Turkey On Easter Sunday!

Sunday, April 24, 2011
                             
Easter Sunday…A beautiful Day.  We always think of our family and friends on holidays and today we talked frequently of many of you.  We were tied up in Bodrum when we awoke and it was a most perfect early morning for Easter.
  
We had a tour scheduled, so after breakfast we met the rest of our group and our guide on the pier.  He led us on a short walk down the dock to a shuttle boat for a 10 minute ride cross the harbor. 
  
  
We went ashore and entered a large medieval castle built by the Knights of Saint John, a crusader group in 1402.  This Castle of Saint Peter is one of very few existing examples of Crusader architecture.  We climbed hundreds of slippery, uneven marble stairs through the various levels of the castle and noted the various Crusader Coats of Arms depicted in friezes on the castle walls.  The Knights of Saint John still operate ambulance services throughout the world.  Their Coat of Arms is the Red Cross.  There were many museums within the castle containing crusade era artifacts and an extensive collection of items salvaged from the many Greek and Roman trading ships wrecked on the coast of Turkey.
          
               
         
The castle was built from very large stones salvaged from a much older structure nearby.  This was a massive mausoleum built in 353 BC by the widow of Mausolus, who was the ruler of this area from 377 BC until his death. in 353 BC.  This structure, the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, was a massive stone structure and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  It stood for 1700 years and was destroyed by a series of earthquakes.  We walked among the few surviving pieces of stones and columns  took a few photos and tried to imagine the Knights of St. John scavenging the building blocks from here to take to their castle site about 1/2 mile away. 
        
We returned to the ship on a small bus and had a quick lunch, followed by an afternoon in the cabin working on our travel blog.  Bodrum was a beautiful city nestled along the quiet and pretty coast of Turkey in the midst of miles and miles of tourist towns and beaches.  Each city along this stretch of coast has a nice little harbor filled with very nice sail boats and they are all very popular tourist destinations. The nearest Greek island is Cos and it is only about 12 miles from Turkey. We sailed past Cos and many other islands this evening.  Of course this part of the Aegean Sea is dense with small islands which attract lovers of the sun and the sea.       
                     
Too tired for a fancy dinner so it was off to the Lido once again.  This is becoming a habit.  Our body aches from all the walking and climbing and we have mental indigestion from our days in Israel.  No tour planned for tomorrow so we’ll sleep in and rest up for the next four days in Turkey and Greece.