Dave and I flew out of Miami just a month ago for a wonderful adventure in Turkey with Overseas Adventure Travel. www.oattravel.com We met 11 great new friends who we spent the next 3 weeks with discovering all sorts of amazing places along our way.  Our Turkish guide Erol, did a fabulous job and we loved every minute of our adventure.  I have been busy sorting all my many photos since our return.  I have tried to write about all the major points on our trip on the blog.  My blog only displays the last 3 postings.  To view all the blogs about Turkey (there are 14)  go to the right of the blog and click on the Category Travel and it will bring them all up.  Today’s pictures are a few from Istanbul.  I also put together a slideshow from Istanbul which you can access by clicking on the following link: Dave and Doreen in Istanbul with Overseas Adventure Travel Some things like the Grand Bazaar and Underground Cistern must be seen in person to appreciate.  I just finished my Slideshows of the whole trip too.  I got carried away and had over 200 images so I divided it into two parts.  Hope you enjoy our travels.

Tomorrow I start back photographing weddings so this will be the end of my adventure travel for a short time.  Hope you have enjoyed seeing Turkey with us… Doreen and Dave

Kudasi is the port city located near Ephesus.  Our hotel there was spectacular- just like the rest of the hotels on our trip.  It was up on a hill overlooking the harbor with all the yachts and the cruise ships. It reminded me of being in Monaco. Our farewell dinner was on the terrace by candlelight.  The waiter had a great sense of humor.  They delivered all of our meals together and when they took the cover off Dick’s dinner there was a raw cabbage and raw zucchini on his plate.  We all had a good laugh and then they returned with his real dinner.  We loved every part of our adventure in Turkey.  I still have to go thru my Istanbul pictures and then I will put a slideshow up on the blog.

                    While we were in Ephesus we took a short drive to the Blessed Virgin Mary's home.  It is a beautiful, peaceful place on the hillside overlooking Ephesus.  They have built a shrine to Mary on the site where they think her house stood 2000 years ago.  It was lovely place to walk around.  One of the most interesting things there is a wall covered with requests written on cloth tied to the wall.

While in Ephesus we also dined in a open air restaurant where the local women rolled out dough and made he Turkish equivalent of quesadillas over an open fire.  We sat around a low table on Turkish carpets enjoying our food. 

                    Ephesus is one of the largest and best preserved ancient cities in the world.  Dave and I were here about 3 years ago while on a Mediterrean cruise so I was happy to go back.  In Ephesus there are wide marble streets, flanked by columns and temples.  The Library of Celsus is a two story facade decorated with exquisite statues.  On our last trip our guide told us there ws a brothel across the street with an underground tunnel to the library so we have been fascinated with it ever since.  There were 4 cruise ships in port this time so the place was mobbed with tourists.  We then visited the Ephesus Museum which displayed all of the incredible finds from Ephesus.   Then Errol took us to a fascinating local outdoor Turkish restaurant and then to the home of The Blessed Virgin Mary.  Both of those will be the subject of my next blog posting.  More later…   Doreen