Ephesus

It seems I’m waking earlier each morning; it is about 4AM and there is simply nothing to do but wait. I guess I could start repacking; there are only 3 more ports and then disembarking in Rome. I look forward to more time there, and Florence. Today is Ephesus.
I will report today in reverse. We just now finished celebrating Jim & Dotty’s Anniversary and I want to thank all of you who participated. They were so moved. Check out the photos. We had cocktails in the Ocean Bar on board with our favorite cocktail waiter, Manny who has been making little origami for us. Tonight’s was a big origami, a peacock, with an anniversary greeting. We then went to the Pinnacle Grill for a special meal. And special it was! After dessert we were about to leave when the waiter stopped us with a chocolate mouse cake compliments of the house. Manny was responsible. Jim and Dotty opened all the cards. Now it’s off to bed.
I am uploading the photos while I am writing this. Forgive me on the Ephesus section, as I do not have the time or energy to caption them. There were so many and that will give you an idea of how extraordinary the site of Ephesus is.
Our guide, Emel [or Mel for short] is a 20-something beauty from central Turkey. Her English was very good and she was well informed and instructive about everything we saw. Our driver was Abdullah and he spoke very little English but drove our Volkswagen mini-van with great care and comfort. Mel led us into the site with historical and geographic background information. Her expertise and sense of humor kept our attention. She was also lovely to look at. Ephesus is one of the largest outdoor ancient “museum” sites in the world. A quick comprehensive examination takes about 2 hours. The most extraordinary feature is the terrace [or slope] houses, which are only recently open to the public. The site is enclosed in a canopied building to protect the incredible discoveries. Rather than detail the content of this site I will let the photographs tell the story. I will fill in details later. If the terrace houses are not enough to impress, we were next introduced to the Celsus Library. This is one of the most spectacularly restored facades of the ancient world. We then visited the second amphitheatre of the site. Our tour ended with a leisurely stroll down a tree-lined alley to our driver.
We had a lovely Turkish lunch [included in the price of the tour which was only $80.00 each] and then visited the nonexistent temple of Artemis one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.
I am about to pass out so I will close and write more tomorrow.