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Turkey & Holy Land Cruise November 9th to December 3rd, 2013 |
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Ordered room service this morning as we are on a tour from Antalya today. The ship pulled in to a very calm harbor and docked without incident. Antalya is a beach resort city on the Med which has a population of 1.2 million that swells to 2 million during the summer months. Very popular with tourists from Europe, especially Germany. With breakfast done, we boarded our tour bus with our Turkish guide Rose for a 45 minute ride to our first stop.    click picture to enlarge Drove through Belkis to the Roman theater of Aspendos, which is a Roman theater in the ancient city of Aspendos in Turkey. It was built in the 2nd century and is one of the best preserved ancient theaters of the Greco-Roman world. The theatre holds up to 12,000.    
   
     click picture to enlarge From Aspendos we drove up to the remains of four aqueduct sections which are very well preserved. It was built between the middle of the 2nd and end of the 3rd century.           click picture to enlarge Back on the bus we travelled to the ancient city of Perge (Per-gay). Perga or Perge was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located in Antalya Province. Today its ruins with a 13,000 seat theatre, a stadium and an agora (market) lie 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of Antalya.                       click picture to enlarge Finishing up our tour, it was a half hour ride back to the ship arriving at 1:30. After we dropped our stuff off at our rooms, it was off to the Lido deck for a late lunch. When we were done everyone went back to their respective cabins for a bit of R&R for the rest of the afternoon. Watched an afternoon movie, John Carter of Mars, then over to the Ellsworth’s at 5:30 for a pre-dinner glass of Turkish wine LeVerne had picked up after our tour and before we boarded the ship .            click picture to enlarge At 5:45 it was down for dinner and the usual good fare. After dinner Lee went up to the Turkish bazaar Holland America was holding on the Lido deck. She found a Turkish coffee set so she now had her souvenir from a very welcoming and interesting country. To finish up our day we went back down to the Hudson Room for a couple of hands of Black Queen. At 11 pm we were kicked out as the crew needed the room for some training. So, out to the casino for a bit then back to the room and in bed by 1:00 am. Sea day tomorrow … today. |
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