Ephesus
The Library
We left Pamukkale by 7am but the coaches were already arriving – Pamukkale is a very popular. We dropped off the road a couple of times – the first time a man in a van tooted to indicate that we were lost and pointed us in the right direction, and the second time a lady on a balcony saw us hesitate and indicated that we should turned back and then turn right. People are very friendly and helpful here.
A fairly straightforward trip except that – as usual – the speed bumps are big, unmarked and cunningly camouflaged and we hit one at sufficient speed to score a “full-house” shaking all bedroom baskets of their shelf and to shift the garage fridge a fair bit, and cause earthquake-style displacement amongst the plastic boxes. But no permanent damage.
A fairly straightforward trip except that – as usual – the speed bumps are big, unmarked and cunningly camouflaged and we hit one at sufficient speed to score a “full-house” shaking all bedroom baskets of their shelf and to shift the garage fridge a fair bit, and cause earthquake-style displacement amongst the plastic boxes. But no permanent damage.
floor mosaic
We stayed at Garden Motel and Camping (used by that Dutch tour group) and it was easy to find, is right below St. John’s Basilica (where he allegedly wrote ‘Revelations’), about 3km from Ephesus, has plenty of grassy pitches under shady trees (so no satellite signal), decent toilets and showers, washing machine (10YTL a go), a small swimming pool (we didn’t try it), what might be a decent restaurant (again we didn’t try it) and was 40YTL a night less 10% for the Camping Card. One problem was electricity – it took a while to get our ‘station’ live and more recent arrivals have hunted around for live connections Unusually when we arrived there were only English-speakers here – a pair of South Africans with young kids and a pair of young Americans – Kirstin and Stani – on their way to Vladivostok via Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia in a Toyota 4x4 (they are blogging their trip on bigtrip10.blogspot.com). The South Africans had hired a first-use locally converted motorhome which was giving them lots of problems, in addition to driving on the wrong side of the road.
While at Garden Camping we visited the ruins of St John’s Basilica (3YTL each) but unfortunately the ‘castle’ bit at the top is being refurbished and was closed. Apart from St John’s (alleged) tomb there wasn’t a lot to see there but it was only a short walk from the campsite.
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While at Garden Camping we visited the ruins of St John’s Basilica (3YTL each) but unfortunately the ‘castle’ bit at the top is being refurbished and was closed. Apart from St John’s (alleged) tomb there wasn’t a lot to see there but it was only a short walk from the campsite.
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terraced houses museum
Once again we were out early (it is cooler and quieter) and cycled to the Ephesus site entry at the 8am opening time (entry 20TL each) and having the place more or less to ourselves for the first hour. It is certainly impressive, not only for the massive scale of the place but for the very fine remains such as the theatre, library, and latrines, as well as some fine just-about-to-fall-down ruins. As usual the best place costs extra – the terraced houses (under their high-tech protective roof) were excellent but cost another 15TL each. The quality of the houses and the decoration in this area was exceptional, and the restoration was a nightmare of thousands of shattered bits of marble, mosaic, and mural to be put back together again. There were newspaper articles pinned to the wall describing it as the world’s largest jigsaw.
 doing the jigsaw |
 the boxes contain more bits |
 painted walls in the terraced houses |
 more painted wall |
Once we reached the upper section of the site the crowds had arrived and it was a real scrum.
Most people there seemed to be in tour groups and some were from cruise ships and when we got back to the car park there were 100+ coaches waiting to pick them all up. We scarpered at about 11am and picked up a kilo of peachesfor 2.5TL on the way back and had lunch at anearby restaurant – kofta for Sheila, chicken shish for Gilroy, and a couple of beers for 26YTL.
Most people there seemed to be in tour groups and some were from cruise ships and when we got back to the car park there were 100+ coaches waiting to pick them all up. We scarpered at about 11am and picked up a kilo of peachesfor 2.5TL on the way back and had lunch at anearby restaurant – kofta for Sheila, chicken shish for Gilroy, and a couple of beers for 26YTL.
Click here for Bergama and Pergamon a delightful small town & more ruins
