Ephesus Part One

Everyone said this would be one of our favorites on the trip and today was a wonderful day.  We booked a private tour guide through Melitours and we were delighted with our guide, Zafer, our driver and the entire tour. It was a long day, full of many Turkish delights.  Zafer met us at our ship at 8:00 AM and took us to our air conditioned Mercedes van.  After yesterday's cramped quarters on the Santorini tour, this was sheer luxury.  We started with a climb to the top of a large hillside to see the reported home of the Virgin Mary in her last years, after Jesus' death. There is not irrefutable evidence that Mary did live here, but lots of things that  are fairly convincing. The drive up to the shrine, gave us ample opportunity to see the countryside as we rode through tangerine and pomegranate orchards. We washed our hands in the spring of holy water as well as walking through the house which has  been reconstructed in modern times.