Once back on board we whiled away the time sunning ourselves by the pool while reading and people watching. I should tell you about the people.
Peter, our cruise director said that 49 countries were represented among the almost 2000 guests on our ship the “Spendour of the Seas”. This was not really a singles cruise for 20 something's. It consisted of mostly middle aged or older folks. There certainly were young couples (like ourselves), even young singles and families along but they were in the minority.
Probably the longest and nicest conversation Cindy & I had with our fellow cruisers was in the hot tub. This older couple (60’s) were from Gibraltar as in Rock of… I didn’t know people lived there. I thought it was a big rock used a symbol to represent an insurance company. Actually 30,000 people call this slice of Britain home. Charlie and Pauline said people either love it or hate it because of what life is like there. There are not a great many things to do there and everyone knows everyone else’s business. People watch out for each others kids, etc. I told Pauline it sounded like the states in the 1950’s. The only runway on Gibraltar cuts across the main road so when planes take off or land the road is closed down with gates like at railroad crossings. We chatted for quite some time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cindy & I always tried to be there on deck when our ship arrived or left port so when it was time to leave Athens and head for Turkey we watched it happen. Our next port was Kudakasis, Turkey.
Kudakasis is a pretty port town. Our bus drove through the countryside and arrived at Ephesus only after 30 minutes or so. While approaching the site our tour leader directed our attention to a small adobe-looking structure on a small hill on the edge of the site saying that this is where the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for a short time after his problems in Ephesus. I don’t know if this is one of those “pick an old building and tell the tourists it’s a jail” or not. I read through the accounts of Paul in Ephesus and some commentaries and discovered that there is no real agreement among Biblical scholars that Paul was ever imprisoned in Ephesus. It may simply be a local tradition. Read Acts 19 to get the full text of Paul’s sojourn in Ephesus.
We were told that probably only 1/8 of the site has been uncovered. What we saw was impressive. The façade of the library and the great theater are the most prominent structures. We did come across one unusual carving though. It is a footprint carved in stone. It is located across the street from the local brothel. Apparently the footprint was used as advertising to say “this way to the brothel boys.” On another sign carved in ancient Greek was a message from the mayor of ancient Ephesus informing one and all that everyone needed to keep Ephesus picked up and clean. If someone was caught littering they had to deal with him. His message is – “Don’t mess with me.”
The great theater which can hold 24,000 is still performed at today and the acoustics are considered superb. In front of the library a live-action costumed production was being performed for our benefit.
This shore excursion took place in the relative coolness of the morning. After Ephesus we were bused to a rug warehouse where we could see and of course buy Persian rugs. We looked but didn’t buy.
So it was back to the ship where we had lunch, read our books, walked the deck and probably watched a few minutes of “King Kong” on the TV in our stateroom. We could catch it in I believe 5 languages – French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English. We never did see the whole thing. I have to rent now because I want to see how it gets to the ending. If you don’t want to know how it ends stop reading now. The monkey dies!
I really enjoyed Ephesus. Once again we walked where Paul the apostle and Gaius and Aristarchus ministered and witnessed to the gospel of Jesus. We were there.
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