Kusadasi, Turkey

We arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey early this morning at around 7:30 AM. Local authorities cleared the ship by 8:00 AM so that passengers could go ashore.

Kusadasi is a beautiful seaside resort. Many tourists from nearby places travel here during the Summer months to relax here. It is well known for its beautiful waters, its sandy beaches and its large marina. There are many local shops in town that sell a variety of leather goods from purses to jackets, along with many other jewelry shops and shops that sells rugs.

This port of call is all the gateway to a couple of historical sites. The major site is Ephesus, which at one time supported of a population estimated at 250,000 people. The ruins from this city are truly amazing from the marble streets to the Hadrian Temple, to the houses to the amphitheatre. Another site that many visitors travel to is the House of Mary. This locations is supposed to be the last-known location of Mary at the time of her death. There is still controversy about whether her burial occurred in this locaton or in Jerusalem.

We awoke early this morning and went up to the Lido Café for breakfast. We enjoyed a quiet breakfast with a few of the regulars who also come up for breakfast at this early hour. After breakfast we went to the Fitness Center to workout. The Fitness Center was very quiet as many passengers were going on shore excursions. Anne Marie worked out on the Treadmill and Keith worked out on the elliptical machines and also lifted some weights.

After our workout we went ashore to walk around the various shops that are in walking distance of the pier. We looked at a variety of places and purchased a few items. We found the people to be very pleasant. Yes, their livelihood does depend on selling goods but on the most party they were friendly and not too aggressive.

We went back to the ship and had lunch in the main dining room. We enjoyed wonderful salad entrees. Anne Marie had a chicken Caesar salad while Keith enjoyed a wonderful Nicoise salad.

We decided to go back on shore after lunch so that we could do more walking. We ran into many of our fellow passengers who were enjoying the opportunity to walk around the area and do some shopping. We did not do anymore shopping but just took in the beautiful weather. The skies were pictures perfect clear, with very comfortable temperature for walking. Yes, several times we were asked if we wanted to buy a rug but this is something that we did not want to do and we knew if we walked into a rug store we could be there for hours.

Last evening our Cruise Director, Gary Hunter, teased us all about the shopping. He said that since the time we left Istanbul that lots of trucks were on the highway taking all of the goods that we did not purchase during our stay in Istanbul to Kusadasi so that we could have another chance to purchase these items. Maybe Gary was right after all. ☺

This evening there was open seating in the dining room since many passengers, including ourselves, were going on a shore excursion this evening. We needed to arrive to the dining room when it opened a little earlier than normal at 6:00 PM as we needed to be read for our shore excursion by 7:15 PM. We had made arrangements with the headwaiter to have our table reserved as we thought it would be a lot easier to order from our regular senior waiter. We each enjoyed a nice salad for dinner along with swordfish for our entrée and fruit for our desert and we were able to finish dinner in plenty of time for the shore excursion.

Our shore excursion began at 7:15 PM. As we mentioned the last time we were in this port of call we went to Ephesus during the daytime. This time we booked the evening concert at Ephesus. This was an exclusive concert just for Crystal Cruises passengers. We rode in buses approximately thirty minutes over to the entrance of Ephesus. Upon our arrival, waiters dressed in Tuxedos who offered us food and beverages greeted us. We were then led to an areas just outside the Grand Theatre.

We then enjoyed cocktails and other refreshments while we listened to a string quintet played famous music from the past. For about an hour we continued to listen to wonderful classical music while we took in all of the beauty of Ephesus around us.

Ephesus is a very beautiful site. It is estimated that they have only uncovered about ten to fifteen percent of what remains from the city of Ephesus. We could see a big difference from when we were her last as they have uncovered the stadium.

This was a very special event and we are so very glad that we had the opportunity to attend this wonderful concert at such an historic site. This was the first concert of the season.

As we mentioned, this is our second time to this wonderful port of call and we highly recommend this port along with Istanbul for those of you who have not yet visited Turkey.

Later this evening we leave for Rhodes, Italy and we will arrive there in the morning.

Keith Anne Marie