barns.blog

After Athens, we set sail once more. This time we were destined for Asia. On the bright and sunny Thursday, September 11, we disembarked the Navigator of the Seas into Kusadasi, Turkey. It was the first, and so far, last time any of us have been to Asia. Kusadasi was to be our gateway to the ancient city of Ephesus.

Ephesus which began life as a Grecian city evolved into Rome’s provincial capital in Asia. Located on the Silk Road, it was one of the most influential cities of the ancient world and its monuments bear testament to this. In addition to the actual city of Ephesus, the area is home to the site of the Temple of Artemis – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It is also home to two significant and moving Christian sites, the last home of the Virgin Mary and a Cathedral dedicated to St. John, where he was buried before being relocated to the Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:1-2

After visiting Ephesus, we returned to Kusadasi with a lunch stop in between. Kusadasi is reputed to be one of the places to purchase a Turkish carpet, so prior to embarking the ship we did a little browsing, coffee drinking and buying.

After our 16h30 departure, at 17h00 sharp the ships alarm sounded and a very moving minutes silence was held on board. On deck, people rose from their chairs and amongst tears honoured the events and victims of September 11, 2001.

Unfortunately, the lunch caused a few problems and the following morning a short trip to the ships pharmacy was required. As a result of this, however, when trying to disembark in Istanbul, we encountered a GI-10. Apparently we were in quarantine for a norovirus. This spoilt our day and largely ruined our visit to Istanbul as we were unable to take our original tour, we had to take a one day trip instead.

Nonetheless, on day two we got out there and visited the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. This was a highlight visit of Byzantium Istanbul. We found Istanbul a fascinating, but very “Western” city. Despite the fact that it is the city of 10000 minarets, we could have been anywhere in Europe (which I guess we were, we didn’t visit the Asian side of the city). The big difficulty came at prayer time… The Grand Bazaar was also somewhat disappointing as it was like a very large shopping mall, very structured and orderly. You could buy anything though. We limited ourselves to a few souvenirs. In the Topkapi Palace we encountered the Topkapi dagger, which is world famous, and some very significant religious artefacts. These included the remains of St John and Moses’ staff.

What was a particular highlight of our trip to Istanbul was that this was the first time the Navigator of the Seas had ever visited the city and it was the largest ship to ever enter the harbour. We got a wonderful welcome of horns from all the tugs and pilot vessels in the bay and the ferry boats were sailing past us so that passengers could take photos.