chamber).

Next we visit the Terrace Houses. This is the most unique part of Ephesus. These are the recently excavated luxury villas of the wealthy citizens. They lived in a wonderfully decorated series of stacked condominium houses, like you would see in modern seaside resorts. Each home was built around an open courtyard and probably had a deck with a view to the sea. Inlaid mosaic tiles covered the floors, and some of the walls were faced with veined marble slabs like you would see in some upscale hotels. Others are painted with frescoes. This area reminds me of Pompeii in Italy.

Just down the main street is the Library of Celsus, the icon of Ephesus. The reconstructed facade is very ornate. In its day, it was the third largest library. The interior space, with niches lining the walls, is surprisingly small. Since scrolls were handwritten, they were rare and expensive and highly treasured.

Any large city has to have a sophisticated plumbing system for supplying water and carrying away waste. The Romans were experts at this municipal technology. We see the terracotta pipes they used exposed everywhere. The interlocking segments look just like the modern version. They must have been produced in massive identical quantities. It was the probably the world's first interchangeable manufactured item.

Aimee cringes when we visit the public restroom. This latrine aside a bathhouse is truly 'public'. I guess this is one way to really get to know your neighbors. Fortunately, it had constantly running water to drown out some of our inconvenient and embarrassing noises.

Farther down the street is another feature that is in good condition, the Great Theater. And great it is. It is the largest theater in the classical world holding 25,000 people in three tiers. The stage is enormous.

After the guided portion of our visit, Aimee and I tried to visit the Terrace Houses again, but we learn our two-week Turkish Heritage pass is limited to a single site visit to each location. We tried to take some better photos of some sights, but the crowd has swelled considerably. The big downside of Ephesus is its close proximity to cruise ship ports of call. When these floating cities arrive, they overwhelm the destination.

We finish by walking around the Agora market ruins ending at the harbor road. Or what would have been the harbor. The Little Meander River silted up in antiquity leaving Ephesus high and dry and abandoned. Today the water is three miles away!

Ephesus also had important biblical connections. St Paul preached here (e.g. Letter to the Ephesians) and it is believed that St John and the Virgin Mary likely lived here after Jesus was crucified.

Back in Kusadasi, we spent the afternoon exploring the Old Town. We celebrated our morning adventure with a refreshing Efes beer at a dive Irish Pub. We wandered the narrow lanes window shopping. We stopped at the 17th century fortress-like Caravanserai. It is now a hotel. Jimmy Carter once stayed here on a visit to Ephesus.

The origins of the city lie on a little island now connected to the mainland by a causeway. A substantial castle was built atop it by the great Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa. We climb its ramparts. There are many interesting storyboards about the local flora.

In the evening we have our farewell dinner with the tour group at a local restaurant. We walk back to our room along the picturesque waterfront.